This is an issue that I've struggled with for years now, and obviously many of you have as well. I think the sheer number of job titles and their overlap is testament to this confusion: IxD, IA, HCI, Interface Designer, Usability Engineer, Web Designer, etc.
I'll preface by saying that I tend to agree with Andrei. In my experience, organizations looking for help with their online initiatives are a lot like people looking for a good mechanic. If you need a mechanic, then odds are you don't really know what makes a good one until the end of the process, where your car either runs well or doesn't. Because of that, some organizations go the route of over-generalization, "Need web guy, must be fantastic designer and be able to develop in Ruby/PHP/PERL, etc." Others go the route of assembling teams of very specialized people, many of whom overlap or don't understand the demands of each-others jobs. This can just as easily lead to mediocrity. In my opinion, the question isn't exactly generalized vs. specific, which is where this thread seems to have gone. Andrei, I apologize if I misunderstand you, and please correct me if I do, but I get the feeling that you're advocating an understanding of design fundamentals to anyone seeking to do design work of any kind. This is something I agree with heartily. I don't think that design fundamentals necessarily equal graphic design. They're more about what a designer is supposed to do (solve problems) and how they approach that duty. To solve design problems, a designer needs to understand the medium they're working in. The web isn't paper, but it shares a lot of conventions with print design, and many principles of typography, layout and colour theory still apply. To that end, I think these disciplines are absolutely required for someone to practice IxD effectively. Sorry if I've missed the point... it was a LONG thread. :) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=33500 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
