I know almost nothing about Information Architecture, but I’ve been thinking a lot about structuring information recently.
Here’s the metaphor: Jacques Carelman‘s famous Coffee pot for Masochists.
See Impossible Objects at It’s Nice That
All the pieces are there, but it just. doesn’t. work.
We’ve all used badly put together tools, instruction manuals, software, doors. At best they’re slower and frustrate us. At worst, they cause us to lose out or harm us.
It’s the same with ideas. Whether we’re communicating simply to transfer knowledge or for emotional impact (your priorities may vary, but if you want to do either you really need to be doing both), the way they’re put together counts.
Let’s do a Zinnser on that last paragraph.
It’s the same with ideas: the way they’re put together counts. The structure of your ideas is crucial whether you’re communicating to transfer knowledge or to create an emotional impact, and really, if you’re serious about doing either you really need to be doing both.
Better? I think it’s a bit better. Must try harder.
So without further ado, here’s my Information Architecture Reading list:
Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond, 4th Ed
by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville and Jorge Arango
Love that polar bear
The introduction and first chapter that are included in the kindle sample are pretty compelling, but I can’t find an short quotation from it that doesn’t make it sounds boring, so I won’t.
Oh okay, I think this bit is cool:
[The] abundance and pervasiveness [of information] makes our lives better in many ways, but it also introduces new challenges. With so much information available in so many places, it can sometimes be difficult to cut through the noise to find the information you need and understand it once you have found it.
Information architecture (IA) is a design discipline that is focused on making information findable and understandable. Because of this, it is uniquely well suited to address these challenges. IA allows us to think about problems through two important perspectives: that information products and services are perceived by people as places made of information, and that these information environments can be organised for optimum findability and understandability.
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It’s possible that I like this book because it makes me feel like I’m in the matrix.
Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything
Big in Japan:
I’ve started this, and referenced Peter before. I thought I’d shared a link to a talk about the book on youtube, but can’t find the post, so here it is:
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The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
by James Gleick
So far: fascinating. Need to think more about it to say how it’s helped and changed my thinking – watch out for a future post.
Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works 2nd Ed
by Ginny Redish
On the strength of the couple of chapters that Ginny shares for free on her website I paid £25 for this. It’s worth it for the first few chapters alone.
Don’t Make Me Think
by Steve Krug
It’s brilliant and funny. More from me about him here.
The Design of Everyday Things
by Don Norman
Look! It’s the coffee pot. This book is how I know about the coffee pot for masochists in the first place. It’s supposed to be brilliant, and it’s good so far.
Information: A Very Short Introduction
Stumbled across it on Amazon just now. Middling reviews, but Floridi directs a lab and straddles multiple chairs at Oxford; has well appointed office; wears tweed and high cheekbones). Might be a good starting point?
Two Websites
A Brief History of Information at The Register. At least one of my best tech friends reads this site often, so I expect this article is good. It’s on the list.
HistoryofInformation.com is designed to help you follow the development of information and media, and attitudes about them, from the beginning of records to the near present. Containing annotated references to discoveries, developments of a social, scientific, or technological nature, as well as references to physical books, documents, artifacts, art works, and to websites and other digital media, it arranges, both chronologically and thematically, selected historical examples and selected recent developments of the methods used to record, distribute, exchange, organize, store, and search information. The database allows you to approach the topics in a wide variety of ways.
Pow.
Right, almost time to go – quit while you’re only five books behind and all that…
Surprise Bonus
Living in Information: Responsible Design for Digital Places
by Jorge Arango
This guy is supposed to be great, and I like the cover. He’s an actual (bricks and mortar) architect who became an information architect