Web Worker Payoff: Information Architect
As web workers most of us already grasp the idea that we should be able to control our Web experience – to generate content, view content in a manner we prefer and the rest of it. But companies that sell online – especially those for which online is simply another channel, along with retail outlets and catalogs – are still struggling with the concept of Web 2.0. How do they preserve their brands when the users are in control?
It’s left to people such as Dayna Bateman, senior strategic analyst at e-commerce company Fry Inc., to show merchants how to engage the customer online without locking down the experience. Fry clients include Eddie Bauer, Godiva Chocolatier, Crate and Barrel, The Home Depot, Spiegel and Whirlpool.
Professional Mashup
With the right education (a master’s degree isn’t uncommon) and experience (in tactical and strategic information architecture, heuristic evaluation, usability testing, content generation and management, database design, IT integration, project management – you name it…), you may want to mull over a similar career. More commonly referred to by titles such as information architect, interaction or user experience designer or usability engineer, the job had average pay in 2006 of $82,400, according to a survey by The Information Architecture Institute. Of the work, Bateman says, “It’s in demand. There’s work that needs to be done. And folks are willing to pay for it.”
What interests Bateman most about her job is the “mashup of the whole thing,” she said. “I get to do really technical things, highly creative things. I get to work with people… Some weeks I’m in front of a computer 60 hours, 80 hours. Other times, it’s split down the middle. I’ll be on the road talking to folks. Doesn’t mean I’m not connected.”
When she’s evaluating a site for a new client, she said, “First, I want to know who they are and what they’re selling online… On an e-commerce site, you’re really looking for flow and product discovery. You want to make sure you’re revealing merchandise and making it findable for the customer. So I’ll frequently go looking for something I expect the customer to have because of their catalog or retail store. Can I find it where I expect it to be? Can I find it easily?”
The Stress of Customers Talking
What challenges the clients she advises, said Bateman, is the intensification of the “voice of the customer in e-commerce – and it’s causing some anxiety on the merchant side.” Whereas merchants are accustomed to controlling their brands, Web 2.0 has introduced user-generated content, including product reviews, images of customers using the merchandise and even the wacky notion of customers controlling their data displays, such as how products are prioritized for display.
“This whole crazy variable of user-generated content, it’s a little slippery, but it’s actually been shown to improve conversion rates in sales,” she said. She cites a recent Forrester study on 4,000 reviews that appeared in Amazon’s Electronics and Home & Garden categories. “They found that 80% were positive. The 20% that weren’t actually contributed to the credibility of the reviews themselves.”
Although Bateman is pursuing a master of science degree in human-computer interaction at Chicago’s DePaul University (to “formalize what I had learned in the trade”), she also stays current through conferences. Among the best for this field is the Internet Retailer conference held in June. She also attends niche events, all of which are “talking about the user experience.”
Plus, she surfs and shops to stay on top of trends. She foresees the day when e-commerce will break away from the workstation. “Right now when we think about e-commerce, we go to our computers and we place an order,” she said. “Mobile is going to be big. You’ll be able to enter a code into your mobile phone and make a purchase that way. Transactions will become increasingly simplified as those models become more prominent in the marketplace.”
Do you have a job that other web workers would want to know about? Share the details!
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Contrary to popular belief in the cubicle zone, we who have left the corporate anti-productivity zone LEFT. We’re not on strike. We are GONE. G-O-N-E. Our former bosses, in all their glorious intellect, wisdom and ability, can, with all due respect (cough), find their own way to market on the Internet.
I wish them luck, given the fact most of them couldn’t find the Pacific Ocean on a globe labeled with neon lights. They wouldn’t know Web 2.0 if it wore a Darth Vader mask to their next meeting.
We’re not coming back to train them so they can outsource us again, and no, it doesn’t matter how much money they offer. We been there, done that AND got the t-shirt.
What I find difficult is the constant battle with Google and DMOZ, both of which allow spam aquarium information sites to come up in searches (many with snake oil to sell).
I will get my Aquarium Information ( http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Information.html )site up on Google (DMOZ will not even recognize it after two years of submissions), only to watch it disapear in search engine oblivion a day later (it is all about the $ with Google as my Adwords bill then climbs as person who use this site yet have failed to book mark it click through Adwords).
Mean while MSN and Yahoo have donea much better job of serving up good results with less spam.
oh dear — did I really say 60 to 80 hours with a straight face? the average work week is more like 45 to 50. ;)
I am seeing a trend of IAs in demands! I was looking to move from my current position and already got two offers even in this bad economy.
We have GOT to find a way to put our skills to use in better ways than shilling chinese-made objects to job-losing Americans. We need to become part of the solution here. Working a 50 hour week for a multinational company to sell crap goods to other soon-to-be-outsourced workers is a downward spiral. What can we do to contribute to the creation of communities and sustainability rather than this ridiculous self-defeating over consumption?