Information Strategy and Structure
Introduction to World Information Architecture Day 2017 in Zurich, Switzerland
We chose this theme this year because we wanted to focus on strategy. Information Architecture is mostly associated with structure and the nitty-gritty work behind it. Of course, this constitutes a large part of our practical work. However, the strategy and structure are intrinsically intertwined or, as Peter Morville (quoting Ted Nelson) says, intertwingled.
Let me give you an example. When I visit my hometown Basel, I am always struck by the mess of traffic when I leave the train station. Many of you might know this place and the stress of crossing the square without getting hit by a tram, bus, taxi or bike.
When I went to school, this place was reserved for cars, and pedestrians were banned underground. So the vision of the city planners to create an open space for all was a really positive one. But the planners completely ignored that even without cars, there are still many different types of road users. They never developed a strategy to coordinate them — or the strategy they used just doesn‘t match the real needs. Today‘s square imitates a pedestrian zone. There are no hints to guide you through the complex and dangerous intersections. There is no structure.
I‘m not saying there is a simple solution to this problem. The strategy doesn‘t exist. To change the situation, you would have to think about different scenarios, their consequences, the costs etc. For example, you could visually guide the pedestrians from the exit of the station to the platforms and have warning lights at the intersection if a tram approaches. Even curbs would help, just to make clear this is not a place to linger.
Developing a strategy isn’t only difficult for physical architecture, but also for information architecture. We develop and evaluate different ideas and aren‘t satisfied with the first that comes along. And it‘s what makes our job interesting.
And it will keep our job interesting. Information architecture hasn‘t become simpler over the years, on the contrary. Information appears and is processed on different devices, and not only on screens anymore, if you think about the Internet of Things or Conversational Interfaces.
With the increasing importance of artificial intelligence, we need to learn more about the differences in how human beings on the one hand and machines on the other process information. Particularly, we need to take into account that human beings have feelings, and that the way we transmit information is crucial in how it will be received. Thus, you could say our theme has moved from strategy and structure to the American IA summit‘s official theme Designing for Humans. Both keynotes have this in their titles, Andy Fitzgerald with Designing for the Human Scale, Sara Wachter-Boettcher with Design for Real Life.
All of this makes our work more difficult, but also more rewarding. We help our clients and users understand things. We give them direction and orientation. That‘s the essence of information architecture. And I believe that as information architects, we should be more self-conscious about this strategic part of our job. We don‘t just sort things. We sort them out.
