Is there anything else that separates a great information architect from the rest?
The excellent information architects do more than IA. A couple of years ago, 37signals said they would never hire an IA because they consider it a specialist field with too narrow a specialization. In many cases, I believe they were right. There are a few times when you need a dedicated person to do only IA stuff. Most of us accomplish many activities beyond the core IA work of organizing, labeling, and designing navigation. We also do strategy, content writing, interaction design, and production. I do interaction design work along with my IA work, yet everyone knows me as an information architect. This ties right back into the first skill of playing nice with others and working well within a team. Information architects shouldn’t say, “I only do IA and here are my boundaries.” Instead, I recommend they say, “Here are the activities I can do really well. I can see other members of the team do other activities really well. Let’s work together and build something.” Thanks, Donna. This wa
