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Italian IA Summit 2010 - Why Information Architecture Matters to Me

Italian IA Summit 2010 - Why Information Architecture Matters to Me

My keynote talk for the Italian IA Summit in 2010.

Andrew Hinton

June 01, 2010
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  1. Giambattista Vico 1668-1744 When I was in college, I had

    a favorite philosopher* (* doesn’t everyone?)
  2. “Verum factum” ... “The truth itself is made” i.e. Civil

    life, like mathematics, is wholly constructed • Etymology = key to understanding how our civilization & reason evolved from essential metaphorical building blocks • Strongly argued against the reductionist, hyper-rational Cartesian method. • Believed in a new science of the imagination. A few of Vico’s most powerful ideas ...
  3. The Trinity The Natural World The Civil World Metaphysics Vico’s

    “map” of the architecture of his ideas.
  4. MUD (Multi-User Domain) @@ Start here! @dig/teleport meetingroom=meetingroom;meetingroom;me;m, lobby;lobby;lo;l;Out;ou;o @desc

    here=The meeting room is ornate, and is large enough for about 200 people. &OOC here=0 @desc lobby=The exit has two doors and leads into the lobby. @succ lobby=You have left the meeting room. @osucc lobby=has entered. @odrop lobby=has left. move out @desc meetingroom=The meeting room entrance has two doors. @succ meetingroom=Now in the Meeting Room @osucc meetingroom=has left for the meeting room. @odrop meetingroom=has entered the meeting room. move meetingroom @dig Language Place / Context
  5. “Thunderwalker” CTF (Capture the Flag) A shared, inhabited space made

    of information, created by the users of the platform.
  6. Even mundane IA tools (e.g. labels, categories, taxonomies) can have

    powerful effects in people’s lives. Clinical Emotional Practical Using IA to discover the right structure & context for content has helped thousands of women find and learn what they need, when they need it most.
  7. IA uses information as the raw material to design a

    new kind of architecture. IA is bigger than search & retrieval or categorizing inventories of content & products.
  8. William Gibson “The thing that's going to be quaint about

    "cyberspace" (that already is, really) is the inherent assumption that it's a realm unto itself; that it's in any way elsewhere or other.” Cyberspace is any networked space and the places it connects.
  9. Increasingly, we live in software. More and more of what

    it means to be human is becoming unbound from physical context.
  10. Now, photos don’t “matter” until they’re online. And you have

    little control over what “album” they’re placed within.
  11. Friend = Anyone You Connect To Rules Dynamic User Activity

    Structure Another “map” we live within.
  12. Cyberspace Gamespace As any space is more defined by binary

    logic, the more it becomes like a game.
  13. “Games are ‘designed experiences’… and as such, their study requires

    an understanding of the full range of human practices through which players actively inhabit those worlds of rules and texts and render them meaningful.” They are both “designed objects and emergent culture.” We can learn a lot from game design & research. “...worlds of rules and texts...” Constance A. Steinkuehler “Why Game (Culture) Studies Now?”
  14. Why do I call myself an information architect? My central

    areas of interest: Using information to create structured systems for human experience. Making “maps” for shared understanding & habitation. Especially, making such “maps” that were impossible before the internet. (But that’s just my answer, for me ... for now ;-)
  15. IA as a ... Title: a label one can be

    called, whether or not their work has anything to do with the thing, practice, activity or role. Thing: the designed ‘stuff’ itself. Practice: shared history of learning among people who affiliate with the role. Activity: the actual work of designing the “thing.” Role: the ‘hat’ for the person performing the activity on the thing at the moment. What I call myself to myself. IDENTITY
  16. “There is information architecture” ... but “there are no ‘information

    architects.’ There are only User Experience Designers.” - Jesse James Garrett, Memphis IA Summit 2009 I disagree. * Culture is messy. * Language is organic. * This is all still evolving.
  17. What should you call yourself? Whatever Gets The Job Done!*

    *But we still need words for facets of complex design.
  18. Rather than “defining the damn thing” ... Let’s try describing

    & exploring. Because if it’s alive, it’s going to evolve anyway.
  19. Discipline Established standards, definitions & curricula, planned from the top

    down. Practice Community & shared history of learning, coalescing around a shared central concern (domain).