[Sigia-l] Information Architecture 3.0

[Olly Wright]

On TuesdayDec 5, at 7:48 PM, David Malouf wrote:

> Wow, my experience is that IxDs are Sr. and IAs are Jr.
> That IxDs are better trained in design methods and IAs either are
> educated from LIS or have home grown careers mixed from visual design
> or computer science backgrounds.

I don't doubt you. It shows how much our own work context comes into  
play. And how many contexts there are. I am 100% agency, where  
definitions do seem to be particularly loose (that I can see anyway).

Someone in my team came up to me last week and asked if she could  
change her job title from IA to interaction designer. I replied  
"Sure, whatever you prefer, it doesn't matter to me". Perhaps it  
should. I guess I fit into the category of 'annoying UX people who  
misuse definitions, and undo the good work done by those that don't".

>
> What is true is what you said that in practice in some spheres they
> are pretty interchangeable. I.e. agency world. But again that says
> nothing about disciplines (Don't worry Donna, I didn't forget you.)
> But also, IAs don't do desktop software, kiosks, embedded software or
> system design. These have traditionally been taught and done by IxDs.
> This is where you go to Frog or IDEO instead of going to Razorfish.

True up to a point. As an IA I have done both kiosk design and  
embedded software. Although I believe my job title on the kiosk  
projects was 'tech lead', even though I was doing interaction design  
at the time.

I would be curious to see the paper trail of some of our careers to  
see how our job titles have evolved. For starters, mine is:

Model-maker (my IDEO internship, should have stayed)
Artworker
Junior designer (and part time web designer)
Technical manager
Head of technology (what a .com boom can do for you)
Information architect
Head of information architecture
Experience design director (ackkk)

To me it just reads like an evolution of agency lingo. In reality  
I've been doing mostly the same thing since near the beginning.

Olly Wright