I started with Morrogh some weeks ago and then went off on the threads dangling out of this narrative. From a historical perspective, this is a great foundational text (similar to Adams and Connors within Tech Comm). I’m wrapping this up here just to get a sense of closure and to affix a working definition of Information Architecture to my theory/practice map.
I recommend this text for anyone interested in the history of computing and related technologies. In that regard, it’s a really quick and fun read. For my purposes, Morrogh provides a timeline for the practice of information architecture and identifies the point at which that practice becomes formalized as a discipline.
Starting with ENIAC and ERMA, we see the emergence of a need to consider how computerized information technologies are and could be used by multiple types of end users for multiple purposes. With the advent of personal computing, this need becomes a necessary focus – the first usable conception of information architecture. “… professionals from multiple disciplines (information architects) are developing an orienting vision that is inclusive of new computing technologies, the individual human intellect, the conceptual structures humanity has collectively developed for managing information over many centuries, and the unique and pragmatic needs of clients and users” (64).
Specific to the relationship of TC to IA – the need to document, communicate, and instruct users each time new organization, navigation, interaction, flow, etc. is introduced in the information product. At this point the TCer begins to practice information architecture. Moving the TCer closer to the design phase (a move which began in the early 1980s) required a broader understanding of IA and an awareness of how the multimedia information space is more complex than traditional print and static information spaces (see Brooke). “This new kind of information space was complicated, confusing, undefined, and defied the traditional conceptual models used by information designers to design usable and coherent information environments” (69).
IA begins to emerge as a recognized field in the late 80s/early 90s when organizational computing and personal computing shifts away from a communications-engineering point of view toward an information-centric point of view. “From this conceptual shift emerged the notion of cyberspace, an information space that exists apart from, rather than stored in, any single of multiple computing device.” This shift causes the TCer to emphasize interaction with information (rather than the interface) and the design of information within computer-mediated information environments (see Spinuzzi).
Jump ahead to the era of the web. “Because the Web is a networked, multiuser, multimedia environment where users communicate, collaborate, and interact … it shares organization, navigation, interaction, and flow characteristics with all the information and communication technologies that predate it. All of these characteristics have yet to be fully synthesized in the Web information space. This monumental task is the focus of the emerging profession of information architecture” (93).
Morrogh's narrative starts to break down for me when the he moves toward defining IA. My position is that when IA becomes a design process, it shifts into Information Design (ID). It's the "big IA / little ia" debate. So for my purposes, at this point I’ll recover an earlier effort to clarify the shift.
Similar to IA, ID carries multiple definitions and applications. In web contexts, ID ranges from developing maps and signage to simple web pages. As a practice, ID has been described as an interdisciplinary approach that combines skills in graphic design, writing and editing, illustration, and human factors. On a more ephemeral level, ID has been described as a position or stance one takes. Beth Mazur has likened this stance to a political or moral stance that we take the design or an information product to improve the quality of the communication. More specific to [my understanding of IA]; ID has been described as the act of designing and deploying content in such as a way to achieve the performance objectives for specific end users – objectives captured during IA analysis.
Of most value to my mapping effort, Morrogh identifies trends in IA curricula development. Clearly, IA is an interdisciplinary discipline – co-opting aspects of other disciplines in much the same way that IDDE has evolved. At the graduate level, library science and information science programs hold sway. At the undergraduate level, there is ample space for IA in the TC classroom – particularly a classroom based on the studio model. “A design studio/laboratory approach to teaching IA would help to situate the discipline among design professionals, would provide models for IA pedagogy, and would also provide a path and model for the professional development of individual practitioners and for the profession as a whole” (141).
No comments:
Post a Comment