Whose afraid of the big IA? Or Thin slicing the future of the field Andrew Dillon School of Information The University

1. Whose afraid of the big IA? Or Thin slicing the future of the field Andrew Dillon School of Information The University of Texas at Austin Keynote Address, IA Summit 2005, Montreal, March 7th Copyright Andrew Dillon, you are free to use with appropriate attribution

2. Thin slicing IA • Rapid processing • Built on knowledge base • But not always right :)

3. Looking back • Summit 2000 • 15% of attendees then had title ‘IA’ • “One of the resounding successes of the meeting was that, for me at least, a clear definition of information architecture surfaced….” (Zweis, ASIST Bulletin, 2000)

4. So what happened? • We became self-conscious • We formed camps • We sought independence • But we did some bad stuff too….

5. Five variations on a theme: • IA is a craft profession • We don’t need no education? • Users & research matter • Information is experienced • REAL design is a values-based proposition

6. Crafts create functional artifacts • No forced separation of design from manufacture • Reproductive costs in software are trivial • Craft knowledge supports customization

7. Problems with craft disciplines: • Consistent reproduction of results not guaranteed • Practitioners often unable to state principles and rules governing action • Progress is unpredictable and slow • Endangered by rapid environmental shift

8. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary: • Profession: A calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation; a principal calling, vocation or employment; the whole body of persons engaged in a calling. • Professional: (1) Relating to or characteristic of a profession; engaged in one of the learned professions; characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession.(2) participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs; • Professionalism: (1) The conduct aims or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person. (2) The following of a profession (as athletics) for gain or livelihood.

9. Education • IA as ‘job’ is relatively safe • There is no profession without education • The first-wave of IA is over • No more heroes anymore • Who will guard the guards?

10. Professions shift according to 3 forces: • Cultural and social • Competing professions • Competing organizations and commodities

11. The ambivalence towards research • Yes we can borrow, but we must also create • Let’s not reify theory • The architectures are our theories

13. Landscape issues: • 92% of those who use search engines say they are confident about their searching abilities Pew Internet Life Report, 2005

14. Legacy issues • “75% of the books in collections rarely circulate and more than 50% have not been checked out in 10 years” Council on Library and Information Resources Report, April 2003 • “literary reading as a leisure activity will virtually disappear in half a century.” National Endowment for the Arts Report, 2004 • Booksales up in 2004, 1.3% to $23.72 billion AAP Report, March 2005

15. Users & theories matter • Rich theories of information navigation and users • largely ignored in professional discourse • “Findability” as the new usability but… • “I didn’t come here to navigate!” • To say nothing about ‘where is the architecture here’?

16. Information has more than physical presence • Meaning • Imagery • Aesthetics • Value • Emotion • Shape

17. Any information has both spatial and semantic components which manifest as: • Narrative flow • Superstructure • Cohesion and genre • Shape characteristics are not purely physical

18. Dillon (2004) Designing Usable Electronic Text, 2nd Edition

19. Beyond navigation • Patterning • Wrapping • Anchoring • Emergent structure

20. Data is stored – Information is experienced • And experiences have human consequences • We are shaping the experiences of millions • How does content impact action • Whither IA?

21. Cohill, 1991 Information architecture & the design process • “We need a new kind of project manager - the information architect - who has the knowledge and experience to create information structures that account for the multiple levels and layers of interaction among humans, machines and the environment”

22. Cohill, 1991 Information architecture & the design process • “We need a new kind of project manager - the information architect - who has the knowledge and experience to create information structures that account for the multiple levels and layers of interaction among humans, machines and the environment”

23. REAL Design • Respect Experience – Augment Life • Question ‘user-centeredness’ • Build spaces for natural dispositions • Consider emergent qualities • Offer designs that augment capabilities

24. “Augmentation not automation” • Doug Engelbart (1965) • Users are dynamic • Improvements not obvious • User testing thin slices this!

25. Designs embody values – Make them explicit • Usability is a design value, not a competitive field • What are our ethics? • 8 billion internet users: the same number live on < $1 a day • A field whose sole motive is making money does not warrant the term ‘profession’ • Our practice has consequences

26. The name is not the terrain! • But IA is a pretty fine name for what I mean • Macro IA is the only game that matters • Be not afraid!