The Function of Context for Information Architecture
Andrew HintonIAI Pre-Conference Workshop IA Summit 2009
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Context is nothing new in design ...
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But it’s a big deal for IA
“Page” vs “Context”
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What I mean by ‘web’ today ...
What you do in a
“browser”vs Hyperlinked
Environments
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Maps that create territories
Representation Instantiation
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Shaping context with connection
Links shape, and organize, hyperlinked spaces.
Architectural Function: “Utilitas”
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Prescribed Storage & Retrieval
www.stjohnscollege.edu
http://iac.dtic.mil/images/site_map.jpg
For storage & retrieval, context is mostly about categorization & relevant proximity.
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Emergent Expression, Creation & Function
www.designers-revolution.com
Now, context involves almost everything.
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It’s all information -- just language ...
Just so we’re clear ...
... the information that contains ...
... the information that is contained
Information that explains ...
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Eats Shoots and Leaves
Eats, Shoots and Leaves
The power of syntax
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vs
Radically different spaces
Obvious difference.
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Not so obvious.
d @vs
Small difference with radical implications
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“Possibility Spaces”
Will Wright
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Beyond Findability?
Findability
Designing Context
Content
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Some models for context
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Personal-Behavioral Context
PhysicalDOINGphysical activity & ability,
habits, preferences, sensory
Cognitive
THINKINGcognitive assumptions,
education, learning ability
Emotional
FEELINGpsychological state, anxiety, confidence, stress, desire
“Persona”
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Personal-Situational Context
Situation
Need
Need
Need
TaskTask
Task
Task Task
Task
Task
Task
“Scenario”
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Emotional
Cognitive
Physical
The Situation/Behavior Complex
Situation
Need
Need
Need
TaskTask
Task
Task Task
Task
Task
Task
Time
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Task
Systems
To accomplish Tasks, we need Tools
For complex tasks, we need systems.
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Fuzzy Human Stuff Made Into Data
Our ambiguities rendered into binary attributes.
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Machines in the image of our needs & desires
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A symbiosis
Organic, Analog
PersonArtificial, Binary
System
We create systems, imperfectly, in our own image.
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System
Task
Need
Situation
Cognitive
Emotional
Physical
Organic, Analog
Person
Artificial, Binary
System
Systems In Context
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Architectural Systems
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Maison À Bordeaux: Rem Koolhaas
http://www.oma.eu/index.php?option=com_projects&view=portal&Itemid=10&id=19http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/11/koolhaas-houselife-is-a-film.php
http://www.koolhaashouselife.com/
"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."
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Christopher Alexander’s Patterns
“A Timeless Way of Building” p 253
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Wyly Theatre
http://rex-ny.com/work/wyly-theatre/animation
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No user is an island ...
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Social context
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Social is everywhere (and always was)
http://
The Web has social DNA
Artifact
Artifact
Artifact
Artifact
Asynchronous “conversation”
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Groups of complex individuals
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Need
Common Goals & Patterns of Behavior
Need
Need
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Boundaries shape context
What are the goals of the context?
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Even in “play” spaces
Highly limited identity expression “out of character”
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Situation
Situation
Situation
Situation
Situation
A system for every side of ourselves
Working-me.
Party & Music-me
Dating-me
Private-thoughts-me
Craft-selling-me
Need
Task
Need
Task
Need
Task
Need
Task
Need
Task
Need
Task
Need
TaskPhotographer-me
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Client-side devices shape context too.
iconfactory.com
Web / Twitteriffic:- Single column- Serial feed- Narrow aperture- Peripheral attention
tweetdeck.com
Tweetdeck:- Multi-column- Parallel feed- Very wide aperture- Central attention
SMS:- Single-message- No “feed”- Tiny aperture- Interruptive / alert
www.webmaster247.co.uk/
Users of these applications & devices treat the Twitter “space” very differently. They act as if they are in completely different places.
You can’t control the whole experience.
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You cannot engineer your users.
You can only accommodate them.
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The Flickr Context System
Home Pages act as context
maps for influencing attention,
setting priorities.
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The Object Viewing Context
More Tasks
Conversation
Task (Rule-based
Access)
Many embedded contexts
within the primary context.
Other contexts this object belongs to
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The “Organize” Task Context
Task
Inventory Object(“Content”)
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Identity Context
At Flickr, your identity is, in part,
a construct of your social
connections.
Self-description & links to other facets -- sub-
contexts of your presence/identity.
Reputation
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Connecting to & Embedding in Other Contexts
yahoo.com
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Some context challenges
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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 2008mediatedcultures.net
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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
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Google Finance / News
Correlation? Causation?
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MyBlogLog
Far below the fold ...
“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.”
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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 Promdromouhttp://evan.prodromou.name/OpenID_Privacy_Concerns
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Facebook Beacon
“Beacon”
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Vanguard
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Discuss ...
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