All posts about
Information architecture

Information architecture is the categorization of information into a coherent structure, preferably one that most people can understand quickly, if not inherently. (source: Wikipedia)

Information Architecture Summit 2014 Closing Plenary

Added on 31 March 2014 Peter Bogaards

Always a pleasure to read a deep mind.

“We can struggle to create a positive vision for the future as individuals, organizations, and societies. We’re in the midst of an in between stage of liminality. We’re on the threshold of sustainability or collapse. To thrive, we will need to change culture. It won’t be fast, but a little change can add up. It won’t be easy, but there’s no other way. And I know this community will contribute, because it’s all about connecting the dots…”

(Peter Morville a.k.a. @morville)

The battle for the body field

Added on 26 February 2014 Peter Bogaards
Content chunck and design. XML revival?

“Richer, more flexible designs can coexist with the demands of multichannel publishing; future design changes can sidestep the laborious process of scrubbing old content blobs; and simpler, streamlined tools can help editors and authors produce better content faster. By combining the best of XML and structured web content, we can make the body field safe for future generations.”

(Jeff Eaton ~ A List Apart)

Accreditation for UX Professionals?

Added on 24 February 2014 Peter Bogaards
Formal power entering the field of UX. Who’s to decided?

“Are educational institutions equipped to prepare UX designers for the workplace of the future as advances in technology outpace those in education? Should the UX community be pushing for levels of accreditation to verify that someone has the skills and education necessary to call himself or herself a UX designer? How can an employer ensure that a candidate meets their expectations for a role in user experience?”

(Chris R. Becker ~ UXmatters)

Architecting the connected world

Added on 21 February 2014 Peter Bogaards
Integration, synergy and connections of bits and atoms. A new design ecosystem with many options.

“We’re at a revolutionary information crossroads, one where our symbolic and physical worlds are coming together in an unprecedented way. Our temptation thus far has been to drive ahead with technology and to try to fit all the pieces together with the tried and true methods of literacy and engineering. Accepting that the shape of this new world is not the same as what we have known up until now does not mean we have to give up attempts to shape it to our common good.”

(Andy Fitzgerald a.k.a. @andybywire ~ Radar O’Reilly)

The architecture of information

Added on 18 February 2014 Peter Bogaards
It’s academic, so it must be European. Go Andreas, go!

“This paper maintains that in the epistemological shift from postmodernism to pseudo-modernism, technological, economic, social, and cultural elements of change have thoroughly transformed the scenario in which information architecture operated in the late 1990s and have eroded its channel-specific connotation as a website-only, inductive activity, opening the field up to contributions coming from the theory and practice of design and systems thinking, architecture, cognitive science, cultural studies and new media. The paper argues, through a thorough discussions of causes and effects and selected examples taken from the practice, that contemporary information architecture can be thus framed as a fundamentally multi-disciplinary sense-making cultural construct concerned with the structural integrity of meaning in complex, information-based cross-channel ecosystems.”

(Andreas Resmini a.k.a. @resmini)

Towards a new information architecture: The rise and fall and rise of a necessary discipline

Added on 16 February 2014 Peter Bogaards
That’s why the byline of this stream is ‘Understanding by Design’.

“Taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, those are just tools. Metadata is just a material. Information Architecture is about making meaning out of piles of facts. Who cares how you do it, or in what medium? (…) Information Architects are in the understanding business. Clarity is their north star, and organizing and clarification are their tools. We may have a new tsunami of data. But we also have information architects ready to help. Let us never forget how much we need them.”

(Christina Wodtke a.k.a. @cwodtke)

Adopting a professional compass for information architecture

Added on 12 February 2014 Peter Bogaards
Sailing the volatile oceans of digital transformation, you need a compass, maps and a sense of direction.

“In this column, I’ll demonstrate that, with an IA compass in place, expressing the value that information architecture delivers to a business becomes clearer. The IA compass that I’ll describe is absent of theoretical and technical rhetoric and focuses on a greater good. This greater good is one that is most likely to resonate with our business and marketing colleagues. While it is important that they acquire a general understand of information architecture, they are more interested in how information architecture fits into their business model and delivers value.”

(Nathaniel Davis a.k.a. @iatheory ~ UXmatters)

Architecture, design, and the connected environment

Added on 26 January 2014 Peter Bogaards
Great description of the distinction between architecture and design. Like InfoArch and InfoDesign, human cognition and perception.

“(…) user interface design is a context-specific articulation of an underlying information architecture. It is this IA foundation that provides the direct connection to how human end users find value in content and functionality. The articulatory relationship between architecture and design creates consistency of experience across diverse platforms and works to communicate the underlying information model we’ve asked users to adopt. (…) This basic distinction between architecture and design is not a new idea, but in the context of the Internet of Things, it does present architects and designers with a new set of challenges. In order to get a better sense of what has changed in this new context, it’s worth taking a closer look at how the traditional model of IA for the web works.”

(Andy Fitzgerald a.k.a. @andybywire & +Andy Fitzgerald ~ O’Reilly)

The lingering seduction of the page

Added on 24 January 2014 Peter Bogaards
Great to see IA being pushed around like mad.

