The Machineries of Context: New Architectures for a New Dimension
Andrew C. Hinton · Journal of Information Architecture · 2009
While it may seem it’s been around a very long time, Information Architecture (IA) is still a relatively new practice. Compared to many traditional craft-oriented professions – being a tailor, or a chef, or even an artisan cheese-maker – IA practitioners are not only very green, but the practice itself is a mere toddler in comparison. And yet, we’re expected to know what we’re doing, and “make IA” every day [1]. So, even though we have a lot left to learn, it’s important for us to fully grasp the significance of our work. In my own experience creating and using these new sorts of architectures, I’ve done a lot of thinking - obsessing, really - about the nature of this thing we do. What I’ve been scratching for is not so much a definition as a fuller understanding, and a way to explain that understanding to others. Here’s what I’ve come to understand: What IA has been about from the beginning is designing context with hyperlinks. That is, shaping contextual experience with connections afforded by the new, digital layer of the web [2]. This may sound like a limiting definition, but I believe it’s instead a helpfully pragmatic description. What follows is my best effort, for now, at explaining what I mean