[IxDA Discuss] Information Architecture or Interaction Design

[Celeste 'seele' Paul]

On Friday 03 November 2006 13:16, David Malouf wrote:
> UX is an umbrella of all the disciplines and practices required to design a
> product, service, solution.
> IxD, Usability Research, HCI, IA, Visual Design, Information Design,
> Industrial Design, Ethnographic Research, etc. all fall under that
> umbrella. Some may even say Informatics and Business Analysis fall under it
> as well. It is a wide umbrella with a lot of room for everyone.
>
> Just like IxD and IA have overlap so does IndDes and IxD; and for that
> matter IA and IndDes.

I think it is important to make the point that even though all of these 
disciplines are related, no one person can do it all.  Its a fine line 
between the argument of "this is mine" and "i can do this", however it has to 
be made.  No one person can be an expert in everything, and that is why we 
specialize.  

I think the more important question is: how do we describe our individual 
skills as a professional (which may focus in several disciplines) without 
being enveloped in the umbrella of UX?

For example, I am an "interaction architect" -- i design information 
structures for use with interactive interfaces, from label to click.  Sure, I 
have skills in ethnography and visual design (we probably all do), but I 
would never want to be the lead in that part of the project.  I hesitate to 
call myself just an information architect, or just an interaction designer 
because there is a lot of both disciplines I do not practice or do not know.

A little Venn diagram of where I see myself:

( IxD ( me ) IA )

I try to leave the "usability" buzz word out until the end if the person 
hasn't yet gotten what I do -- it is too loaded of a word, even though it is 
a primary goal in any specification or design i create.

... and I havn't even gotten to where my technical skills come in to play for 
acting as a bridge between designers and developers.

I guess the point that I am trying to make is that we should be careful about 
umbrella terms such as UX, *and* we should be careful about claiming a piece 
of the user experience by declaring ourselves an IA, IxD, VizD, UE, whatever.  
Industry, who doesn't know any better, eats stuff like that up because it 
fuels them with buzz words and arms them with a way to write job 
postings/proposals and filter resumes.

(in the end, I realize I really have no answers)

Cheers!

~ C

-- 
Celeste 'seele' Paul
www.obso1337.org