Beyond Findability: Context

The Function of Context for Information Architecture

Andrew HintonIAI Pre-Conference Workshop IA Summit 2009

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Context is nothing new in design ...

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But it’s a big deal for IA

“Page” vs “Context”

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What I mean by ‘web’ today ...

What you do in a

“browser”vs Hyperlinked

Environments

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Maps that create territories

Representation Instantiation

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Shaping context with connection

Links shape, and organize, hyperlinked spaces.

Architectural Function: “Utilitas”

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Prescribed Storage & Retrieval

www.stjohnscollege.edu

http://iac.dtic.mil/images/site_map.jpg

For storage & retrieval, context is mostly about categorization & relevant proximity.

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Emergent Expression, Creation & Function

www.designers-revolution.com

Now, context involves almost everything.

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It’s all information -- just language ...

Just so we’re clear ...

... the information that contains ...

... the information that is contained

Information that explains ...

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Eats Shoots and Leaves

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

The power of syntax

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vs

Radically different spaces

Obvious difference.

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Not so obvious.

d @vs

Small difference with radical implications

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“Possibility Spaces”

Will Wright

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Beyond Findability?

Findability

Designing Context

Content

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Some models for context

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Personal-Behavioral Context

PhysicalDOINGphysical activity & ability,

habits, preferences, sensory

Cognitive

THINKINGcognitive assumptions,

education, learning ability

Emotional

FEELINGpsychological state, anxiety, confidence, stress, desire

“Persona”

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Personal-Situational Context

Situation

Need

Need

Need

TaskTask

Task

Task Task

Task

Task

Task

“Scenario”

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Emotional

Cognitive

Physical

The Situation/Behavior Complex

Situation

Need

Need

Need

TaskTask

Task

Task Task

Task

Task

Task

Time

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Task

Systems

To accomplish Tasks, we need Tools

For complex tasks, we need systems.

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Fuzzy Human Stuff Made Into Data

Our ambiguities rendered into binary attributes.

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Machines in the image of our needs & desires

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A symbiosis

Organic, Analog

PersonArtificial, Binary

System

We create systems, imperfectly, in our own image.

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System

Task

Need

Situation

Cognitive

Emotional

Physical

Organic, Analog

Person

Artificial, Binary

System

Systems In Context

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Architectural Systems

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Maison À Bordeaux: Rem Koolhaas

http://www.oma.eu/index.php?option=com_projects&view=portal&Itemid=10&id=19http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/11/koolhaas-houselife-is-a-film.php

http://www.koolhaashouselife.com/

"You see here two systems colliding... the systems of the kind of platonic conception of cleaning with the platonic conception of architecture ... it's two ideologies confronting each other."

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Christopher Alexander’s Patterns

“A Timeless Way of Building” p 253

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Wyly Theatre

http://rex-ny.com/work/wyly-theatre/animation

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No user is an island ...

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Social context

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Social is everywhere (and always was)

http://

The Web has social DNA

Artifact

Artifact

Artifact

Artifact

Asynchronous “conversation”

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Groups of complex individuals

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Need

Common Goals & Patterns of Behavior

Need

Need

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Boundaries shape context

What are the goals of the context?

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Even in “play” spaces

Highly limited identity expression “out of character”

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Situation

Situation

Situation

Situation

Situation

A system for every side of ourselves

Working-me.

Party & Music-me

Dating-me

Private-thoughts-me

Craft-selling-me

Need

Task

Need

Task

Need

Task

Need

Task

Need

Task

Need

Task

Need

TaskPhotographer-me

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Client-side devices shape context too.

iconfactory.com

Web / Twitteriffic:- Single column- Serial feed- Narrow aperture- Peripheral attention

tweetdeck.com

Tweetdeck:- Multi-column- Parallel feed- Very wide aperture- Central attention

SMS:- Single-message- No “feed”- Tiny aperture- Interruptive / alert

www.webmaster247.co.uk/

Users of these applications & devices treat the Twitter “space” very differently. They act as if they are in completely different places.

You can’t control the whole experience.

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You cannot engineer your users.

You can only accommodate them.

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The Flickr Context System

Home Pages act as context

maps for influencing attention,

setting priorities.

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The Object Viewing Context

More Tasks

Conversation

Task (Rule-based

Access)

Many embedded contexts

within the primary context.

Other contexts this object belongs to

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The “Organize” Task Context

Task

Inventory Object(“Content”)

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Identity Context

At Flickr, your identity is, in part,

a construct of your social

connections.

Self-description & links to other facets -- sub-

contexts of your presence/identity.

Reputation

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Connecting to & Embedding in Other Contexts

yahoo.com

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Some context challenges

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YouTube / “Context Collapse”The problem is not lack of context. It is context collapse: an infinite number of contexts collapsing upon one another into that single moment of recording.

The images, actions, and words captured by the lens at any moment can be transported to anywhere on the planet and preserved (the performer must assume) for all time.

The little glass lens becomes the gateway to a black hole sucking all of time and space – virtually all possible contexts – in upon itself.

Michael Wesch, July 2008mediatedcultures.net

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OLPC“This was, almost in every way, a traditional top down product development, that involved the rural children in India, Africa and China only in the late stages. Near-finished prototypes were tested out late in development, brought to village kids as a “gift.”

It would have been far better to begin in the villages, spend time there and build from the bottom up.

Negroponte might have discovered there was little need for this kind of machine.

Cell phones are far more popular as the means to connect to the net in much of the Third World and cell-phone type devices rather than cute little laptops might have made much more sense.

Tons of research show this to be true.”

Bruce Nussbaum - Business Week Sept 2007

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Google Finance / News

Correlation? Causation?

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MyBlogLog

Far below the fold ...

“As you visit MyBlogLog-enabled sites, your photo shows up on the widget - a virtual calling card. Clicking on your photo leads to your profile and all the stuff you share.”

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Open ID

The Problem of Unified Reputation

“For example, I may not want my Suicide Girls account linked to my Wikitravel account. If I participate in fringe-politics or drug-rights forums, I may not want that identity associated with my "business" persona. As more and more sites become OpenID-enabled, the value of unifying your reputation across them is greater, but also the danger.”

Evan Promdromouhttp://evan.prodromou.name/OpenID_Privacy_Concerns

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Facebook Beacon

“Beacon”

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Vanguard

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Discuss ...

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