The Information Architecture of Meaning Making

Abstract

We live in a world of increasingly complex, interconnected, social problems. Design Thinking (DT), as an academic concern, and amongst other disciplines, has been grappling with such problems since the 1970's. A review of theoretical positions that describe contemporary design praxis argue that indeterminacy arises when design problems are situated in social realities. It is argued that the ability to deal with complex problems cannot be reduced to archetypal extremes and prefabricated solutions; an acknowledgement that the multiple realities of different disciplines, different perceptions of realities and different constructs of reality need to be accounted for by design. Through an exploration of Design Thinking theory across the stages of researching, ideation and prototyping we examine the ways in which the practice of 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 ʻillusionsʼ embedded in the current view of IA that we believe account for its misconception. The reframing of IA presented here has implications for the field of IA (its theory, practice and the teaching of IA) but perhaps more importantly design and other fields 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.