Senior Information Architect
The Senior Information Architect reports directly to the Director of Strategic Planning and the role’s primary responsibilities center around documenting the primary user interface, site structure, use case scenarios, flows and content placement within our interactive experiences and digital solutions. The IA is intimately involved throughout the Discovery and Design phases to help create the optimal experience for the target audience as well as the client. Teamwork and consensus building between the Creative, Technology and Strategy domains are critical success factors for the role.
The Information Architect must possess strong written and verbal communication skills and be able to document detail-oriented aspects of the user experience and the interaction model. That documentation must be appropriate to the target audience and fit within the established project chronology. The IA must demonstrate a strong understanding of best practices w/in the online and interactive environment so as to produce efficient, intuitive, and engaging user experiences. Key considerations for the IA include: audience goals, business objectives, technical requirements, content and project timelines as well as constraints.
Additionally, the Sr. IA has to be able to manage resources effectively, communicate and collaborate w/ the Development team and mentor Information Architects.
Responsibilities:
• Identify the primary purpose of our interactive solutions (web-site, e-Detail, kiosk, video display, etc).
• Balance target audience requirements with the client’s goals and objectives in a manner that accurately reflects the strategic direction.
• Collaborate with Client Service to interpret project needs.
• Collaborate with Art Directors, Designers, Writers, Content Editors, Usability experts, and Developers across each stage of project development and implementation.
• Decide upon the appropriate user scenarios within the scope of the initiative.
• Plan and facilitate internal and client focused brainstorming sessions to determine functional, content, and technical requirements as well as user interface specifications.
• Develop documentation for information and visual hierarchy systems, navigation schemes (including both search & browse paths), and user interactions.
• Develop site maps, wireframes, use case scenario diagrams, and functional requirements documentation.
• Presentation of project architecture to clients.
• Provide mentorship, management and coaching to entry-level Information Architects.
Educational Requirements:
• Bachelor’s Degree in Information Science, Information Architecture, Human-Computer Interaction, Technical Documentation, Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems or other 4 year degree focusing on information systems technology and/or user experience design.
• A Master’s level degree in one of the above fields is preferred.
Required Experience:
• 3-5 years of information architecture, information design, HCI or usability experience with a focus on the internet (intranet and internet experience a plus).
• Experience with user-centric design, formal usability studies, and information design.
• Strong organizational skills and conceptual thinking abilities.
• Excellent technical writing and documentation skills. Must accurately be able to communicate the details of the full user experience for project work and produce the most appropriate documentation to do so.
• Exceptional ability to communicate efficiently and effectively with others, foster collaboration, negotiates tactfully with fellow team members and manages time against project requirements.
• Strong technical writing and documentation skills.
• Experience working with multiple project teams simultaneously.
• Strong cognitive skills including the ability to investigate & analyze information to develop meaningful and relevant insights.
• Fluent knowledge of Internet development technologies such as DBs, client-and server-side scripting, cookies, HTML, Java, JavaScript, DTML, rich-media (Flash, DHTML, AJAX, etc.), and ActiveX.
• Experience with a wide range digital technology issues including: database development and integration, rich-media (Flash, DHTML, AJAX, etc.), online and permission based marketing, cookies, etc.
• Must be fluent in: Visio, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat, Word, and Excel. |
