I found nothing whatsoever to disagree with in Jesse's plenary. In
fact, it all seemed obvious and non-controversial. Of course, it was
neither. :-(
I hope that folks don't see Jesse's declaration as being synonymous
with some kind of death of IA or IxD or whatever. He's not asking
anyone to change what they do, but merely to recognize that we are all
involved in a broad but very special community of practice. "UX"
describes it in a way that includes lots of people who should be
working together more closely than it seems we are.
From day one at Behavior we've used the term "user experience" to
describe everything we do -- including visual design, sound design,
and copywriting, for example. It's enabled everyone on the team to
feel like we share the responsibility for an important result: a
compelling user experience.
On the other hand, we rarely actually use the word. It's our ambient
expertise, it's the air we breathe. So ubiquitous and appropriate for
describing the things it is that it's almost not worth mentioning
except when trying to distinguish it from something it is not.
Which is, of course, why humans have terminologies in the first place.
We like the term UX because it *doesn't* draw a line between IA and
IxD and visual design and writing, but it *does* draw a line between
all of those things and, say, database design, marketing, fashion
design, and basket-weaving. Which we often have to do when, for
example, we are pitching our services to clients who need to
understand how we fit in to their needs.
It's useful when discussing the strategies behind businesses making
products, for whom executives need to distribute dollars between
different areas -- having a UX budget that's distinct from a tech or
marketing budget helps strategize how a product can succeed or fail.
And as said already, it's useful when creating communities of
practice: A UX conference, or a UX track at a conference, is a
sensible way of organizing speakers and panels. Narrowing it down to
IA or IxD (or writing or sound or video) might make sense if there are
enough sessions narrowly focused on those areas, but I've found that
most practitioners find it difficult to talk about any of these
without talking about the others. It happens, and it's a good thing
that it happens, but it's also a good thing that we blur the lines and
wander across the borders.
In short: No need to throw down any walls here. Just open some gates.
Cheers,
-Cf
Christopher Fahey
____________________________
Behavior
biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com
me: http://www.graphpaper.com
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