“(…) I examined the articulatory relationship between information architecture and user interface design, and argued that the tools that have emerged for constructing information architectures on the web will only get us so far when it comes to expressing information systems across diverse digital touchpoints. Here, I want to look more closely at these traditional web IA tools in order to tease out two things: (1) ways we might rely on these tools moving forward, and (2) ways we’ll need to expand our approach to IA as we design for the Internet of Things.”

(Andy Fitzgerald a.k.a. @andybywire & +Andy Fitzgerald ~ O’Reilly)

Taxonomy-driven content publishing

Added on 8 January 2014 Peter Bogaards
As long as we have content, we have metadata.

“Here’s something about taxonomies that might surprise you: they’re not just for librarians anymore. Taxonomies were once a niche concept – useful but complex structures tackled only by the most hearty of information managers in sprawling databases. The past few years have seen taxonomies demystified and ‘rebranded’ as powerful yet approachable tools for anyone with an interest in making content easier to find and use. One of the most popular applications of taxonomy to come out of this renaissance is taxonomy-driven publishing.”

(Stephanie Lemieux a.k.a. @stephlemieux and Michele Ann Jenkins a.k.a. ~ UIE)

IA and business strategy: An evolving relationship

Added on 6 December 2013 Peter Bogaards
All experience design fields will be part of the larger business ecosystem. Like it or not.

“Information architecture doesn’t drive business strategy, per se. It won’t tell you what sort of business you should be in, or if you should outsource part of your manufacturing, or if you should change to a matrix-based management structure. But increasingly, IA needs to be considered as an input to those decisions, because all of them require thinking through how the digital places where you do business have to change, structurally. The difference between success and failure — or if a new business approach is even possible – can depend on the shape, clarity, and resilience of those information environments.”

(Andrew Hinton a.k.a. @inkblurt ~ The Understanding Group)

Classification and its consequences

Added on 2 December 2013 Peter Bogaards
Creativity is connecting two existing things in a new way. I would connect it to Glushko’s TAO.

“We see this Linnean mentality often deployed all over our information spaces, and its consequences still produce scaffoldings that simply expose internal structures, be those the enterprise’s, the organization’s, or the university’s, with no concern for actual usefulness. The move towards cross-channel experiences is turning this into an even more complex scenario, where the different nature of the channels themselves (staff at a store, a mobile phone, a kiosk, signage) introduces one additional dimension to an already layered problem space.”

(Andreas Resmini a.k.a. @resmini)

A day in the life of an information architect

Added on 4 November 2013 Peter Bogaards
It’s like the information architect persona project.

“The employment outlook for IA is healthy overall. Knowing this is encouraging – so now what? To help craft your personal career storyline, join this web conference to engage in some creative, divergent thinking about what’s possible. This presentation reviews the employment and career landscape for IA.”

(Stacy Surla a.k.a. @stacysurla ~ UXconnect)

Information architecture: Beyond web sites, apps, and screens

Added on 1 November 2013 Peter Bogaards
I couldn’t agree more with the urge to extend our scope and need for foundational theories.

“Can a craft-like profession of information architecture that lacks internal theory keep up with the growing complexities of ubiquitous ecosystems that comprise both digital and physical objects? I don’t think so. To position the practice of information architecture for future success, we must not wait for the future to arrive, but try to anticipate it – and, in some cases, even help to create it. To offer theories of information architecture that transcend Web sites, applications, and screens, we need to pursue original theories of information architecture that address Web sites, applications, and screens, period. If we fail to do this, Toon and the rest of the IA community will have to be satisfied with stolen insights from other fields.”

(Nathaniel Davis a.k.a. @iatheory ~ UXmatters)

The discipline of organizing (.pdf)

Added on 31 October 2013 Peter Bogaards
Organization and creating structures make life a whole lot easier.

“It is normal to organize ourworld, but doing so systematically is key and the subject of the book The Discipline of Organizing (TDO).The driving concept is that,while organization of resources is fundamental to library and information science, it is a central issue for many professional fields employing different organizational strategies and descriptive vernacular. To bring the diverse perspectives together, a broadly applicable, abstract framework can be used, based on an assessment ofwhat is being organized,why, how much,when and by what means.These points of analysis of the resources to be organized inform organizational design decisions, considerations of stakeholders and costs and strategic planning for tools and methods. Principles underlying an organization system’s design may drawon frequency of resource use or coordination of items, alphabetic or chronological ordering or unique approaches to manage hybrid and novel resources.The TDO philosophy reflects an information management approach that spans disciplinary silos and avoids field-limited terminology, while building the critical skills of resource organization and management.”

(Robert J. Glushko ~ ASIS&T Bulletin Oct/Nov 2013)

The social sound of the airport lounge: Streaming music in public spaces using IA principles

Added on 2 October 2013 Peter Bogaards
When you hear sound a.k.a. music in a public space, just contact DeLuca.

“In public spaces like coffee bars, elevators or airport lounges there is big chance you’ll hear music. Among many other factors, music can contribute in these places to a positive user experience. Question is, what is the right music on a given time and place? Is there such a thing as the perfect track for a crowd? And how do you know?”

(Xander Roozen a.k.a. @Shuggie ~ EuroIA 2013)