SIGIA-L Mail Archives: RE: SIGIA-L: IA vs. Architecture (Was: P
RE: SIGIA-L: IA vs. Architecture (Was: Peter rouses the rabble ag ain)
From: Frishberg, Leo (leo.frishberg_at_VideoTele.com)
Date: Mon May 07 2001 - 12:32:44 EDT
In spite of the risk of raising the level of pedanticism of the list, this
is the sort of conversation I'm thirsting after!
As I mentioned in a prior posting, I am proposing a year long set of
programs in Portland, OR for our local SIG-CHI chapter (CHIFOO) in which
many of these topics will be discussed at length with a wide variety of
practitioners (from cog psych to IA to UI designers to ?).
Thanks to Adam and Christina for the references.
Anyone want to come speak on the topic in early 2002?
Leo Frishberg
leofrish_at_acm.org
leo.frishberg_at_videotele.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Trowbridge [mailto:adam_at_possibilitystudio.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2001 8:41 PM
To: sigia-l_at_asis.org
Subject: Re: SIGIA-L: Peter rouses the rabble again
> Peter's come up with some "Further Reflections on Information
Architecture"
> http://peterme.com/ia/further_reflections.html
Responding to essay at: http://peterme.com/ia/further_reflections.html
> "But in chatting about the topic at the conference, I was struck by a
> *fundamental* difference. The practice of architecture began in order to
> address a basic human need -- shelter. It's relatively simple roots as the
> craft of designing and constructing buildings grew into an increasingly
> specialized set of subdisciplines requiring an overseer to keep it all
> together.
> Information architecture never had a simple beginning, nor does it have
the
> foundation of addressing a basic need (Unless you consider "relieving
> confusion" a basic need.)."
Communicating information is a basic need. In fact, a great deal of our
central nervous system is based on communicating information. The ability to
communicate complex and abstract information is a fundamental human trait.
Humans could go without shelter for quite a long time and find natural
shelter. Without communication and the ability to process information and
reason, even finding food would not be possible. This fundamental flaw in
your reasoning undermines your comparison of the two subjects. However, I do
believe there is a need to further investigate the intersection between
physical architecture and information architecture.
I think the confusion comes from an ignorance of contemporary architecture
theory. I do not claim to be well versed but I will jump in with both feet
anyway.
In "Architecture and Disjunction", Bernard Tschumi investigates the relation
of spaces to the people who move through them and argues that architecture
is the action of people in space and the constructed space itself. From a
famous Tschumi poster:
"To really appreciate architecture, you may even need to commit a
murder...Architecture is defined by the actions it witnesses as much as by
the enclosure of its walls. Murder in the Streets differs from Murder in the
Cathedral in the same way lone in the streets differs from the Streets of
Love. Radically."
Information architecture is fractured because the use of "virtual" spaces is
fractured. While I argued above that the need for communication and
information processing is fundamentally human, the purely visual + cognitive
space of the Internet and screen-based applications is disjoined from daily
sensory experience. Physical architecture requires planning for the varied
shapes and (dis)abilities of the human body. Information architecture the
information architect to consider an undefined set of varied cognitive
skills and mental constructs. IA is not just the structure of the
information but the structure of the information and the action performed
on/with the information by the users of the interface. This is why the only
possible approach to IA at this point in time is experimental. We have a
limited toolset with which to capture and investigate the space between the
structure and the user and we need to push this to its limit.
As a common example of a failed approach to information architecture, I will
point out Jakob Nielsen's 5 User Test. While this may indeed discover
usability issues with the site, it presumes to know what people want to do
in the first place. I have seen some discussion about the difference between
IA and Usability disciplines and this may be a key example. The goal of
usability is to take a predetermined goal and structure the interaction to
optimize the completion of this goal. IA is not nearly so structured. We
must become much more interested in how people form their own goals and what
those goals become on the Internet or within a screen-based application.
Architecture and Disjunction
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262700603/o/qid=989214451/sr=8-2/ref
=aps_sr_b_1_2/103-1611984-1812625
Bernard Tschumi
http://www.tschumi.com/
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/un-privatehouse/project_21.html
http://www.moma.org/expansion/finalists/tschumi.html
Jakob Nielsen's 5 User Test
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html
Adam Trowbridge
Possibility Studio
adam_at_possibilitystudio.com
www.possibilitystudio.com
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