u/PimpMogul:

I have come up with a new system of ridding the term “architect” from the information technology industry’s repertoire. Considering it’s illegal for someone to call themselves an architect without a license (in the construction industry anyways), these guys are breaking the law. They also do not do what we do and the term should be used exclusively to discuss the design and implementation of constructing a building. Here’s my solution:

Apply to every single job you can find for an “Information Architect” with your resume and a digital portfolio. Flood their emails with applicants that aren’t suited for the job, just like they flood our job searches with jobs that aren’t suited for the term “architect”. If every unemployed architect did this, they might just stop using the term.

I’m an information designer (who happens to enjoy architecture and that’s why I’m chiming in).

Many designers dislike the term. The originator of the term is the architect Richard Saul Wurman, who argued designers were only concerned with how things looked, and he wanted a new type of professional who would make information understandable. Fair enough, but Richard Saul Wurman’s vision was slowly morphed into a new profession that structures and orders units of information.

One famous designer even went as far as saying that information architecture would be architecture the day a piece of information fell on her head and killed her.

I couldn’t care less about the term. It was hot in the early 2000s to call yourself an information architect, but IA types have decided that the scope of the term is actually quite narrow, so they are moving in droves to the next great buzzword: User Experience Design. There are some professionals who are sticking to their guns and just want to structure information, those are the ones that still call themselves Information Architects.

Still, the OP’s attitude strikes me as narrow minded: if there are so many unemployed architects out there, why don’t they leverage their architecture skills into other fields? I mean, there is a real need for Information Architects out there (more so than real architects, one might argue), why don’t you leverage your architecture skills into something else?

Besides, if you are looking for Architecture jobs and you’re getting Information Architecture jobs, you’re probably doing it wrong. You must be using something like monster.com or whatever job portal. It pays off to go to specialized job boards, that’s where the best jobs are.

And while we are at this, perhaps the reason why architects have crappy websites is because of their hate of the term, most could use a hand from a capable Information Architect.

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