New to IA

I am a web department manager / interactive producer who is looking to transition into information architecture and would like recommendations on certification or other avenues for more education. I have conducted user testing, and provide wire frames and flowcharts to the design team I manage for ecommerce websites. I've been working in interactive for 10 years, but my focus has been more on account management and consulting and I'm soft on design. I would like to expand my UI skills and hope to get an entry level IA position in the Chicago area.

At this point I'm not sure where to start. This is a rather new field. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[editor: This is an excellent question - How can people get into IA? Comments appreciated!]

» By jenhoppenrath at 09/19/2005 - 18:26
» Filed under Professional development
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Some resources for learning IA

Hi Jen,

The IA Institute has a fairly casual, but cool mentoring program for members. Local IA or user experience groups are another good avenue for meeting practitioners.

Finally, work to build your foundations with reading books, blogs, mailing lists and doing IA work in your day job or as a volunteer...

(sorry, I'm in a hurry and won't link - google for these)
Books
- IA: Blueprints for the Web (Wodtke)
- IA for the World Wide Web (Rosenfeld and Morville)
- Elements of User Experience (Garrett)

Blogs
- InfoDesign
- Green Onions (dan brown)
- Boxes and Arrows (a magazine more than a blog)
- Putting People First blog
- Pixelcharmer
- Atomiq.org
- Tagsonomy
- louisrosenfeld.com
- findability.org
- eleganthack.com
- articles on UIE.com and AdaptivePath.com

Mailing Lists
- SIGIA-L
- IXDG interaction design discussion
- IA Institute has a discussion list for members only that is lower volume, higher signal

By jess mcmullin at Tue, 09/20/2005 - 11:17 | login or register to post comments