Information Architecture in Review, Part 1

Understanding Context, by Andrew Hinton

Andrew Hinton is a founder of the Information Architecture Institute and has helped to frame how we discuss information architecture for more than 15 years. Andrew is a respected voice in the IA community and often shares his research and thought leadership at the IA Summit and World IA Day.

Lasting Impression

Companies of all shapes and sizes have come to realize the value of improving customer experiences through personalization and more context-aware products and services. Understanding Context, by Andrew Hinton, reveals potential factors that impact context and frames context as an embodied feature of the design of products and services.

In his book, Andrew argues that people are bound to context by three types of information:

1. Physical information—the objects that engage our perception and cognitive faculties
2. Semantic information—written, visual, and spoken language
3. Digital information—the stuff information and communications technologies (ICT) use

According to Andrew, these three types of information are the interrelated layers of an environment, and they help to shape our basic human experience. Further, understanding the intermingling of language, perception, and action improves human interactions in the environments that we create. Therefore, planning the contextual scope of digital products and services is no longer a trivial act.

As you connect with Andrew’s book, prepare to stimulate some new brain-cell growth. Can you say “embodied cognition”? This book explores valuable theory and provides insights into cognitive science that can help us to create thoughtful information environments. However, the deep background information that Andrew pours into the book is not for the faint of heart. While you could skip past some parts of the book, you’d only be buying time for the present. You’ll eventually end up returning to these sections to enrich your contextual vocabulary. And that will be a good thing.

Likely Audience: IA Specialists, UX Architects, and Academics

Understanding Context touches on many topics with which UX design professionals should become familiar. However, the book’s wealth of historical references, theory, and scientific dialogue will likely resonate most with more senior IA practitioners and academics who want to build deep subject-matter expertise in complex multi-channel information environments.

Relevance to Information Architecture

In addition to Andrew’s Herculean effort to frame context, he contributes brief, but thoughtful analysis of other important information-architecture concepts such as

• structure
• design
• information environments

Andrew ultimately posits that “the central concern of information architecture is how information creates environmental structure and supports environmental understanding.” Of course, you’ll have to read the book to really appreciate this point—or repeat it in public with confidence. It’s also important to mention that Andrew’s definition of information architecture attempts to improve upon the 2002 IA Institute definition, and he presents a respectable argument for his definition.

Lastly, Andrew does not provide a formal lexicon or glossary of terms. But he does go the extra mile in explaining his core concepts. In the future, I hope academics, students, and the intellectual community around information architecture will investigate the book’s key concepts. You’ll find seeds for constructive dialogue evenly distributed throughout the book.

Endorsement

Understanding Context thoroughly investigates how information architects and designers of products and services can anticipate the challenges that situational context presents. The physical, cognitive, and environmental factors that influence the integrity of any environment are significant.

Context is dense with information and affordances that we can manipulate to varying degrees. Andrew does a commendable job of exploring from the center out to the edges of this topic, in a way that is revelatory as well as actionable for practitioners at all levels.

My Collective Impression of These Books

How To Make Sense of Any Mess and Understanding Context are reliable sources of actionable information for information architects and UX designers. Read them through more than once, then refer to them as often as you need to. As you do, you’ll be sure to benefit from the wisdom they impart through each encounter.