[Sigia-l] IA Practice Maturation

[James KALBACH]

I agree with Eric's take on the state of IA in on the Continent.
Here in Germany I unfortunately don't enjoy anything
close at a "matured" profession. IA in .de is just in its infancy. 

Overall there is a lack of understanding where IA fits in to
a design process. Though you might come in contact with European
IAs who have a deep knowledge of the discipline, I'd bet their
daily experiences when *practicing* IA are much different than
in the US.

One hurdle I perceive in .de is a misunderstanding (rejection?)
of user centered design. Over here Design (with a capital "D")
is determined by the Designer. Top-down approach. Punkt. 
Participatory design methods, for example, undermine the 
Designer's authority and control.  (I'm using Design in the
broadest sense here - graphic, product, or otherwise.)

Clients generally understand IA and see the need for it, which
is a good thing. Still, the painful turf wars between design
and IA, for example, are prevalent, I'm sorry to report. The 
"sharing all of our ways of practice" at the conference in Baltimore 
isn't the norm in Germany.

Folks like Peter Bogaards and Eric Reiss perhaps give momentum 
to IA on the Continent, and of course England has a strong IA 
culture. But my experience in Germany now is probably
similar to practicing IAs in the US a few years ago.  I find
myself engaging in quite a bit of IA evangalism, too.

Victor's point about the language barrier partially valid.
German IAs can certainly get through an English source without
difficulty. But if an understanding is there that can be applied?

Things are changing slowly though: I was happy to see 
a few pages devoted to IA in a newly published usability book in 
German. The authors explain Jessie James Garret's "visual vocabulary" 
in some detail. (Otherwise I didn't like the book, BTW :
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3540419144/).

Just my 2 Euro Cent.

Jim

razorfish, Germany