Information Architecture as a Discipline—A Methodological Approach

Abstract

We live in a world of increasingly complex, interconnected, societal problems. Design Thinking (DT), as an academic concern, and amongst other disciplines, has been grappling with such problems since the 1970s in order to solve the problems facing humanity and the environment. Initially, this paper briefly introduces the discourse of design thinking before describing in reference to selected theory from the field of design thinking a brief account of the characteristics of complexity and indeterminacy within the design phases of researching, ideation and prototyping. This paper then examines the ways in which the practice of information architecture (information architecture, IA) operates in some very similar ways and how this view reframes an understanding of the practice of IA. The paper will then present three ‘illusions’ embedded in the current view of information architecture that we believe account for its misconception. The reframing of IA presented here has implications for the field of information architecture, its theory, its practice and the teaching thereof, but perhaps more importantly also for other fields of design that stand to gain enormous value from the application of the thinking, tools and techniques of IA to grapple with the complex problems of our time.