a day in the life of an information architect
DESCRIPTION
What would it be like to work as an information architect in Tokyo? Or be one of just a handful of IAs in the country of South Africa? Can you imagine yourself heading up your own boutique consultancy in a metropolitan city – and if so what would be your value proposition? What are your prospects as a freelancer in the rural south of the United States? Or as a newly graduated IA interviewing with a large commercial firm? View the Notes on each slide to read the transcript. You can also listen to the presentation and read the transcript on http://uxconnect.wordpress.com/past-talks/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-information-architect/TRANSCRIPT
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Stacy Merrill Surla
A Day in the Life of anInformation Architect
Stacy Merrill Surla UX Connect September16, 2013
Michele Kong
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Eddie James
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Research
3
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Concepts
4
Rüdiger Kortz
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Jacksonville, Florida
Owner/User Experience Designer
Circling Sharks LLC
Mobile and tablet projects for financial clients
User research, service design, wireframes, interaction design, and working with decision makers
Eddie James
5
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Stacy Merrill Surla 6
Even if there are no jobs,
that doesn't mean there's not work
Eddie James
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Stacy Merrill Surla 7
One man shop
Hires freelancers
Often advisor to clients - on retainer
Built skills and focus through energetic engagement in his work experiences
Eddie James
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Naoko Kawachi
8
Tokyo, Japan
Communications Manager
Concent, Inc.
Writing, editing, event planning, media relations
Improving understanding of IA, UX and Service Design; connecting people and things "in the right way"
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Naoko Kawachi
9
She discovered her interest
was not on visual design but on
invisible structures
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Matthew Milan
10
Toronto, Canada
CEO/Design Leader
Normative
Sales, Design Practice, and Project Direction
"We build software to drive organizational change, in a studio environment. "
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Matthew Milan
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We run on a pod-based model.
There's no broken telephone at out business. The client can talk directly to the designer, IA, and engineer.
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Jason Hobbs
12
Johannesburg, South Africa
Owner/User Experience Designer
Teacher, Researcher, Practitioner
Clients: corporations, arts and culture, public sector, and non-profit
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Jason Hobbs
13
IA is a powerful tool to help
people solve wicked problems
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Jason Hobbs
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Work on many projects, in diverse sectors
Get a mentor
Agency, client-side, and working for yourself
Different social, political, and cultural contexts
Learn from other fields
Be ambitious
Love doing it - or try something else
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Employment Outlook
15
http://iainstitute.org/en/learn/research/salary_survey.php.
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Employment Outlook
16
http://iainstitute.org/en/learn/research/salary_survey.php.
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Getting a Job
17
http://www.slideshare.net/runger/career-workshop-ia-summit-2013
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Ivanoff
Takeaways
Know your core values
Even where there are no jobs, there is work
Solid skills are just the start
Client skills, strategic thinking, and domain expertise are distinguishers
Always On versus Unplugged is a choice
Find organizational settings that work for you
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Stacy Merrill Surla
Bowles, Cennydd. The fall and rise of user experience. ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit 2011. Denver, CO, http://www.cennydd.co.uk/2011/fall-and-rise-of-ux.
Leiman, Layla. "My Day Job: Jason Hobbs." 10and5 (March 14, 2013), http://10and5.com/2013/03/14/my-day-job-jason-hobbs.
Surla, Stacy Merrill. “Building IA means building local groups.” Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Volume 33, Issue 2 (2007), http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Dec-06/surla.html.
The Information Architecture Institute. 2012 Salary Survey: Annual IA Salary and Benefits Survey (2012), http://iainstitute.org/en/learn/research/salary_survey.php.
Unger, Russ. Career Workshop: IA Summit 2013. (2013), http://www.slideshare.net/runger/career-workshop-ia-summit-2013
PhotosMichele Kong, Keeping A Balance: The Legacy of Shigemori Mirei (1896-1975) ,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx84-XXe3iY&feature=c4-overview&list=UU4bEEAWCPicKJgzq4RViDnQ
Rüdiger Kortz, "Charles Jencks Garden of Cosmic Speculation" www.ilona-grundmann-filmproduction.de/en/filme/charles-jencks-garden-of-cosmic-speculation/
Ivanoff. view from Saiho-ji (Kokedera) pond. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saihouji-kokedera01.jpg
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References