Becoming an Information Archeologist
Digital interfaces can awaken the joy of discovery.
When I was a kid, my family lived in Germany, and we traveled around Europe a lot. One year we vacationed in Cyprus. In addition to its beautiful beaches, the island is filled with ruins that visitors are free to explore. As I encountered these remnants of ancient civilizations, it felt like new, exciting worlds were opening up to me.
I have kids of my own now, and I see them have similar moments of discovery nearly every day, whether we’re traveling somewhere new or walking down the street. They’re experiencing so many things for the first time, and those moments are filled with joy.
Learning and exploration doesn’t end when we exit childhood. As adults, we’re constantly gaining new information — much of it through the internet. But how many of our online interactions feel like “discoveries”? While not every interaction we have may feel as exciting as exploring an ancient ruin, I believe designers can create more digital experiences that give us the thrill of discovery — whether it’s learning about ourselves, the world, or each other. In a sense, these experiences can help us become “information archeologists.”
Becoming an Information Archeologist
At a TEDx talk on data and design that I gave in San Francisco last October, I used a scene from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark as an example:
Near the end of the movie, we see the Ark locked away, and then the camera pans out to show a large warehouse. Within the cavernous room are rows and rows of “top secret” crates. These boxes contain artifacts — artifacts with stories waiting to be told.
As a designer and the founder of Schema, a research and design firm, I think about how to create interfaces that give users access to stories — many of them previously unknowable — found in the vast warehouse of the internet. How might we all become information archaeologists?
Beyond Search
Most interactions that help us find information online are search oriented. They are first and foremost functional and rational. Searching works well when we know exactly what we want to find. We ask for something specific and receive a list of discrete answers. However, this way of finding information can be inadequate when what we’re interested in is more vague. We spiral around and around, because we can’t easily see where we’ve come from or where we want to go next. We need more “anti-search” experiences: interactions that feel like loosely guided, open-ended opportunities for learning. Search isn’t the best way to come across meaningful new discoveries. We need to roam.
Generous Interfaces
The concept of generous interfaces is one way an anti-search experience might look (I’ve written about them before here). Mitchell Whitelaw — Professor in the School of Art and Design at the Australian National University — coined the term a few years ago to describe digital browse interfaces that would allow users to better navigate collections like what you find at museums. With generous interfaces users can discover content based on categories, connections, tags, and taxonomies as they move through semantic networks. Generous interfaces work well for museum collections, and the principles underlying them apply to information broadly, too.
To reference the Indiana Jones example from before: Searching is like if I were to arrive at the warehouse and ask the archivist to bring me the Ark of the Covenant. He would bring me the object and allow me to (safely) interact with it. When I’m done, I could either leave the warehouse or ask him to bring me another artifact or maybe a single group of objects.
At Schema, we often have “aha!” moments as we work with datasets. How can we build tools that give others that experience, too?
A generous interface, on the other hand, would give me guidance, but the experience would be less restrained. I would arrive at the warehouse and could explore the space myself. Artifacts would be grouped into helpful categories I could browse to aid my understanding. I could access Biblical artifacts generally, look for artifacts grouped by world religion, or explore a specific time period. I could leave one section at any point to see another. I’d have an easy way to understand connections and patterns between the artifacts I’m finding because I’d be given a map and a way to trace my progress. I’d become an archeologist freely exploring a rich archive, driven by my unique curiosity and growing insight.
At Schema, we often have “aha!” moments as we work with datasets. While we have the time and skills to analyze complex data, the question we often think about is: how can we build tools that give others that experience, too? How can we enable others to become information archeologists out in the field, unearthing knowledge?
The Importance of Narrative
When we can’t access things broadly enough (e.g. search), we might feel frustrated. But when we are flooded with data without enough context, we might experience information anxiety.
It’s important to think about how design facilitates meaningful narrative arcs.
One important way to add context and facilitate the joy of discovery is through narrative. Design and content can create stories for users and allow them to build their own, too. As a designer, this means thinking about the goals of the user, and how they navigate an information space. Imagining a user’s journey is at the core of good user experience design, and so is clear, persistent navigation. But it’s also important to think about how design facilitates meaningful narrative arcs. Content, and how it is communicated, is key to creating enjoyable and empowering experiences and moments of discovery.
Curtis Wong, formerly of Microsoft Research, has a good way to think about this. He suggests starting with engagement — pull the user in. Then build context — let the user make broad big-picture discoveries. Then create opportunities for finding references — connect the user to deeper, detailed information. When we think of interface design and content this way, we allow the user to discover stories, not just facts, and help the user feel grounded in context. This creates meaningful opportunities to learn.
Potential Uses
When we are researching a topic through open-ended discovery, we need breadcrumbs and associations. In these experiences, we are building knowledge as we go — we are uncovering stories.
From personal finance to healthcare or energy, browse interfaces can help us take control of data and make sense of it. They can help us discover insights and come away with new knowledge. They can help individuals better understand their personal health and fitness. They can help scientists discover patterns across large sets of molecules — even genomic sequences. And they can help organizations measure the benefits of alternate energy, and communicate what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint to the broad public. Let’s go beyond search interfaces and design to enable exploration. Let’s inspire the desire to discover.
This post builds on ideas I presented at TEDxSanFrancisco’s “Dare to Know” event this fall. Watch the full talk here and stay tuned for future posts on these topics.
