The Web gets Real
Transitional Surge
Before It Was the Web
The
New Media Emerges
After consumer videotex came and went in the late 80's, "The Internet" existed in a rudimentary form, but hadn't yet evolved into the graphically sophisticated Web that we know today. Aside from shallow "brochure-ware" sites, most businesses weren't really ready to do highly transactional consumer-oriented business on public networks just yet.
Business gets a Facelift
Then in the late 80's and early 90's along came Visual Basic, Hypercard and Lotus Notes. Three different platforms, but they gave the business world tools that they could use to easily customize their own in-house software products and services with a nice user interface. As a UI Guy, I needed to be able to work with all of them. I spent most of the first half of the decade doing just that. Meanwhile, the focus of the IT department evolved from mainframe to desktop. (Newspaper Association of America, NBC Market Research, N2K/CD-Now)
Communicating the Design
During this period I also honed my Documentation and Technical Writing skills. The IT environment really demanded a greater professionalism in this "meat and potatoes" aspect of the development process. As software got smarter and more complex, we needed to be able to define Interaction Design in terms of behavior - not just graphics. (Dow Jones Markets, Sumitomo Bank, AT&T IVR)
The New Kid on the Block
Around 1995 the term "Information Architect" first appeared as an actual mainstream job description. Corporate IT departments were beginning to understand that this was a valuable new skillset that needed to be integrated into the development process. It was tremendous challenge and a great time to be a usability evangelist. (Instinet, Postalworks, Broadcast Traffic & Residuals)