Article Idea:
IA Education and Career Paths
suggested by Jim Woolfrey on 2006/01/11
I would like to see an overview of educational programs and opportunities—degree, certificate, seminar, workshop, etc. —that directly or indirectly lead to and/or support careers in Information Architecture & Design. I’d like to know what’s out there—established and emerging. I would also like to see a survey of several dozen of the best-and-brightest Information Architects out there to hear about their own experience in getting to where they are—their own path through education and on-the-job experience.
Want to see this idea turned into a story?
12 people said yes. | 0 people said no.
Stephanie L. Trunzo
4 Reputation points
Posted 2006/01/18 @ 18:27PM with
I think this is an excellent idea. As an Information Architect and IBM, I am currently battling the various interpretations of the role within the same department, across brands, and throughout the entire corporation. I would find it very interesting to both share what IBM considers an IA, and learn what other companies do with the role.
I think discussing potential career paths and roadmaps for education would be a second, very useful article. Perhaps you have the start of a mini-series here?
Anna Gifford
0 Reputation points
Posted 2006/01/23 @ 20:18PM with
I can’t comment on the program personally, but one course that is fairly new and offered in Australia is a Graduate Diploma and Masters in Information Architecture at Charles Sturt University, Australia. The course is available in distance education mode as well. Info on the course is at http://www.csu.edu.au/courses/pg/sci/m_ia/
Dan Keldsen
0 Reputation points
Posted 2006/02/17 @ 12:50PM with
Not to toot my own horn too much here, but we (Delphi Group) have training sessions that we’ve been doing for 4-5 years now, on Information Architecture, Taxonomy, Search, Portals and Content Management. The next one coming up (as of this posting) is March 7-9, 2006 in Boca Raton, Florida – and it is called, the Proving Ground on Information Architecture and Taxonomy. More details at http://www.delphigroup.com/pg – I’m the co-lead in this practice area, and happy to discuss this more online or offline. I have been involved in this area for 4-5 years formally, and more informally, for roughly a decade.
Also, as an IAI member (Information Architecture Institute), I know that there has been quite a bit of talk about this very topic on the IAI-list. I would recommend anyone interested in IA and steering the conversation join up, and help to make it happen – see http://iainstitute.org/ for more details there.
Actual degrees and diplomas are still somewhat rare from what I have seen, but that is changing as IA is (more or less) being defined and understood by degree granting institutions. This is all evolving awfully fast though, so to really “be” an IA, my opinion is that you have to be out there doing it to get the constant evolution of the real world in your blood, while having a foundation to refer to, through training/research/learning of some sort.
Javier Velasco
247 Reputation points
Posted 2006/03/15 @ 10:20AM with
There’s great interest in seeign this article, but who wants to write it???
Michael Beavers
69 Reputation points
Posted 2006/11/27 @ 08:36AM with
Not me! It is simply moving too fast—makes my head swim!
Whoever does run with this should probably also cover HCI and IDT/new media masters-level tracks at schools like Georgia Tech and Carnegie-Mellon.
Some really good thought leaderhip is emerging from Univesity of Michigan’s (and others’) library science/information design programs, too. Plus, MFA programs are constantly updating their new media programs with curriculum in IA and ID—even expanding in to user research a bit.
One cannot ignore programs in instructional design and industrial design, too! We are, after all, developing products—not just interfaces.