My only bone to pick with them, well - one bone to pick is the use of "specialist" which in a narrow sense is a very specific title for people in our field with 1-3 years of expertise - or in the pejorative sense means someone who can 'only' do usabilty or UX. Specialization is for ants. They should have used the more general "professional"
will evans user experience architect [EMAIL PROTECTED] 617.281.1281 On Dec 24, 2007, at 6:48 PM, "Chris Dame" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I saw that US News recently ran an article on the "Best Careers of > 2008" > (http://www.usnews.com/features/business/best-careers/best-careers-2008.html > ), > and a new addition this year is "Usability/User Experience > Specialist", > which arguably we are. This seems like a great sign that we are > nearing > the tipping point, along with all of the good and bad things that come > along with it. > > Personally, I was excited to see it and rushed in to see what they > were > saying. I have built positions where I am heavily involved in the > entire > process, from ethnography and concepting through deployment. I may be > atypical (and lucky), and I love seeing others' descriptions of the > field > for comparison. > > I read the executive summary, which is nice and succinct. Then I > read the > "Day in the life" for the position > (http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/best-careers/2007/12/19/usabilityuser-experience-specialist-a-day-in-the-life.html > > ), > which is also succinct, but seems to miss a lot. The fact that this is > focused on research doesn't bother me, but one paragraph does. If you > don't want to read the short article, it is about a medical device and > essentially states you get to know the user and business goals up > until > this paragraph. > > "You write a report summarizing what you've learned. Then, engineers > develop a prototype of the product that comes closest to meeting > both the > company's and the surgeons' desires." > > I've certainly worked in situations where this has happened. The > research > is compiled, never presented, and engineers build something. > However, I > think the majority of what I do happens between those two sentences. > Namely the "Design" portion. Translation of the research findings into > useful items such as personas, scenarios, usage models, use cases, > architectures, wireframes, even early functional prototypes are done > by > designers, interaction included. > > I don't think the reporter misunderstood the situation. I have spent > a lot > of time changing the "toss it over the wall" approach that a lot of > companies employ. Checking off the research portion as done and > handing > the abstract documentation to engineers thinking it will somehow > transfer > all of the experience and understanding is unfortunately common. > Science > has a while before osmosis becomes a viable business practice. > > Thoughts? > > -Chris Dame > http://theusabilityofthings.com > > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
