ia play

Ecom are advertising for junior IA role (amongst others) at an un-named agency.

Do you know digital media inside out or have a genuine interest in learning more about it, do you know production and interaction design inside out or wish to find out more?

Are you brimming with energy, creativity and enthusiasm? Are you totally passionate about user experience and information theory?

Are you capable and confident enough to get the best in information architecture and user experience from any brief across a range of large brand clients andsectors, and do you want the opportunity to do so?

Do you have an aptitude for getting stuck in, stacks of initiative, emphasis on quality, delivery and client satisfaction whilst keeping innovation and the user journey at the fore are all part of the deal. Yes? Then get in touch!

I was confused by the requirement to ‘know digital media inside out’ and then realised they are using this same description for mid-weight and senior IA roles at the same company. They also seem to have a very precise salary scale: junior = 27k, midweight = 37k, senior = 57k.

( Don’t bother going to the Ecom website. They must have spent all the web budget on the pretty flash animation of falling leaves and didn’t have any money left to post job opportunities on their own site. )

At the BBC we divide our large UX team into a number of fine grained distinctions: visual designers, interaction designers, information architects and usability engineers. The reality is that the actual people in the team don’t fit neatly into this divisions, even if you could come up with a clear definition of the differences.

I’ve been recruiting juniors recently and it has been noticeable that the applicants struggle with the differences between the various UX job titles.

At the same time I’ve been having a look at the job adverts on a few job websites & mailing lists (Monster, TotalJobs, Chinwag, Mad, Jobserve, London-IA, London-Usability) to see if there was any consistent connection between job description and job title. I went through 50 ads in detail and skimmed a load more.

information architect – far and away the most common job title (3 x more than the nearest rival UX architect). Every single job description asked for wireframing skills and only one didn’t mention sitemaps/blueprints. At least half asked for experience in working with multi-disciplinary teams (project managers, designers and developers), client facing skills and a pragmatic approach to balancing user needs and business constraints. Half also asked for usability testing skills, interaction design experience and persona creation. Where tools were mentioned (a third of ads) it was usually Illustrator, Photoshop & Visio rather than any particular package.

interaction designer – rarer than I expected, when this did crop up the job description was pretty much identical to IA. The rarity may indicate a loss of popularity in favour of user experience designer.

user interface designer – similiar to IA and interaction designer but with a slightly more technical angle, often including HTML, CSS and Javascript

user experience architect & user experience designer – very similar to IA and Interaction designer. The only noticeable difference was the remit of these roles often included ‘visual design’ which I didn’t see once in an IA job description

usability specialist & usability analyst – usability engineer seems to have lost popularity as a job title and this appears to have coincided with a broadening of remit. These roles are very similar to the IA and UX job descriptions but with a greater emphasis on designing, conducting and analysing usability tests.

So essentially the job descriptions are very, very similiar for all these job titles. They *must* mention wireframes to be an IA, the UX prefix may widen the job description to include visual design, UI designer is probably more techie and a usability prefix will mean more emphasis on user testing. But these are subtle distinctions. A great deal more unites than divides.

Now job ads aren’t the end of the story but it is interesting that we’ve created so many different job titles and then essentially described them the same. No wonder the applicants are confused.

My dullest slide deck ever, I’m afraid. I felt quite sheepish given all the shiny, shiny powerpoint on show in Miami. And I do need to point out here than the 15 little people on the first page are only representative of the number of juniors and not their general shape (or colour).

I’m very glad we were able to run the session as more of a conversation than presentation in the end. Not sure how much of that will work in the podcast (coming soon to Boxes and Arrows, I believe).

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For those of you who’ve been asking about our job description for junior IAs:

Junior IA job spec

(We’ve shortlisted for a current junior vacancy. In our IA summit panel I said that the junior programme is my favourite part of my job…well the interviewing is a great part of that, particularly when we have such a good pool. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone.)

Henning’s posted his slides from our panel on SlideShare. I don’t seem to have my final version but will post mine when I get them back off Mags!

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As part of our junior UX roles panel at the IA Summit, Henning Fischer presented about Adaptive Path’s internships. Henning mentioned that competition for the best interns can be tough and the interns often negotiate hard. This hasn’t been my experience with our junior IA roles but this may be because the whole concept of internships is less common in the UK.

Here’s a couple I know about (it’s probably too late for this year, but ones to bear in mind for next perhaps)

Clearleft: 3-4 month paid summer internship

Etre: summer internship, expenses paid

Seren: 12 months paid internships

Junior /Mid-weight UCD positions: Oxford, London, Edinburgh

We have 4 offices in the UK: Oxford (HQ), Edinburgh, London and recently Reading. We want people with usability experience who can join our teams and develop into fully fledged user centred design consultants. We are looking for all the usual qualities so I won’t list them

It’s not clear how much experience they want. The blurb says ‘usability experience’ but the title says junior or mid-weight.

I find not listing the required qualities interesting. I mean, sure, there are so fairly standard requirements but every company is different. They also don’t seem to be listing the job on their website which always baffles me.

The Bridgeman Art Library is advertising for an Information Architecture Analyst (£19,000)

This project, the basis of a KTP between Bridgeman Art Library Ltd and the London College of Communication, provides an exciting opportunity for a recent graduate to work with a company that is the world’s leading source of fine art images.

Your responsibilities will include reviewing the on line subscription education service and web services (including metadata schemes), developing user requirements, features and enhancements plus a revised website specification, and embedding this into the company’s operations.

With an honours degree (2:1 or above) in computing, library and information science, business studies (related to education), museum studies or a related area, ideally you will have previously worked in either publishing or art institutions and have an understanding of images and their place in art and culture, as well as how they can be categorised, organised and accessed. We welcome applications from UAL graduates.

In return, we offer a competitive employment package including a salary that reflects working in London; generous annual leave; a final salary pension scheme; and a commitment to your continuing personal and career development in an environment that encourages creativity, diversity and excellence. Relocation assistance is also available.