[Sigia-l] Re: Explaining Ourselves

[Berrean, Patricia]

Fred Leise said: "...we need to be looking not just inward to keep our profession advancing, but also outward, to help others understand what it is we do and why they should hire us."

A real life success story for the value of explaining ourselves.

When I interviewed for my current job as an IA/PM for an organization without internal UE expertise, jjg's elements diagram was posted on the whiteboard and Steve Krug's book was mentioned as a bible. (A heart felt thank you to both)

First principles should NOT focus on what we COULD do (user research, usability testing, creating interaction design patterns, identifying appropriate technical targets etc) or even on what we HAVE DONE (functional requirements, competitive ui reviews, site maps, keywords etc). Understanding the breadth of user experience is important, demonstrating a range of skills crucial but...

First principles of information architecture ought to focus on what we do best or even uniquely. 

I can share my portfolio with him but I don't need to convince my father-in-law to hire me. 

"Structuring information to communicate" works well enough.  For the philosophically minded, I'd add that it's within a particular historical moment, within a particular humanistic tradition and within a particular set of technologies.

Sometimes, what I do best is about "findability" or retrieval but it's also about "recognizability" (Helping people realize the info they've found will accomplish what they need to do.) 

Even more importantly, I can make a structure that is effective, repeatable and sustainable.

How about you?

beth berrean
(back to long-time lurking)