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ACIA Main Page > Strange Connections > Educating the Information Architect (August 15, 2000)
See also:
IA Jobs at Monster.com
Master of Science in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management
Top Library and Information Science Schools
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The ACIA is sponsored by Argus Associates, a leading information architecture consulting firm.
Peter Morville's bi-weekly column on the evolving definition of information architecture
Educating the Information Architect
At least once a week, I get an email message from someone, somewhere in
the world, who wants to become an information architect.
This week it was a technical writer in Australia who wants to make "an
ambitious change in career direction, towards being an information
architect." She asked "What are my chances, and what advice do you have
for me to increase my skill set?"
Last week it was a library and information science student in Florida who
is "committed to becoming an information architect, but finding that clear
directions are hard to find."
The good news is that the job market for information architects is
exploding. Searches on sites like Monster.com
regularly turn up 200
to 300 postings for "information architects." From consulting firms like
Argus and Scient
to e-businesses like LookSmart
to Fortune
500's like Cisco, everyone is desperately seeking information
architects.
The bad news is that there's no established educational degree program
geared specifically to meet the needs of aspiring information architects.
Now the honest truth is that you don't need a specialized degree to become
an information architect these days. The situation is similar to the
field of business administration about a hundred years ago. In a booming
economy, if you had strong management skills, you were a valuable
commodity. Nobody cared about or had relevant degrees.
However, in the course of time, business administration degrees have been
developed by the world's major universities, and each year thousands of
people use the MBA degree as their entr�e into the professional world.
I expect a similar transition to occur as our field matures. The
Master's
in Information Architecture will become to information architects what
the
MBA is to business managers and administrators. The degree will not be
essential to success, nor will it be a guarantee, but it will become an
accepted credential, providing a valuable stepping stone on the path to a
successful career.
But what if you want an education today? Where can you go to develop a
rich understanding of the theory and practice of information architecture
(IA)
that will serve as a foundation for your career?
A graduate LIS (library and information science) or HCI (human-computer
interaction) program may be your best bet.
Some excellent programs such as Stanford University's Program in
Human-Computer Interaction have evolved from within the computer
science
department. These HCI programs are particularly strong in the area of
software interaction design.
There are even a growing number of undergraduate programs such as the
University of Washington's new undergraduate major in Informatics,
designed to provide students with a broad education in information
management and system design.
However, as a trained librarian myself, I'm biased towards the master's
degree programs at the LIS schools (or the interdisciplinary programs
with strong LIS roots). Top programs include:
This blend fosters a perspective that goes beyond interface-level
interaction considerations to the design of complex, multi-dimensional
information spaces.
Ideally, students should have professional work experience before entering
these
programs, so they understand the broader business context within which
information systems are designed and used.
To learn more about the current state of these
graduate LIS programs, I talked with Professor
Amy Warner about IA education at the University of Michigan.
As the architect of the first information
architecture course at the School of Information, Amy has unique
insight into the needs of students who are interested in this emerging
field. "Information architecture is an applied field that needs to
draw from a variety of subject disciplines," she explained. "I envision
students moving from my information architecture course to classes in
database modeling and user interface design to classes in implementation,
evaluation and usability."
Amy has integrated real information architecture projects for real clients
into her course, providing hands-on experience for the students. She
hopes that eventually students will have an opportunity to "experience the
whole lifecycle of web site development" as they move through the school's
program.
Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Said one student,
"This is why I came to SI (the School of Information). This course allows
me to take components and
put them together to solve a problem." The course is already filled to
capacity for the Fall 2000 semester.
While these LIS and HCI programs possess many of the components of a good
IA education, none have put all the pieces together to form a coherent
picture.
For aspiring information architects, the puzzle remains fragmented and
confusing. In this new and complex field, these prospective students are
looking for leadership, vision, and a real sense of direction. That's why
I continue to get these email messages asking where to go and what to
study.
Kent State University has demonstrated such leadership, proposing a Master
of Science
in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management.
The Kent proposal explains that the program will "provide graduates
with a broad-based understanding of knowledge organization and access,
information systems and networks and information management and research,
and will "prepare Information Architects and Knowledge Managers to
function as change agents in an organization." The proposal looks
promising, but we'll have to wait to see how the program unfolds.
Hopefully, Kent State University's ambitious program will serve as a
change agent itself, inspiring other schools to complete the jigsaw
puzzle, and thereby providing rich educational opportunities for the
next-generation of information architects.
Until then, I'll keep answering my email.
What do you think about the education of information architects?
Please send your rants and raves to Peter
Morville.
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Do You Need a Degree?
Educate Me Now
These schools have integrated a traditional LIS curriculum (e.g.,
information retrieval, organization and classification, needs analysis,
information seeking behavior of users) with a multi-disciplinary rainbow
of courses, covering such topics as usability engineering, knowledge
management, and information economics. IA
at the U of M
Completing the Jigsaw Puzzle
End Notes
The ACIA is Sponsored by Argus Associates, Inc. Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved