UXD: User Experience Design

What is Role of an IA?

Alice Toth, Monday, June 25, 2007 @ 3:20 pm

I was recently asked what the difference was between a BA and an IA. The person asking mentioned that a BA can end up doing wireframes and an IA will at times write business requirements, so how do they differ.

While the skills may overlap, I think the difference arises in the point of view each bring to a project. The BA tends to be more business focused, sussing out the needs and requirements of the business. The IA tends to be more user focused, championing their needs and desires. (Yes, this is overly broad but let's go with it for now.) That doesn't mean that BAs don’t "get" user-centric design or that IAs can't write business requirements. However, while we may have overlapping skills, I think where we diverge is more in our focus than our skills.

It's this divergence of focus, in fact, that brings a richer element to a project team. In an ideal world, well-designed software will meet the business needs, the user needs and the technical needs. To achieve this ideal world, a project team needs members who can understand and balance the needs of all three and still meet the release date. Rarely can one person fill all three roles since they are usually not an expert in the world each role represents. It’s the understanding of the nuances of that space that enriches a project.

We’ve recently started a BA/IA collaborative group at Pathfinder -- an informal group that'll meet, discuss successes, frustrations, etc.,  and hopefully come away with a better understanding of the strengths we each bring to a project. I'll let you know how it goes.

Topics:

user experience design User Experience Design

Comments: 1 so far

  1. A collaborative group is a fantastic idea. It is often difficult to do this in a usability (only) company. What happens then, is that the usability people get themselves in trouble by recommending something that is not technically feasible.
    Perhaps there is a way to do this in an online community? Maybe one exists already that I don’t know about?
    Breezy

    Comment by James Breeze, Saturday, July 7, 2007 @ 6:34 pm

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