SIGIA-L Mail Archives: Career planning wasRE: SIGIA-L: I can't
Career planning wasRE: SIGIA-L: I can't resist jumping in>the line between IA and interaction design
From: Sean Lawrence (lupynmune_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Nov 02 2000 - 10:39:01 EST
In response to your desire to hire someone with a psych background and HCI
masters, I have a question for all.
I am currently working as a Designer in the Information Architect role for
my company. I recently transitioned from my company's Helpdesk as the Lead
Support Tech to this position. I have a BA in Psych and was considering
getting my masters in HCI but was also considering a design, advanced
psych(possibly concentrating on community or cognitive) degree or
anthropology or an integrative studies degree. My question is, in your
opinion what is one of the best ways to prepare for a future in the overall
IA discipline? With my backgorund in Psych and my technical knowledge and
love of the web, I think I am well suited to understand the needs of the
users and the platforms that the medium exists and how to design logical
cognitive structures.
I am about 2 years from pursuing my my advanced degree but I am trying to
make a discriminating and informed decision. I am aware that Inf/Library
Sciences is held in high regard by many but I personally do not feel
comfortable pursuing that path. I would appreciate any insight, ideas,
feedback on this.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sigia-l_at_asis.org [mailto:owner-sigia-l_at_asis.org]On Behalf Of
Robert Dornbush
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2000 12:30 PM
To: sigia-l_at_asis.org
Cc: Joshua Zhong; Anil Kokoth
Subject: SIGIA-L: I can't resist jumping in>the line between IA and
interaction design
from Andres' Posting:
so what is truly an IA? I'll leave that question open for the more veterans
on the list. I'm just a young and inexperienced guy passionate about the web
who just wants to make sites better for users, what ever that means I should
do :)
Bless you for that Andres ;-)
I am an aging, experienced, and passionate guy who wants to be a Director of
User Experience.
Right now, I am the only HCI guy at my company, and as such, I handle all of
the above [referring to IA tasks, workflow and process descriptions in
previous postings by Lou, Christopher, Matt & Eric].
I divide the Human Computer Interaction World into three parts:
Information Architecture,
User Interface Design,
and Usability Testing...
and I am growing a User Experience Dept. which will include approximately 3
IAs, 2 UI designers, and 2 UT experts. At least two of the employees will
have crossover roles, myself included. I will focus primarily on IA and UI
[the sum of which, perhaps, is Interactivity Design?] Another person will
be part time IA and part time Usability Test Monitor (the person who
administers tests to test participants). The other 1-2 IAs will focus on
the development of specific products. The final person, the test plan
creator and test results analyzer (who will assemble statistics, compare, &
make recommendations) will be someone with an undergrad in psychology and a
masters in HCI.
You might call it a long range vision plan (vision quest?).
I give Kudos to all those of you who, like myself, realize that the
renaissance IA person of today takes on various roles in a challenging,
multi-tasking environment. Here's to you who work your butts off doing
flowcharts, wireframes, UI design, Usability Analysis, 'Information Design'
and look & feel consulting [to an army of overzealous graphic designers who
think that they should be in control of the IA]. To those of you who think
that IA is a discreet science made up purely of dataflow design & content
categorization: wake up & smell the coffee, it's the 21st century already!
Robert E. Dornbush, Jr.
Information Architect, Advanced Technology Group
idapta, inc.
Suite 1700, Promenade II
1230 Peachtree Street, NE
Atlanta, GA 30309-3591
direct 404-214-3710
mobile 678-488-0573
e-mail r2d2_at_idapta.com
www.idapta.com
Idapta - Where eMarkets are Going (TM)
-----Original Message-----
From: Andres Sulleiro [mailto:andres_at_iconmedialab.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2000 11:48 AM
To: sigia-l_at_asis.org
Subject: RE: SIGIA-L: the line between IA and interaction design
I'm just amazed. Do people on this list actually get to do exclusively IA as
it pertains only to organization of information?
I myself end up doing IA, interaction design, usability research/studies,
etc; and struggling at that. I find that:
1. most people expect me to be the usability guru, interaction expert aside
from the information architect.
2. they overlap so much that at times is easier to have one person do all of
them so-so, than have three really good professionals work together, steping
on each other's feet.
But, what is an Information Architect?
According to Wurman it is:
1) the individual who organizes the patterns inherent in data, making the
complex clear;
2) a person who creates the structure or map of information which allows
others to find their personal paths to knowledge;
3) the emerging 21st century professional ocupation addressing the needs of
the age focused upon clarity, human understanding and the science of the
organization of information.
But this to me is somewhat limited and theoretical. to me Lou Rosenfeld and
Peter Moreville give a better perspective, more practical, of what an IA is:
the IA "determines the content and functionality the site will contain" and
"specifies how users will find information by defining it's organization,
navigation, labeling, and searching systems."
So are we to imply, that the IA only "specifies" and not develop the
functionality, navigation, seraching system, etc.? I mean, do we say that
"this site needs a search function for this and that" and then hand it out
to the Interaction Designer and have him develop the use cases and flow
charts? Would be nice, but it doesn't seem likely in reality (at least my
case).
so what is truly an IA? I'll leave that question open for the more veterans
on the list. I'm just a young and inexperienced guy passionate about the web
who just wants to make sites better for users, what ever that means I should
do :)
pfffeewww, got that out of my system!
--Andres.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sigia-l_at_asis.org
> [mailto:owner-sigia-l_at_asis.org]On Behalf Of
> Jesse James Garrett
> Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 11:29 PM
> To: sigia-l_at_asis.org
> Subject: Re: SIGIA-L: the line between IA and interaction design
>
>
> >But what about a search system? Is it ID or IA?
>
> The (perhaps too) easy answer is that it's both. Search is one
> example (are there others?) of a case where information architecture
> and interaction design absolutely have to work hand in hand. An
> inevitable circularity sets in when designing a search system:
>
> Q: How does the search system work?
> A: It depends on how the data is structured.
>
> Q: How is the data structured?
> A: It depends on how the search system works.
>
> What breaks the circle is the fact that the information architecture
> has to support something *other than* the search system (like
> browsing and/or management of the data), so the IA becomes the first
> mover. But the architect must then respond to the needs of the
> interaction designer in further developing the architecture to
> support the interaction design of the search facility.
>
> To propose my own gross oversimplification: Information architecture
> is all about nouns; interaction design is all about verbs. If you're
> dealing primarily with *stuff*, you're doing information
> architecture. If you're dealing primarily with activities, you're
> doing interaction design.
>
> Of course, most of us end up doing both.
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> _____________
> Jesse James Garrett
> http://www.jjg.net/
> jjg_at_jjg.net "the history of the
> future begins now"
_________________________________________________________
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