Whose afraid of the big IA?Or

Thin slicing the future of the field

Andrew DillonSchool of Information

The University of Texas at Austin

Keynote Address, IA Summit 2005, Montreal, March 7thCopyright Andrew Dillon, you are free to use with appropriate attribution

o Thin slicing IAo Rapid processingo Built on knowledge baseo But not always right :)

oLooking backoSummit 2000

o15% of attendees then had title ‘IA’o“One of the resounding successes of the

meeting was that, for me at least, a clear definition of information architecture surfaced….” (Zweis, ASIST Bulletin, 2000)

o So what happened?o We became self-consciouso We formed campso We sought independenceo But we did some bad stuff too….

o Five variations on a theme:o IA is a craft professiono We don’t need no education?o Users & research mattero Information is experiencedo REAL design is a values-based

proposition

o Crafts create functional artifacts

o No forced separation of design from manufacture

o Reproductive costs in software are trivial

o Craft knowledge supports customization

o Problems with craft disciplines:o Consistent reproduction of results not

guaranteedo Practitioners often unable to state

principles and rules governing actiono Progress is unpredictable and slowo Endangered by rapid environmental

shift

o Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary:o Profession: A calling requiring specialized knowledge and

often long and intensive academic preparation; a principal calling, vocation or employment; the whole body of persons engaged in a calling.

o Professional: (1) Relating to or characteristic of a profession; engaged in one of the learned professions; characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession.(2) participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs;

o Professionalism: (1) The conduct aims or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person. (2) The following of a profession (as athletics) for gain or livelihood.

o Educationo IA as ‘job’ is relatively safeo There is no profession without

educationo The first-wave of IA is overo No more heroes anymoreo Who will guard the guards?

o Professions shift according to 3 forces:o Cultural and socialo Competing professionso Competing organizations and

commodities

o The ambivalence towards researcho Yes we can borrow, but we must also

createo Let’s not reify theoryo The architectures are our theories

o Landscape issues:

o 92% of those who use search engines say they are confident about their searching abilities

Pew Internet Life Report, 2005

o Legacy issueso “75% of the books in collections rarely

circulate and more than 50% have not been checked out in 10 years”Council on Library and Information Resources Report, April 2003

o “literary reading as a leisure activity will virtually disappear in half a century.”

National Endowment for the Arts Report, 2004

o Booksales up in 2004, 1.3% to $23.72 billion AAP Report, March 2005

o Users & theories mattero Rich theories of information navigation and

userso largely ignored in professional discourseo “Findability” as the new usability but…o “I didn’t come here to navigate!”o To say nothing about ‘where is the architecture

here’?

o Information has more than physical presenceo Meaningo Imageryo Aestheticso Valueo Emotiono Shape

o Any information has both spatial and semantic components which manifest as:o Narrative flowo Superstructureo Cohesion and genre

o Shape characteristics are not purely physical

Dillon (2004) Designing Usable Electronic Text, 2nd Edition

o Beyond navigationo Patterningo Wrappingo Anchoringo Emergent structure

o Data is stored – Information is experiencedo And experiences have human

consequenceso We are shaping the experiences of

millionso How does content impact actiono Whither IA?

Cohill, 1991 Information architecture & the design process

o “We need a new kind of project manager - the information architect - who has the knowledge and experience to create information structures that account for the multiple levels and layers of interaction among humans, machines and the environment”

Cohill, 1991 Information architecture & the design process

o “We need a new kind of project manager - the information architect - who has the knowledge and experience to create information structures that account for the multiple levels and layers of interaction among humans, machines and the environment”

o REAL Designo Respect Experience – Augment Life

o Question ‘user-centeredness’ o Build spaces for natural dispositionso Consider emergent qualitieso Offer designs that augment

capabilities

o “Augmentation not automation”oDoug Engelbart (1965)

o Users are dynamico Improvements not obviouso User testing thin slices this!

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

o Designs embody values – Make them explicito Usability is a design value, not a competitive fieldo What are our ethics?o 8 billion internet users: the same number live on

< $1 a dayo A field whose sole motive is making money does

not warrant the term ‘profession’o Our practice has consequences

o The name is not the terrain!o But IA is a pretty fine name for what I

mean

o Macro IA is the only game that matters

o Be not afraid!