A Traitor in Our Midst

Okay, I was just thinking about this a bit more while I was in the bathroom and I am going to cop to it. My first introduction to Information Architecture was in the mid 90s, when the internet was just becoming a viable industry. I worked at a large consulting firm and, although I was hired to be a graphic designer, the particular group that I worked with did mostly IT schematics - mapping out networks, networking solutions, telephony, etc. A co-worker, who was a consultant and is a good friend of mine to this day, wasn't happy with the way I was mapping out his work and came by my desk one day, dropped a stack of books from our in-house library and said "Just something for you to think about" and walked away.

The books were the three, now famous, Tufte books and Information Architects by Richard Saul Wurman. Yes, that stuff seems like old hat now but in 97 and to someone that was only half a designer at best, it seemed pretty radical. I obsessively started to apply the principals of Tufte and Wurman's Access guides to all of my work, taking twice as long on many projects than I should have. Chris (the helpful co-worker that brought me the books in the first place) and I would get into long discussions and arguements about what makes the graphic display of information interesting and easy to understand vs. what makes it "nice" to look at. It was a pretty awesome experience considering that the work I was doing would have been, in theory, the most boring for a graphic designer but ended up being some of my best and what I was most proud of.

So proud, in fact, that I brought a portfolio to my next job interview, when in reality it was completely unnecessary and the woman interviewing me (who became my boss for 7 years) couldn't care less about network diagrams and information architecture if you paid her to. I must have looked a bit stupid because not only did the work not correlate but looked completely boring in comparision to what I was interviewing for. I must have done something right though, because I got the job. Maybe it was the fact that I could have enthusiasm for something that SEEMED so boring. So I took the design job and moved away from all things IA, or so I thought.

Over the course of a few years, I was promoted several times and inherited the design and programming a large and unruly Job Tracking system. I would do beta releases, I would test it on employees for usability and never once did a see a correlation between this and information architecture. To me, this was something completely different. Yes, I wanted to make the application as user friendly as possible but this wasn't about color placement, line choices and clear symbols. It was something completely different and while I may have subconciously applied some of the things I had learned at my previous job, I really saw it as something very different.

To me, usability is not the same as the "visual display of quantative information", what made my database easy to use (or not easy, in some cases) was not the same as what made my diagrams and maps easy to read. Though I am the first to admit there is crossover, to me, usability, whether it is web based or otherwise seems like a completely different animal. So the point of all of this, right or wrong (and there is an entire army of information architects who would be willing to tell me that I am indeed WRONG), is that I just don't feel comfortable with applying the term Information Architect to web design. User Experience Design, sure, Usability, okay, but to me, Information Architecture will always be about graphs, charts and diagrams. I know I would feel different if I had "grown up" in it for the last 8 years but I didn't. So I have a point of view from 97 and I have my work now and I just don't feel that they are the same thing. It is my own bias, I know, but I don't know if I can ever get past it.

The blog is back....sort of

I wondered if I should just start with a clean slate since I have pretty much left this blog for dead but it is already here and, by that virtue alone, less work than starting from scratch. I did give it a new template though, no special modifications like the last one but that is fine. I don't feel the need to be fancy with a blog that like three people read (or did read when I used to update it) anyway. For some reason, I feel like I have a lot of topics to cover this morning.

Blog

A while back I decided to revamp this blog and devote it to the unappreciated mid-century architecture of Denver. My intent was to take pictures, talk about buildings, where they came from, what they are now etc. but it was too difficult. Denver is NOT a town that seems to appreciate any architecture let alone mid century. I work in a mid century building (it is a group of three and they are both beautiful and hidden, I will bring a camera to work one day and take pictures) and even the building management couldn't tell me who the original architect was. They could only tell me who did the remodel 5 years ago. I am sure if I was willing to dig deep enough and call enough people, I could get these answers but that is harder work than I am prepared to do for a blog that no one reads. I may take some pictures and post them from time to time though. Also, if you ever get a chance, stop and really take a look at the Hooters on Colorado Blvd. It is one of the most awesome displays of mid-century architecture in Denver and easily rivals any Mid-century coffee shop in LA.

Date

Last night my husband took me on a date, totally orchestrated by himself, it was nice and came complete with a little pre-hawaii gift that he found at a hawaiian store on 44th. Of course, when I found out there was a hawaiian store, I just wanted to know if they had Spam Musubi - my hawaiian food obsession. We saw the Betty Page movie last night and despite looking GREAT and being the first time Gretchen Mol's acting didn't send me into a firery rage, the movie was just ok. It was short and there wasn't really much story. I couldn't say I was disappointed because I went in with no expectations but I didn't love it. We saw it at the Esquire in the upstairs theater and the chairs were so uncomfortable in nearly put me in a paralytic state.

Job

We interviewed for another project manager yesterday and I feel good about her. She would be coming to us from another local (and notorious) web design firm and we all feel like if she can succeed there, then she will be fine here. I just want to hire SOMEONE because the sooner we do, the sooner I can move into my new non-project management but yet to be titled role. My boss is calling it an IA (information architect) but I don't really see it that way. I see my job as process improvement of all types, from the usability of a web site to streamlining how one of our clients is taking their web orders and shipping their products.

It is a hole that our company has, up until this point, just been filling sporatically, focusing more on technology and much less on process and product. We have lacked an ability to take the time to really understand what our customer does, how they do it and what we can best do to compliment that. Instead we seem to favor offering them the "cool new thing" without much regard how it will help them. I am not the only person here who sees this as a problem - hence my switching roles. What I can't help but wonder though, is will it really make a difference? Either way, I will be returning to the work I am really good at - analyzing something and figuring out what can be made better (basically, with the exception of some database building, that was my whole last job), but it would be nice if I could help improve the processes of this place as well. It is an old company, as web firms go, though and they are pretty stuck in their ways.

Hawaii

We finally leave for our belated honeymoon on Saturday and I CAN NOT WAIT! Aside from the honeymoon aspect of it, it will be a much needed break from my job and denver. We have probably spent too much money in preparation but that is ok. I don't want to spend my time in hawaii running around looking for things like snorkel gear and underwater cameras. I just want to see sea turtles, fish and the waterfall from Fantasy Island.