The Future of Information Architecture

morville@semanticstudios.com

The Future(s) of IA

Peter Morville, World IA Day 2012, Ann Arbor 1


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#dtdt

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in•for•ma•tion ar•chi•tec•ture n
The structural design of shared information
environments.
The combination of
organization, labeling, search, and navigation
systems in web sites and intranets.
An emerging discipline and community of practice
focused on bringing principles of design and
architecture to the digital landscape.


Framing the Future(s)
1. Classic Information Architecture (Polar Bear).

2. Web Strategy (Web, Mobile, Social).

3. Cross-Channel Strategy (Physical, Digital).

4. Intertwingularity (Ubiquitous, Ambient).

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The Library of Congress
“To further the progress of knowledge and creativity.” 8


Fragmentation
Fragmentation into multiple
sites, domains, and identities is
clearly a major problem. Users
don’t know which site to visit
for which purpose.

Findability
Users can’t find what they need
from the home page, but most
users don’t come through the
front door. They enter via a web
search or a deep link, and are
confused by what they find.
Even worse, most never use the
Library, because its resources
aren’t easily findable.

Web Strategy

1. One Library

2. Core Areas

3. Network Intelligence

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Search is a Complex, Adaptive System

Source: Search Patterns (2010) 13


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Where architects use
forms and spaces to design
environments for inhabitation,
information architects use
nodes and links to create
environments for understanding.
Jorge Arango, Architectures

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Experiences Across Channels


The Future of Mobile Search

Location Aware Query by Wandering Multisensory

The Future of Mobile Search


World’s Best
Information Architect

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Source: Subject to Change (2008)


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Sensors morville@semanticstudios.com

• Location (GPS)
• Orientation (Compass)
• Motion (Accelerometer)
• Orientation/Motion (Gyroscope)
• Touch (Multi-Touch, Gestural)
• Light (Ambient)
• Proximity
• Device (Bluetooth)
• Audio (Microphone)
• Image/Video (Camera)
• RFID (Soon)
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“After a half-hour, a three-tone alert sounds…If the
bottle still has not been opened, the system makes an
automated reminder phone call to the patient or a
caregiver. The GlowCap system compiles adherence data
which anyone can be authorized to track. That way the
doctor can make sure Gramps stays on his meds.”
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Touchpoint Taxonomy morville@semanticstudios.com
Media
Book
Channel Platform Newspaper
Web Web Magazine
Product Social Media iOS Video
Packaging Email Android Audio
Print Catalog Messaging Poster
Mac OS X Billboard
Telephone
Call Center Print
MS Windows
Website
Blog Context
Facebook Home
Twitter Work
Walking
YouTube Device Driving
Email Desktop Shopping
Direct Mail Laptop
Scale
Plane
Radio Mobile Party
Covert
Tablet Personal
Television Television
Mobile
Social
Personal
Kiosk Location
Environmental
Time
Architectural
Task
Urban 28


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http://findability.org/archives/000652.php 30


Cross-Channel
We must leave our
Marathon
comfort zones, cross-train,
and collaborate.

Triathlon 31


Framing our Future(s)
1. Classic Information Architecture (Polar Bear).

2. Web Strategy (Web, Mobile, Social).

3. Cross-Channel Strategy (Physical, Digital).

4. Intertwingularity (Ubiquitous, Ambient).

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What architects do for
buildings, information architects do
for…


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“There is a problem in discussing systems only
with words. Words and sentences must, by
necessity, come only one a time in linear, logical
order. Systems happen all at once. They are
connected not just in one direction, but in many
directions simultaneously. To discuss them
properly, it is necessary to use a language that
shares some of the same properties as the
phenomena under discussion.”


"In an era of cross-channel
experiences and product-service
systems, it makes less and less
sense to design sitemaps and
wireframes without also..."


“…mapping the customer journey, modeling the system dynamics, and
analyzing impacts upon business processes, incentives, and the org chart."


The fast parts learn, propose, and
absorb shocks; the slow parts
remember, integrate, and constrain.

The fast parts get all the attention.
The slow parts have all the power.

Steward Brand on “Pace Layering”


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Richard Saul Wurman’s Sandcastles (1971). Stolen from The Nature of IA by Dan Klyn (2010).


BrainPort

Camera in glasses
captures video.

Image recreated on
grid of 400 electrodes.

User feels the shape
on the tongue.

Brain learns to see
through the tongue.
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”Those who
know, do.
Those that
understand,
teach.”


University of Michigan School of Information & Library Studies


What can’t be automated?


What won’t be outsourced?


What’s interesting?


What matters?


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IA Therefore I Am
Peter Morville

Search Patterns
http://searchpatterns.org/

Semantic Studios
http://semanticstudios.com/

Blog
http://findability.org/
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The Future of Information Architecture

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