The Function of Context
for Information Architecture
Andrew Hinton
IAI Pre-Conference Workshop IA Summit 2009
1

Context is nothing new in design ...
2

But it’s a big deal for IA
“Page” vs “Context”
3

What I mean by ‘web’ today ...
What you do
Hyperlinked
in a vs
Environments
“browser”
4

Maps that create territories
Representation Instantiation
5

Shaping context with connection
Architectural Function: “Utilitas”
Links shape, and organize, hyperlinked spaces.
6

Prescribed Storage & Retrieval
www.stjohnscollege.edu
http://iac.dtic.mil/images/site_map.jpg
For storage & retrieval, context is mostly about
categorization & relevant proximity.
7

Emergent Expression, Creation & Function
Now, context involves almost everything.
www.designers-revolution.com
8

It’s all information -- just language ...
Information that explains ...
... the information that contains ...
... the information that is contained
Just so we’re clear ...
9

The power of syntax
Eats Shoots and Leaves
Eats, Shoots and Leaves
10

Radically different spaces
vs
Obvious difference.
11

Small difference with radical implications
d vs @
Not so obvious.
12

“Possibility Spaces”
Will Wright
13

Beyond Findability?
Findability
Content
Designing Context
14

Some models for context
15

Personal-Behavioral Context
THINKING
cognitive assumptions,
education, learning ability
Cognitive
DOING Physical
physical activity & ability,
habits, preferences, sensory
Emotional
FEELING
psychological state, anxiety,
confidence, stress, desire
“Persona”
16

Personal-Situational Context
Task
Task Need
Task
Situation
Task
Need
Need
Task Task Task
Task
“Scenario”
17

The Situation/Behavior Complex
Task
Task Need
Cognitive
Task
Situation
Physical
Task
Need
Need
Emotional
Task Task Task
Task
Time
18

Systems
To accomplish Tasks, we need Tools
Task
For complex tasks, we need systems.
19

Fuzzy Human Stuff Made Into Data
Our ambiguities rendered
into binary attributes.
20

Machines in the image of our needs & desires
21

A symbiosis
Person System
Organic, Artificial,
Analog Binary
We create systems, imperfectly, in our own image.
22

Systems In Context
Situation
Need
Cognitive Task
System
Person System
Organic, Artificial,
Analog Physical
Binary
Emotional
23

Architectural Systems
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Maison À Bordeaux: Rem Koolhaas
\"You see here two systems colliding... the systems of the kind of
platonic conception of cleaning with the platonic conception of
architecture ... it's two ideologies confronting each other.\"
http://www.koolhaashouselife.com/
http://www.oma.eu/index.php?option=com_projects&view=portal&Itemid=10&id=19
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/11/koolhaas-houselife-is-a-film.php
25

Christopher Alexander’s Patterns
“A Timeless Way of Building” p 253
26

Wyly Theatre
http://rex-ny.com/work/wyly-theatre/animation
27

No user is an island ...
28

Social context
29

Social is everywhere (and always was)
Artifact The Web has social DNA
Artifact
Artifact
http://
Artifact
Asynchronous “conversation”
30

Groups of complex individuals
31

Common Goals & Patterns of Behavior
Need
Need
Need
32

Boundaries shape context
What are the goals of the context?
33

Even in “play” spaces
Highly limited identity expression “out of character”
34

A system for every side of ourselves
Task
Need
Photographer-me Task
Need
Task Situation
Task
Situation Need
Need
Working-me. Private-
Situation
thoughts-me Task
Need
Situation
Dating-me
Situation
Task
Need
Task
Craft-selling-me
Need
Party & Music-me
35

Client-side devices shape context too.
Web / Twitteriffic:
- Single column
- Serial feed
- Narrow aperture
- Peripheral attention
iconfactory.com
Tweetdeck:
- Multi-column
- Parallel feed tweetdeck.com
- Very wide aperture
- Central attention
SMS:
- Single-message
- No “feed”
- Tiny aperture
- Interruptive / alert
Users of these applications & devices treat the Twitter
www.webmaster247.co.uk/ “space” very differently.
They act as if they are in completely different places.
You can’t control the whole experience.
36

You cannot engineer your users.
You can only accommodate them.
37

The Flickr Context System
Home Pages
act as context
maps for
influencing
attention,
setting
priorities.
38

The Object Viewing Context
Many
embedded
More contexts
Tasks within the
primary
context.
Other contexts
this object
belongs to
Task
(Rule-based
Access)
Conversation
39

The “Organize” Task Context
Task
Inventory Object
(“Content”)
40

Identity Context
Self-description &
links to other
facets -- sub-
contexts of your
presence/identity.
Reputation
At Flickr, your
identity is, in part,
a construct of
your social
connections.
41

Connecting to & Embedding in Other Contexts
yahoo.com
42

Some context challenges
43

YouTube / “Context Collapse”
The problem is not lack of context. It
is context collapse: an infinite
number of contexts collapsing
upon one another into that single
moment of recording.
The images, actions, and words
captured by the lens at any moment
can be transported to anywhere on
the planet and preserved (the
performer must assume) for
all time.
The little glass lens becomes the
gateway to a black hole sucking
all of time and space – virtually
all possible contexts – in upon
itself.
Michael Wesch, July 2008
mediatedcultures.net
44

OLPC
“This was, almost in every way, a traditional
top down product development, that involved
the rural children in India, Africa and China
only in the late stages. Near-finished
prototypes were tested out late in
development, brought to village kids as a “gift.”
It would have been far better to
begin in the villages, spend time
there and build from the bottom up.
Negroponte might have discovered there was
little need for this kind of machine.
Cell phones are far more popular as the means
to connect to the net in much of the Third
World and cell-phone type devices rather than
cute little laptops might have made much more
sense.
Tons of research show this to be true.”
Bruce Nussbaum - Business Week Sept 2007
45

Google Finance / News
Correlation?
Causation?
46

MyBlogLog
“As you visit MyBlogLog-enabled sites, your
photo shows up on the widget - a virtual
calling card. Clicking on your photo leads to
your profile and all the stuff you share.”
Far below the fold ...
47

Open ID
The Problem of Unified Reputation
“For example, I may not want my Suicide Girls account
linked to my Wikitravel account. If I participate in fringe-
politics or drug-rights forums, I may not want that identity
associated with my \"business\" persona. As more and
more sites become OpenID-enabled, the value of unifying
your reputation across them is greater, but also the
danger.”
Evan Promdromou
http://evan.prodromou.name/OpenID_Privacy_Concerns
48

Facebook Beacon
“Beacon”
49

Vanguard
50

Discuss ...
51