[Sigia-l] I'm hiring, need hel

[Ariel van Spronsen]

I'm going to have to pipe up in support of separating out these roles, at
least for the sake of attracting the right candidates (not necessarily for
practice).  I have recently been on a job search and I think there is a
distinction to be made between content-focused IA and interaction-focused
IA.  This distinction came into focus for me since a talk with a hiring
manager whose product is mainly made up of user-generated content - so her
IAs need to be interaction-focused IAs.

While IA is ostensibly about the organization of information, information is
a nebulous term which encompasses visual and textual information (and of
course how we structure these elements into an experience), and the design
of each of these aspects of information actually requires different kinds of
thinking.  I think part of what makes IAs unique and valuable is that we
think both ways, but most of us are going to be stronger in one or the
other.

I'm noticing the majority of the IA positions I apply for really want
someone who is a strong graphic designer and who can do the design all the
way through comps.  To me, these are actually interaction designers... but
whatever.  We've all been around the "title" argument a million times, and
honestly I can't say that the majority of the job descriptions I read have
much rigor to them.  At the very least, the content strategist role re-makes
some sort of distinction as to which strength it's looking for.

-Ariel van Spronsen
www.arielv.net


From: Jayson Elliot [jayson.elliot at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 17 May 2007 2:53 PM
To: Matthew Hodgson
Cc: Andrew Boyd; sigia l
Subject: [SPAM (Header)] - Re: [Sigia-l] I'm hiring, need help - Email found
in subject

True, they are very closely related. I was able to get Content
Strategist approved as a new role, meaning a larger UX department
overall.

The content strategist will be focused on large-scale taxonomies, and
more technical aspects such as delving into the actual CMS used, etc.
The information architects will be focused more on the user
experience, usability, etc.

There's definitely overlap between them, but I'm making them separate
positions so they can focus on their respective strengths.


On 17/05/07, Matthew Hodgson <MHodgson at smsmt.com> wrote:
> i would have thought the two (of IA and Content Strategists) were closely
related, unless you're talking about a professional writer as a content
strategist?
>
> surely a good IA will understand user information needs as much as a
strategic communications marketing analyst?
>
> M
>
> ________________________________________
> From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org [sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On Behalf Of
Andrew Boyd [facibus at gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, 17 May 2007 1:51 PM
> To: Jayson Elliot
> Cc: sigia l
> Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] I'm hiring, need help
>
> On 5/17/07, Jayson Elliot <jayson.elliot at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm also hiring for a dedicated content strategist. The best
> > description I've heard for this position is "as IA is to design,
> > Content Strategists are to writers."
>
> Hi Jayson,
>
> just on this - some of us do this sort of work under the moniker of
> IA. Information design and information support design are an integral
> part of the experience design - my suggestion is that they need to be
> considered as components of the total solution.
>
> Just out of interest, where are you based?
>
> Cheers, Andrew
> ---
> Andrew Boyd
> http://facibus.com/facibusreviews
> ------------
> IA Summit 2008: "Experiencing Information"
> April 10-14, 2008, Miami, Florida