[Sigia-l] Information Architecture 3.0

[Andrew Boyd]

On 12/3/06, Ziya Oz <listera at earthlink.net> wrote:

> And, really, ask yourself, wouldn't you feel inadequate to have on your
> tombstone something as mundane as "Designer" when there are all these fancy
> titles with many words?

Ziya,

the only issue I have with the Designer label is that it is just that
- a label. I think that if I've seen anything in 5 years of watching
this debate on this list is that labels for what we do are ultimately
meaningless. The company I work for now has Consultants - and while we
may do IA/BA/PPM/UCD/IS/profitability studies/comms strategies, this
is what we all call ourselves. We recognise the titles as a
convenience for the benefit of clients rather than anything we would
put onto a business card. While this may cause some minor confusion,
in the long run I believe that it works.

I remember watching an episode of Happy Days as a child - and feeling
embarrassed for the man who said something to the effect of "They call
me Mr Rumba!" - I have to admit a similar feeling when I hear someone
say "I am an Enterprise IA" or "I am an Experience Architect" - I
believe that these are hats we wear, not who we are.

Cheers, Andrew