Colin Bayer-Information Architecture

In the article we were assigned, I found the confession of the author intriguing- that he "wasn't a very smart person." Obviously, one could read his writing and look at what he's done and recognize that this creator of Information Architecture is in fact quite an intelligent individual. But what did he mean by not being very smart? He is only as smart as he lets other people know- and the less he informs others what he does and doesn't understand, the less smart he becomes. As Americans, we are chided for saying we don't understand, and it becomes commonplace to smile and nod as if everything is perfectly clear, even when it is not. The author wants this kind of behavoir to be abolished; but he also wants there to be no reason for anyone to pretend not to understand. One of the goals of information architecture, then, is to construct things in a way that makes sense to those who are using it. With the dog example, the best way to organize them so that most anyone could pick one would be by weight and size- people have a strong concept of what weight is usually, and how it relates to size. It would not be beneficial for the layman to look at a chart of dogs organized by the date they were inducted into the American Kennel Club, or their country of origin.

Nathan Shedroff created a spectrum of "understanding," organized into categories: Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom. This spectrum starts with data- one can see a "factoid" on TV, but has he really learned anything? Data is part of research, creation, and discovery. Finding out the basic information about a product, or subject. Information is a step above data, as it is organized data. It is the data organized into a format for presentation. Knowledge of the subject is the ability to integrate it into conversation- it requires a concrete understanding of the subject that mere organization and research does not capture. The highest step of understanding is Wisdom. This step requires one to be able to operate with the information inside their heads rather than relying on outside sources- it's entirely an internal process.

With this spectrum in mind, information architecture can be organized to cater to individuals at different stages of their understanding of a topic.

This is my Information Architecture web log. It will be updated at least once a week with responses from the reading assignments.