On Feb 21, 2008, at 1:06 PM, Charles B. Kreitzberg wrote: > This issue of "how to define" comes up over and over and, IMO, is a > can of > worms. Rather than trying for one size fits all, I would suggest > that we > think about a competency model in which Joe can be a "basic > designer" and > Sue has added a specialty or competence in lightweight prototyping > and Sally > also has an IA competence.
You can do that. But it will not solve the problem that people in this discussion have noted, that being the problem of Job Boards, how HR people recruit, and generally how design is factored inside the corporate org chart. It's not difficult to define the thing. It really isn't. And while those in the trenches may not care for the discussion, it's like politics. You can ignore the machinations of what the GOP and Democrats are doing on a daily basis, but you do so at your own peril when one day you wake and can't recognize your own government or understand how it's possible your country is involved in a war halfway across the world that has lasted longer than World War II and that kills obscene numbers of people on a monthly basis. There are three job title candidates: Visual Designer / Graphic Designer: I think we can all agree this is the easiest one and is not controversial. Interaction Designer: The only points of contention here, if there is one, is whether IxD does aesthetics, is tied to software type of products and need to learn how to code at a prototype level. I know most of that "contention" is my own point of view, but it cuts both ways. IxD has muddied the job descriptions in Silicon Valley to the degree that I feel it's the responsibility of those whose practice it to make sure everyone knows what the job is, clearly and without confusion. Once that clarity is brought back, there's no point of contention. Interface Designer: This is someone who designs interfaces. I think that's pretty clear and I have stated so year over year for far too long now. And since interfaces include aesthetics, and necessarily require code to exist, I don't think there's any question that Interface Designers work on software or software aspects of products, and should train themselves to code enough to help build what they design. The main issue is people swapping these titles around, which lends confusion on job boards and creates a sense of not being able to map designers to people looking to hire them. this is further exacerbated when you toss in Usability and IA stuff into the mix, but that's a pretty easy problem to solve in my opinion, as those folks clearly do something far different than what designers on digital products do. > This is how MD's do it. Every doctor has a set of basic skills and > then they > specialize. Psychologists do that as well (e.g. you can get a > specialization > in forensic psychology, family psych etc.). But it's well understood that Doctor's practice *medicine.* Since a certain part of IxDA folks are pushing the "technology agnostic" aspect of the field, you lose that baseline like Doctor's have. Imagine a "doctor" giving you advice on the "health" of your home, instead of your body. It's like that. imho. So I think you could take the MD approach, if you agree that IxDA is tied to technology or software. Otherwise, good luck trying to make it work. I obviously don't have a lot of confidence in that approach. > None of this will ever be easy or free from emotion but I think we > need to > be very careful about what sort of box we place ourselves in. Agreed. But the problem is that if you want the HR, recruiting, and ability to find or hire people into jobs to go way, you *have* to pick some box. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 ________________________________________________________________ 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
