Thoughts on what it means to do Information Architecture, and what it means do do it "for good."

1. Why
Information
Architecture
Christina Wodtke
Lecturer, Stanford University

2. We are in Crisis. What is an
appropriate response?
Tenshin Reb Anderson,
dharma talk at Green Gulch
Farm
http://sfzc.org/we-are-in-crises-what-is-an-
appropriate-response

4. Trigger
Warning
Discussion of race, gender, strong
language

5. Information Architecture
is dead

8. Once upon a time there
was a girl in San Francisco
who painted and waited
tables…

11. I was hired to
manage a
catalog.
I became an
IA without
knowing.

13. There is a tsunami of data that is
crashing onto the beaches of the
civilized world. This is a tidal wave
of unrelated, growing data
formed in bits and bytes, coming
in an unorganized, uncontrolled,
incoherent cacophony of foam.
~Richard Saul
Wurman in
Information
Architects

14. There is a new breed of graphic
designers, exhibition designers,
illustrators and
photographers, whose passion it is
to make the complex clear….
~Richard Saul
Wurman in
Information
Architects

15. We started an
institute because
believed IA was a
“refuge” from the
tsunami

16. DTDT
Organization of information for
• Retrieval
• Understanding
• Use

19. IA was so
forgotten, a
taxonomy talk
at Interactions
was not seen
as IA.

20. The Second
Information
Tsunami:
Small Data

21. EXPLORE DAVE GRAY'S 15149
PHOTOS ON FLICKR!

22. 46,604 PHOTOS
JOINED 2004

23. RESPOND TO YOUR 94 FRIEND
REQUESTS

24. 140 RECEIVED INVITATIONS
2,805 - YOUR CONNECTIONS

27. From
Technically
Wrong, by
Sara
Wachter-
Boettcher

30. Algorithms are rulesets
designed by people
People make mistakes. People can fix mistakes.

31. “We don’t need IA”
Because search

33. Search fails us, when
we look for our most
precious processions:
our memories.
Where are our
photos?

34. Classification Has
Consequences

37. Compartment T

38. Levi Mousaw

42. I am Gender-fluid

43. I started Women
Talk Design to
prove Women
deserved to be on
the stage of
experts.

45. But when I raised
money for interns to
research, I found it
was more
complicated.

48. IA is not enough alone.
Interaction design is not
enough, alone.
Online is nto enough,
alone.
Offline is not enough,
alone.
We need complete
solutions.

49. Our Job
To make it be good

50. 1. Meaningful and
inclusive classification

52. Trigger Warnings

53. 2. Models for
understanding

55. From my work on compassionate teams

56. And compassionate feedback

58. 3. Interaction Design
and
Information Architecture
for richer understanding

59. Watch: The best stats
you've ever seen |
Hans Rosling

60. 4. Tell your own stories
When we are vulnerable, and honest and real, people listen.

61. There is always an
Information Architecture
Who is designing it?

62. Creating
Information Architecture
is a political act.
Whose politics?

63. Trinity: A Graphic History
of the First Atomic Bomb:
Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

64. Don’t boil the ocean.

65. Small things
• Learn Information Architecture (it matters more than ever)
• Support journalism. Pay for it.
• Question categories. Our mental models aren’t always right.
• Learn to draw ideas. You’ll think better.
• Be kind every day. Even when it’s hard.

67. Thank
You
@cwodtke | me@cwodtke.com
www.cwodtke.com
CHRISTINA WODTKE