Hi folks, I read the transcript of JJG's keynote with a combination of admiration and dismay -- certainly I was eager to consume the facts after seeing the Twitter firestorm.
I admire his call for people to come together from the various UX communities. Personally, I strongly agree that a wide-spread, formal embrace of the user experience terminology has the potential to unite all of our communities more tangibly from the point of view of the outside world. For the record, I strongly advocated pursuing this line of reasoning at the IxDA Board Retreat just prior to Interaction'09, and I continue to push on this issue internally to ensure that the IxDA leadership take whatever steps are appropriate for the betterment of our membership and the world at large. The UX movement has been developing organically for the past five years or so, and clearly is reaching the tipping point. Both IAI and IxDA -- along with other orgs -- should be at the table when it comes to harnessing this energy, but presently we all seem to lack clarity about what the right avenues are to pursue this coming-togetherness. While I believe that it is our operating within the UX discipline that defines the common ground for IxDA & sister organizations like IAI, I also believe that bringing all UX practitioners to live in the same house would involve some challenging situations. I believe that it would naturally result in many members still retreating to smaller, shared spaces to geek-out with their fellow IAs, IxDs, Researchers, Usability specialists, etc. So I think the value of building & promoting the big house is principally to clarify to the outside world the broad capabilities & great value of our various disciplines. And that's an important goal, but as Janna pointed out it is only one of many goals that each UX organization may have. I'm extremely eager to hear from UXnet's leaders whether they envision taking on a more active role in the world at large to address this situation. I feel extreme dismay for the aspersions that JJG has cast on the IxDA leadership. I have been on the IxDA Board of Directors for two years now, and have been an active member since before we were even an official group. And I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm bewildered how checking in with IAI about the date of their conference in order to avoid conflict means we threw a temper tantrum; and I'm utterly unaware of any offers of support or cooperation that we have not taken up. It seems positively schizophrenic to desire more cooperation and throw insults at the same time. But then, it is certainly a conflicted feeling I have personally when I consider whether IxDA should cede its energy to a "UxDA" or somesuch entity. To further address some of JJG's allegations, IxDA has never promoted the use of interaction design as a title in order to further some organizational agenda. On the contrary, we've long been publicly, officially neutral on the issue of professional titles. As recent discussions have shown, this neutrality is actually a challenging position to maintain. What we have long insisted upon is that interaction design is a valid field of professional focus & study. IxDA leaders are so committed to this position that we've been content to talk amongst ourselves & build our own community for years now without worrying about how the rest of the world may be perceiving us. Clearly, this lack of attention has to be addressed, and it is being addressed with initiatives Jeremy & Janna mentioned elsewhere. I also don't understand how the IxDA leadership can possibly be imagined to operate this organization as a zero-sum organization. We offer free and open membership to all, and our leaders & members maintain many webs of personal and professional relationships with people outside the organization. IxDA board members are often chatting with our fellow leaders in global and local forums, and ensuring that we don't step on each other's toes as well as taking opportunities to collaborate & share information. Various other people have already attested to the ways in which these cross-organizational interactions are happening. Could every single one of the UX organizations' leaders be better at collaborating and sharing information and indicating omnipresent mutual respect? Perhaps -- we're all human, and all volunteers, and all working at and above capacity every single day. If somebody out there knows that there are some clear win-win situations between organizations just lying on the floor neglected, by all means let us know about them. I'm probably not as well-connected as I'd like to be, but I'm really quite accessible! For now, I'm going to carry on doing my best to advance the mission of the IxDA, which is to improve the world through the discipline of interaction design. I know this is a true discipline. I know that I practice it passionately & sincerely--and yes, practice along with other facets of UX practice like IA depending on the problem space at hand. For now I'm home, and IxDA endures. Peace out, Liz Vice-President, IxDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40597 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
