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Dan Brown
@brownorama
, 13 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
Over the last few days I’ve seen assertions and evidence that information architecture literacy is diminished. Not the least of which: Sitting in a design review where the designers couldn’t explain the structure of their design.

Interest in IA was stronger 20 years ago, says @karenmcgrane, and I tend to agree. What’s pulled the rug out from under the field? I posed this question to the @eightshapes team this morning.

What’s caused the decline of IA? @eightshapes theories:

1. Difficult to sell/teach IA in the emergent UX crash courses
2. Agile methods are incompatible with “big thinking” required in IA
3. Small screens (i.e. smartphones) obscure the need for deep thinking about structure
Information architecture, the design of virtual structures, is the last area of web design that hasn’t been commodified. That is, the most proprietary and influential work you can do is on the underlying structure of a web site or digital product.
As we strip away UI — because voice interfaces, because artificial intelligence, because whatever — the structure is all that remains. Information architecture remains relevant, crucial, and at the heart of many of the ethical considerations now facing product design.
One reason you might not see a lot of philosophical work on information architecture is that we *did* that work in the 90s and 00s and it set us far apart — even alienated us — from software development.
You don’t see people like me tweeting about IA theories challenges because they’re alienating, but also complex and proprietary. Twitter is hardly a venue for elaborating on the nuances of designing digital structures. That isn’t to say I haven’t tried…

(I dunno. Maybe Twitter took the wind out of IA. When industry discourse moves from blogs to micro-blogs, there’s only so much we can really dig into. I wrote a shit ton about cognitive linguistics in the 00s.)

web.archive.org/web/2006051202…
Anyway, I love information architecture. I will call myself an IA until my dying day. My best days at work are when I get to puzzle through a difficult categorization problem, or a way to conceptualize a messy domain.
If you've made it this far, maybe it's because you love the challenges of designing digital structures, too. Maybe you haven't had a chance to think deeply about these things, maybe because you haven't found someone who wants to think about them as much as you do.
Well, you found someone who loves information architecture as much as you do (but who's maybe loved it longer). My DMs are open.
@eightshapes Post Script
To be clear: IA isn't dead or dying. Every digital product has an IA. The question is whether it was designed intentionally or not. Every designer does IA. The question is whether they do it intentionally or not.

I see not death, but opportunity to improve.
I mean, I had Very Deep Thoughts about categorization.

web.archive.org/web/2004121614…

/c @radicallyrach
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Dan Brown
@brownorama
Often, collaboration gets confused with "consensus-building" or some other flavor of "everyone always in the same room."

Good collaboration doesn't preclude solo time. Instead, it is adopting behaviors to work together effectively. In our field, that always includes quiet time.
Collaboration encompasses a set of techniques and habits and behaviors that:

1. yield products that are better than an individual could create on their own

2. define how someone contributes to the team's effort
The following things are collaboration because they're almost always present on good teams:

- arguing
- decision-making criteria
- one person having final authority
- time constraints
- quiet solo time
- ad hoc conversations
Read 4 tweets
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Dan Brown
@brownorama
Amélie’s story is important on many, many levels and gives, I hope, people with similar stories some comfort that they are not alone. I want to speak to the aspect, however small, that I can relate to.

That is this: Our health system is designed to fail.
Grounded in a “car mechanic” mentality, our health system rests on the assumption that everything is fine until it’s not. When your car makes a funny noise, you bring it in to the mechanic. They diagnose and fix and send you on your way.
Similarly, the US health system assumes you’re in perfect health until you’re not. When you’re not, you get a diagnosis, you get it fixed, and you’re done, back to “perfect health”. If you’re very lucky, your insurance deems the fix worthy of a benefit.
Read 16 tweets
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Dan Brown #ReleaseTheReport
@brownorama
Let's try something new. Here's a Twitter mini case study thread about a sticky information architecture problem. Serious IA nerdery ahead.

You been warned.
In the space of an hour, my client and I unpacked a challenging problem and determined a better approach to the navigation. It was a fascinating process that involved a few key insights.
Some Background
We're building a new product to replace a couple of existing products. The domain is confusing because it comprises some basic widgets that can be classified in many different ways.
Read 14 tweets

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Daniel Jacobson
@Dan_F_Jacobson
Over the last few days we've admitted some bombshell Hofeller files at our NC gerrymandering trial. You can see the exhibits at the first link and testimony about the exhibits at the second link (start around 18 min mark).

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Daniel DePetris
@DanDePetris
Over the last few days, I’ve gotten a few emails and messages asking why I’ve been all worked up over this Iran thing. Others have said I’ve gotten too personal in my attacks. So, without further ado, I’ll try to explain myself a bit and tell you where the angst is coming from.
I’ll preface this by saying that I’m honored many of these people think I’m so important (I’m not) and have so much influence (I definitely don’t).

My favorite targets are Dubowitz (really, everybody at FDD), Boot, Pompeo, Bolton, Trump, Michael Rubin, Cotton & Graham.
I’m going hard after them b/c every person on this list (there are more) has helped create the current pool of shit we are swimming in right now. This is a self-inflicted disaster of epic proportions, initiated by the laughably poor advice & actions of each of these people.
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Abdulla Saad
@KarakMufti
Over the last few days, I've seen a lot of people attacking @Hafsa_Khawaja for her tweets about white people in Pakistan. I am in total agreement and am writing this thread to explain 1. Why she's right and 2. How foreigners should behave in Pakistan.
I'll raise my hands up and say that I experienced some of the best hospitality in the world during my time as a foreigner in Pakistan, and I am indebted to everyone who has shown that to me. I do know that Pakistanis can be incredibly kind and hospitable beyond belief.
However, why was this kind of hospitality extended to me and not to others? I met many foreigners when I was in Pakistan. It seems that some are worthy of the friendliness (Arabs, Chinese, and most of all, goras) and some are not (Afghans, Somalis, etc.).
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ᴊᴏᴇ ʟᴇᴇ
@klubbkiddkl
This is as thread.

So anyway, selama ni ramai yang tanya aku, bila nak masuk Islam.

Especially mereka yang kenal aku secara peribadi.

Ye lah… aku dari sekolah senang campur budak2 Melayu.

Anak Baba katanya.,.. I didn’t fit in with one specific race group.
Cakap BM fasih. Makan dengen tangan.

Nak berak pun kena tempat leh cebok. Kalau tak, rasa cam Nutella melekat kalan pakai kertas.

Ni semua ajaran nenek aku belah mak. Pure nyonya dari Melaka.

Nenek pun cuma leh cakap BM sampai dia kahwin atuk, Cina campur Siam.
Darjah 1 tahun KBSR, takde syllabus Moral lagi, so yang bukan Melayu masuk gak kelas Pendidikan Islam.

So berapa bulan gak belajar la tulisan Jawi etc.

I was comfortable with it. Aku dari kecik, mak ayah banyak tekan soal agama. I’m Christian, a Catholic.
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Pete North
@PeteNorth303
1. Like many other subjects the Burka debate is distorted by different regional experiences. There is the London view and then there's the Dewsbury view. The London view gets priority...
2. Over the last few days we have seen veiled women on TV news asserting their views - but these will be people already on the rolodex of some junior TV researcher and used because they are available at no cost. Much like the pundits they interview.
3. Usually they will be associated with a mainstream Muslim advocacy group and essentially part of civil society. They will make all the boilerplate points about their right to choose. But what of those who do not have a voice?
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