Design Matters

If you’re in Washington, DC you can take advantage of the offerings of three groups that have lots to offer. If you’re not in Washington, these groups may inspire you to start your own activities or find similar ones in your area.

UPA DC, the Washington DC chapter of the Usability Professionals Association (http://www.upa-dc-metro.org/), meets each month and there is a local conference scheduled for October 13 (http://www.upa-dc-metro.org/conference/2007/index.php)

DCIA, DC Information Architects, is a Yahoo Group with a website (http://www.dc-ia.com/) that includes job postings.

Refresh (http://refresh-dc.org/ ) is an innovative group of web designers.

AIGA (the American Institute of Graphic Arts) held a Digital Information Design Camp for from June to August, 2005. Online orientation was held June 27 to July 1, 2005, with the online instructional program from July 5 to July 25, 2005. Preparation for the online exhibition was from July 26, with online launch August 1, 2005. Participants were AIGA members who applied to participate. The program of study is conducted online both to allow participation by working people, and to provide experience in online design. The goal is to provide training in computing technologies for traditional designers, and to provide traditional design education for professional designers trained primarily in digital design. For details, visit http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/didcamp (originally posted in June 2005).

During the week of December 5, 2005 the SIG-ia list of ASIS&T and the Single Sourcing SIG list of STC had discussions of job descriptions for information architects. The information here is generalized from resources mentioned in those discussions and other information. (more…)

In 2005, ID SIG member Art Ignacio analyzed job postings for information architects and developed the following list of skills called for most frequently. (more…)

STC members can find employment information at the Technical Communication Career Center. The Online SIG posts information about online resources for employment in technical communication on Hyperviews Online.

The Information Architecture Institute provides job listings and other employment resources:

• job board
• mentoring program
• competency survey
• salary survey

The IAwiki has links to additional salary surveys for information architects.

You can also find employement listings for information architects on OK/Cancel.