Learn from the mistakes of others

Top 10 Rules of IA

adillon February 21, 2006

After 5 years of writing a column on information architecture for BASIST I summed up my take on the field in ten simple ‘rules’ (I use the term loosely).

1. No, we never did define it to everyone’s satisfaction.

2. Communities matter more.

3. There will be something else after blogs, wikis and memes.

4. Understanding people’s needs for information is a thorny problem.

5. A profession is not defined solely by financial concerns.

6. Findability is not a sufficient basis for architecture.

7. Usability is a design value, not a field.

8. Data is stored: Information is experienced.

9. Most of the world is still not able to have this experience.

10. We’re still figuring this out, so don’t stop trying to shape it.

Obviously these need to be interpreted in the context of an emerging set of concerns but here they are for the record. I had a great time with that column but it was time for fresh perspectives and I hate to write on a fixed schedule. You can access the past columns on my own publications page: www.ischool.utexas.edu/~adillon/publications.html