Molly and Mike have whipped-up The Interaction Architect Job Title Generator in response to the latest venerable trolls about “what it is we call ourselves when we are doing what we do”. A swift click on it generated the title of this post as my new-new job description.
I was travelling in a cab on Sunday evening and the cabbie asked what I did, and I replied in the usual way – this conversation plays out this way most often:
Me : “I’m a designer”
Cabbie: “what sort of thing do you design”
Me : “Websites mainly – on the internet. Do you use the Internet?”
Cabbie : “nah – not that much, my wife and kids do”
Me : “Right, right”
Cabbie : “so where do you do that then?”
Me : “at the BBC”
Cabbie : “Oh yeah? Yeah the wife likes that, the BBC website”
Me : “oh… good!”
Cabbie : “so you do the graphics then? How it looks and that?”
Me : “Sometimes, but more often I work on how it’s going to work, so that it’s easy to use – and does what you want it to do.”
Cabbie : “Ahhh, right. Could do with more of that on the internet. Things are too bleedin’ hard for me to bother with most of the time.”
Me : “Just here anywhere on the left is fine for me. Cheers”
Anyway. My point is – it’s not so hard to explain what we do, and for people to understand the point off doing it. Discussing what that’s called is just bores me to tears.
Petafloptimism 
Oh snap! I got interchange ho. I wonder if that commands a higher salary?
i’m a visual strategist…
no, i didn’t use the generator.
yes, it does get me more moola
Matt,
I agree that it’s not that hard to explain to people what you/we do. Titles are for limited use (biz cards and such). It’s about the explanation of what you do. In person it’s easy to couch the description in context. E.g., you were talking to a cabbie, not a CIO or someone at a “birds of a feather” meeting.
Your example is a great one. Thanks.
FYI, here’s my initial response to Tog:
http://crocolyle.blogspot.com/2003_08_03_crocolyle_archive.html#106006020105643315
I’ve also been contributing to the active discussion here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/interactionarchitects/
You might be interested in this:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/interactionarchitects/message/110
Lyle
http://crocolyle.blogspot.com/
Now try explaining email to my Nana – she’s 87!
Great links up there checked them once..
I too am happy to think of myself as a designer
Tog may be right that Designers are seen as less important, the people who add the fluff and don’t see the big picture.
innovation deity…
matt jones | work & thoughts: "Molly and Mike have whipped-up The Interaction Architect Job Title Generator in response to the latest venerable trolls about "what it is we call ourselves when we are doing what we do". A swift…