At Challis’s urging, I’ve reread UX Roles & Titles: Trend or Profession. Other than pain at reading such a tiny font (god I’m old. old old old. I’m old.) which may have lead to free-floating crankiness, I’ve pulled out a bunch of goodness– in particular I’d like to point to:
“Web Designer may seem like an overgeneralization to those of us practicing in this space. However the same may be said of those practicing as doctors, lawyers and engineers. Each works within a profession, yet has an area of specialization and may fill different roles at different times. One example is as follows:
Doctor (pediatrics, oncology, internal medicine, orthopedics)
….”
Which is a great model for us to consider. Many folks say this *or* that, IA or ED, design or graphic design, with out considering the range of special and general skills one may need to do one’s job.
The professions are not only not diametrically opposed, but’s not even hierarchal. Design professions are intertwined, and variable, depending on medium and nature of the work (like doctors–small company vs large, small town generalist, big city specialist).
As for being a trend, hey, if we keep at all this IA business, maybe we can work up to a full fledged profession. After all, dentists used to let blood, right?