Integrating digital
October 16, 2008 | Author: Tim Williams
By now most agencies have realized that operating a separate interactive unit (or worse, a separate interactive brand) only postpones the inevitable confluence of digital and traditional skill sets in a marketing communications firm. A separate interactive "department" only perpetuates the notion that digital is a complex discipline that can only be mastered by the technically elite.
Back in the 1950s, special "television departments" in agencies were essentially the same thing. TV was seen as something so new, so different that it required its own discipline. The interactive department of today is the TV department of the 1950s. With the Internet on its way to becoming the world's largest advertising medium within the next two years, it's certainly time for digital to lose its status as a separate function and bring it aboard as a fully-integrated agency service.
New skills for every agency function
This means every function in the agency must add digital to its skill set.
Client service people must be able to talk with clients as easily about digital solutions as traditional solutions.
Project managers must learn how to manage a digital project as well as any other.
Media or channel planning professionals must have the knowledge and skills to plan and place digital media as well as mass media.
Digital project production must take its place right alongside print and broadcast (although outsourcing certain commoditized functions like programming still makes sense).
Creatives must learn how to concept and create in the digital space as well as in the mass media space.
But creative is the one function where a new team member is really needed: the experience designer. Instead of the longstanding writer/art director twosome, the new creative team is a threesome consisting of:
Experience Design is synonymous with User Experience (UX) or Information Architecture (IA). It has been a serious discipline in digital firms for a decade, and it's now popular enough to have its own association and conference (see www.ixda.org), which this year is co-sponsored by none other than Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Besides helping to concept digital solutions, here are some of the essential duties of the Experience Designer:
- Developing the structure, information architecture, and user pathways for digital projects.
- Collaborating with the visual designer to help execute the design.
- Working hand in hand with web developers, programmers and software engineers to deliver the final product.
- Coordinating with quality assurance professionals during implementation and testing.
Richard Grefe of the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA) defines the role of experience design as FORM+CONTENT+CONTEXT÷TIME. Quite simply, the job of the Experience Designer is to make digitally-delivered information and interaction as simple as possible.
For the agency that wants to make digital a true core competency, it's time to welcome a new member to the creative team.
