Information Architects
Architectural Intelligence · 2017
“What is the architecture part of information architecture?”1 This is a question that Dan Klyn's University of Michigan students in the School of Information frequently asked him. Although Klyn was trained as a library and information scientist, he found himself turning to architecture to answer that question. “Most folks understand that if you want to build something remarkable, yet inhabitable and usable, the person that you call is an architect,” Klyn said in a video, “Explaining Information Architecture.” His starting point, when he teaches gradu ate students, is Richard Saul Wurman (he's become a biographer of Wurman) and Christopher Alexander. Klyn also introduces information architects and user experience designers to his love of architecture—guiding them on walking tours during conferences and encouraging them to build bridges of their own from their digital worlds outward, to the built environment and the history of architecture—and, above all, to his interest in Wurman and Alexander, for the foundations and inspiration they set in place for the practice of information architecture.