ORARIAN \"Meet Scott Robinson"

\ "Meet Scott Robinson"

The Following was written by Eden Moreland of Project-Source, a PR firm which has done some excellent work for Imagesmith, the company I work for at a Senior Information Architect. This was written as a primer for an interview with Fast Company, which hasn't happened yet (still crossing my fingers).

Meet Scott Robinson. Scott is approximately 6 feet tall, speaks with animation, tells lots of jokes, has lots of friends and is well spoken. Scott lives in a beach town, about an hour and a half south of San Francisco, called Santa Cruz. This is a town with an amusement park on the boardwalk … you may have heard of it. Scott has an enviable life—he visits the beach regularly, lives in a very nice climate and is able to participate in all of the sports and activities he craves most of the year round.

So, you ask … "What does Scott do besides play at the beach?" Scott is an Information Architect for a Web Development firm called Imagesmith. Scott spends his professional time thinking about the psychology behind Web sites he creates for Imagesmith clients. What is the easiest way for the customer to move around this site and find the information they are looking for? What does our client want the customer to accomplish in their—so often—brief time on this site?

The "organization of information" or the "structure and content of all the material on a Web site" are basic definitions of information architecture. This title, or role, erupted from the impact of the Internet less than a decade ago. Information Architecture is very strategic in the Web world—the position itself is central to the success of Web sites; therefore, Scott is very important to his company’s success.

How did Scott embark onto such a prestigious career? To examine his aptitude for such a role, we must step back to Scott’s childhood.

Here we see Scott, age 9. Scott is a happy boy with lots of friends. His family adores him and gives him lots of toys.

Scott loves his toys. However, when friends are not around to play with, Scott occupies himself with his toys in a different manner than probably most children. Scott likes to arrange and organize his toys. He writes them down on sheets of paper and arranges them in categories. He then lays all of his toys out on the floor in their designated groups to analyze them against each other. Scott was drawing flow-charts before the fourth grade.

Scott confused his fascination with organization and detail for an interest in Project Management. However, upon the evolution of the Internet, Scott knew that he had misconstrued his interests and immediately began his pursuit of an Information Architecture career.

Scott’s skills have contributed successfully to Web development projects he has worked on with Hewlett Packard, Disney, Seagate, and Go.com for Imagesmith.

The message he would like to promote is to "let your core evolve into something you can do professionally. You may not find the role that fits right away, but don’t ever give up–it took me years to find Information Architecture. I love what I do because it’s instinctual to me. I’ve been organizing and arranging things practically since birth."