How to Make Sense of Any Mess In a world where everything is getting more complex and we are all experiencing personal information overload, there is a growing need to understand the tools and processes that are used to make sense of complex subjects and situations. These tools aren’t hard to learn or even tough to implement but they are also not part of many people’s education. Information Architecture is a practice of making sense. A set of principles, lessons and tools to help anyone make sense of anything. Whether you are – a student or professional, a designer, technologist or small business owner, an intern or executive – learn how information architecture can help you make sense of your next endeavor.

3. 3
Our world is a mess...

4. 4
...and getting more messy everyday.

5. Many people get overwhelmed when
they encounter a mess.

6. They think of ways to
hide the mess...

7. Or they think of ways to
pretty up the mess...
New User
tutorial to
explain the
mess
Incentive
structure
for dealing
with the
mess
Fancy Front
end fluffing

8. ...but the mess is still a mess.

9. ...all they have bought is time.

10. Until the mess grows
(as all messes do when given time)

11. I LOVE MAKING SENSE OF MESSES.

13. The majority of messes we face are
made of information (and people)

14. Thinking about
INFORMATION
as material is hard

15. Information can be
made from the lack
of physical material
$3.99 $7.99 $5.75

16. What you know
changes the
information you
are left with.

17. • Data is facts, observations, and questions about something.
• Content is whatever a user is interacting with, or as a
maker, whatever you’re arranging or sequencing.
• Information is is whatever a user interprets from the
arrangement or sequence of things they encounter.
Information ≠ Content or Data

18. ContextContent

19. Information architecture
is how we arrange the parts to be
understandable as a whole.

20. 3 LESSONS
TO MAKE SENSE OF ANYTHING

21. #1 LANGUAGE MATTERS

22. Apple
Dump
truck
Jargon
Banana
??!?!
Word

23. How many
duplicative nouns
does your team
deal with?

24. How many
duplicative verbs
are related to
those nouns?

25. Model Change vs. Label Change
Thing
A
Thing
B
Thing
OBJECTObject

26. One label per noun or verb
is not always the best way to go

27. The goal is not simplifying
The goal is to know what you mean
when you say what you say.

28. Controlled
vocabularies
are the greatest
thing since sliced
bread or pockets.
@jcolman’s thumb showing off my
book’s controlled vocabulary

29. https://pages.18f.gov/content-guide/plain-language/

30. • Identify & Define Nouns First
• Identify Nested Nouns
• Eliminate Duplicative Nouns
• Attach Verbs to Nouns
• Beware of Adjectives
How to Get Started with a Controlled Vocabulary

31. Be the one to slay the
semantic dragons in your
organization.

32. #2 THERE IS NO RIGHT WAY

33. There are only 5 ways to organize anything
1. Location: Rome is a city in Italy
2. Alphabetical: Rome starts with “R”
3. Time: Rome started in 753 BC
4. Category: Rome is a Romantic city
5. Hierarchy: Rome is within Italy, which is within Europe,
which is within the Eastern and Northern Hemisphere
*HT Richard Saul Wurman - Informa6on Anxiety 2

35. Organizing things
isn't the hard part
Agreeing is the
hard part

36. In most contexts, taxonomy is a tool
of rhetoric not an exact science.
(Sorry Linnaeus)

37. If Fresh Direct classified produce
scientifically, no one would be able
to find anything.

38. In the 19th century, the
US Supreme Court
decided that for the
purpose of tariffs,
tomatoes are a vegetable.

39. Taxonomy is Rhetoric
The way you choose to organize your
produce says something about you.

40. There is no one right way to organize something.

41. The only thing that matters is reaching your goals.

42. Beware of corporate underpants.
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Users are often confused when our
internal categories end up in our
navigation taxonomies.

43. Card Sorting FTW

44. Be the one to show an
alternative way of
organizing something.

45. #3 WE NEED PICTURES

46. Pictures give us something in
common to point to.

47. Take the time and space needed to collect and iterate.

48. Visualize something hard to explain

49. Inspire Realistic,
Not Simplistic
Thinking

50. Pie
Crust
Tomato
Sauce &
cheese
Toppings
Slice
Be Careful of Reductionism

51. Show the process, not just results
Pizza
Crust
cheese
Toppings
Tomato
Sauce

53. Familiar
Words
With agreement comes momentum.

54. Be the one to make a
picture of the monster in
everyone’s head.

55. • Slay the semantic dragons in your organization
• Show an alternative way of organizing something
• Make a picture of the monster in everyone’s head
To start making sense of your mess:

56. IA is not just for information architects.
IA is practiced by everybody.

57. ps. I wrote a book
about information
architecture for
everybody!
http://abbytheia.com/makesense/