Section 15.5. Do We Really Need to Hire Professionals?


15.5. Do We Really Need to Hire Professionals?

We are continually amazed by the scale of business blunders caused by the false assumption that anybody can do this work. In our consulting experience with dozens of Fortune 500 companies, we have seen several situations where literally millions (if not tens of millions) of dollars have been wasted by web and intranet development teams that lack even a single professional information architect.

Inside large companies, the policy of promote-from-within sometimes results in newly anointed "information architects" who may know the business context but lack understanding of users and content. Consulting firms can produce even worse results. Not so long ago, it was fairly common practice for consultants to respond to a client's request for an information architect by rebranding one of their graphic designers. A quick change on a business card and voilà, you've got your information architect!

In all walks of life, we hire professionals when we want some assurance that the work will be done quickly and effectively. We constantly make judgments about when and when not to pay the added price. I cut my finger on a piece of glass, decide stitches probably aren't necessary, and go the self-help route with Band-Aids and antibiotic cream. But if the bleeding is bad, I'm off to the emergency room for stitches. We make the same judgments when deciding to hire lawyers, accountants, and plumbers.

In some of these cases, our definition of a professional includes education and certification requirements as well as experience. We want a lawyer who has been to law school, passed the bar exam, and spent some time in practice. In other casesfor example, when we need a plumberwe may be satisfied with experience and a good reference.

So, we're not saying you need a professional information architect in all situations. If you're developing a small web site or maintaining a large one, an intelligent, detail-oriented person with a professional attitude may be all you need. And we're not demanding that a "professional information architect" must have a relevant graduate degree.

But, for Pete's sake (and for Lou's sake, too), if you're investing several million dollars in the development of a corporate web site or enterprise portal, don't you think it might be a good idea to have someone involved who actually has information architecture design experience? Someone who understands and cares about structuring and organizing information?

This stuff is really difficult! Even with relevant graduate degrees, a decade each of consulting experience, and the opportunity to work with some of the best and brightest in the field, we (the authors) are still learning how to design information architectures more effectively. Information architecture is not something you can pick up by reading a couple of books and taking a class.

We apologize for the soapbox rant, and we know we're preaching to the choir. The good news is the overall trend over the past decade has been toward hiring professional information architects. The best companies we've worked with in recent years have blended in-house information architects with specialized information architecture consultants to design powerful, flexible sites that last. The success of these early adopters will eventually result in broader recognition of the value of investing in professional information architects. Until then, let's all keep our soapboxes handy.




Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites
ISBN: 0596527349
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 194

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