Information Architecture — Past and Future

Information architecture, as we know it today, began around the 1970’s. It has roots in numerous fields and methodologies including library science, cognitive psychology and architecture.

The first reference of information architecture was coined in the book “Information Architects” by Richard Saul Wurman.

“Allow the information to tell you how it wants to be displayed. As architecture is ‘frozen music’, information architecture is ‘frozen conversation’. Any good conversation is based on understanding.”

• Richard Saul Wurman

Another seminal book is Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville and Jorge Arango.

I believe the future of information architecture is in being able to combine humans and computers into one tightly-coupled cognitive unit.

Imagine how much more productive we would be if we could augment our brains with infallible memories and infallible calculators.

References