a world made of information

by: @Abby_the_IA

Not too far into the distant future...Elm Tree

Squirrel

Home (.25 miles)

Pick Up eggs

at grocery in

.1 mile

Work(.8 miles)

Next Train leaves in

5 minutes

from West 4th St.

11/5/2024 4:15 PM(Abby’s idea of hell)

Every traditional business model will have been tested, broken and reimagined.

We will have new things and new silly words.

OMCheese, you

arent still using

fampage are you?

Derp. NO!

I moved to

ourpage ages ago

Information will be seen as the glue that binds us.

We will even consider information a basic freedom.

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Worship

Freedom from Want

Freedom from Fear

Freedom from Nonsense

The 4 Human Freedoms5

Information architects have laid awake waiting...

5

Lessons for Architecting a World Made of

Information

1

Reduce Linguistic Insecurity

Dropping semantic bombs is bad for business.

But you just ______.

Linguistic insecurity is rampant.

Jargon

Controlled Vocabularies help reduce insecurity.

FamiliarWords

Lexicography is the practice of compiling dictionaries. It is the collection of different meanings for words.

Ontology represents the knowledge of terms and concepts within a domain. It is the act of choosing the language you use.

• Know what you mean when you say what you say.

• Ontology is a group sport, focused on the clarification of meaning and the reduction of linguistic insecurity.

• Carefully choose the language you use, not just when communicating with users, but also communicating internally and with partners.

Lesson Take Away

2

Map Ecosystems

Marketing Campaign

BlogeCommerceStorefront

Silos! Silos! Silos!

Users are wandering between our silos.

Marketing Campaign

Blog

eCommerceStorefront

Placemaking is the art of turning a space into a place by arranging it so people know what to do there.

http://names.911memorial.org/

• Understand places you are making and the other places in the ecosystem you may effect.

• Strengthen the connections between the places you already have while looking for silos that may exist.

• Use your taxonomic mapping skills to map entire ecosystems across physical and digital divides.

• Identify the spaces between your places and make them into places by arranging them for use.

Lesson Take Away

3

Strengthen Heterarchy

Patterns may, but hierarchy is never going to die.

Every hierarchy has a bottom.

Hierarchy

Heterarchy

a B C

“When groups, rank, categories or grades exist to aid a user in making a choice.”

“When all content exists on a single level without further grouping, rank, categorization or grading”

CooksCooksCooks

CooksCooksCooks

BottomUp

TopDown

Social & search have a need for bottom up thinking.

The barnacles are taking over.

Old Landing Pages

& Microsites

Forgotten social

Media Accounts

Old technology

Old websites

old content

What you

hope people

Experience

What social

and search

allow people

to experience

• Question the scalability of your heterarchies as much as your hierarchies

• Start identifying and dealing with the barnacles on your ship before they start to hold you back

• Understand the length of life that your content has and how your hierarchies and heterarchies change over time as content matures

Lesson Take Away

4

Understand Transclusion

Abby the IA

download

Slideshare

Transclusion is suddenly everywhere.

Transcluded

Linked

Social networks are at war over transclusion.

Does anyone Remember when instagram posts were transcluded

into your twitter stream? Well Not Anymore

Transclusion can go wrong (and be hilarious.)

this is not me

• Consider the role of transclusion and hypertext for your context.

• Understand your user’s potential desires to take your content with them

• Test how your content reacts to common social media transclusion schemas

Lesson Take Away

5

Information is not content

Data is facts, observations, and questions about something.

Content is whatever you’re arranging or sequencing.

Information is is whatever a user interprets from the arrangement or sequence of things they encounter.

Each viewer’s:

• Belief or non-belief that other cookies were on that plate.

• Subjective reasoning for the unequal amount of cookies.

The cookies, the plate, the signage, the crumbs, the smells in the air, the other products in the case and items on the menu et al...

The individual pieces of context, knowledge, assumptions and questions each viewer considers during their judgement of the cookie arrangement.

Let’s dissect this scene.

$3.99 $7.99 $5.75

Lack of content or data can be just as informing.

Ask three customers the reason for this empty spot on the shelf and what product might go there, and expect three answers.

• Reduce your synonymous use of words like data, information and content

• Reserve the word information to describe that mushy, uncontrollable material our users make in their minds

• Teach everyone we work with that we can create and arrange our content with the intent to communicate information, but we can’t make information

Lesson Take Away

IA is good for... To get better, we need to...Controlling Vocabularies 1. Reduce Linguistic Insecurity

Mapping Taxonomies 2. Map Ecosystems

Strengthening Hierarchy 3. Strengthen Heterarchies

Understanding Hypertextuality 4. Understand Transclusion

Thinking of information as material. 5. Remember information is not content

Today’s Lessons in Review.

Remember

information is a responsibility that

we all share.

http://abbytheia.com/makesense/More information at:

Q&A