Reduce communication barriers through practical user experience, allowing you and website users to be on the same side
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Louis Rosenfeld said that it is his life’s mission to spread IA around the world. The picture shows his speech at Interaction South America 2013 (Photo source: Louis Rosenfeld)
This article is reprinted from MIX 2018 Innovation Design Annual Conference, the author is Deng Wenhua. Thank you for authorizing the “Content Hacker” website to reprint it. Thank you hereby.
[Why we reprint this article] Have you ever thought about what kind of “user experience” (UX, User eXperience) your website or blog brings to readers? How can the created content be presented in an organized and structured way to bring readers a stable learning trajectory? MIX 2018 Innovation Design Annual Conference visited “[Information Architecture](https://www.books.com.tw/exep/assp.php/vista/produ cts/0010774361?utm_source=vista&utm_medium=ap-books&utm_content=recommend&utm_campaign=ap-201804)” and user experience guru Louis Rosenfeld, let us learn from the master the essence of UX and how to synchronize the cognition of readers and creators.
The origin and development of information architecture
The term “Information Architecture” first appeared in the mid-1970s, by the American architect [Richard Saul Wurman] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Saul_Wurman) proposed that using architecture as a metaphor should find the context of information and simplify the complex, making it easy for people to find and understand, and not getting “lost” in complex information.
This concept has been implemented into a knowledge, entered the industry, and influenced thousands of Internet workers around the world. But the public’s ability to understand how to sublimate information to an “aesthetic” level is attributed to Louis Rosenfeld and his partner Peter Morville co-authored the classic “Information Architecture” (Information Architecture, referred to as IA) in 1998.
This time MIX 2018 is a video interview with Louis Rosenfeld, the opening speaker of MIX 2018. This world-class master is like a godfather in the IA world, which is very exciting. I originally thought that I might encounter a lot of difficult terminology, but Rosenfeld explained everything in vernacular, especially when it came to “It’s good to do foolish things. We should do more foolish things.” Looking at him on the screen, he was sober and humorous, while drinking coffee, and I couldn’t help but think that for him, having been involved in IA for more than 25 years, maybe it was just like 9:30 in the morning in New York time, everything had just begun.
As a book and information person studying history, we encounter the Internet boom bubble that is rare in a century.
Rosenfeld was born in 1965. He studied history at the University of Michigan (http://university%20of%20michigan/) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After graduation, he transferred to the School of Information and Library Science (now the School of Information) and stayed in the department as a lecturer.
At that time, the Internet happened to be budding. He recalled: “All the professors said that because of the emergence of the Internet, there will be an explosive information revolution. As an Internet user, I feel very excited! But they did not say what skills are needed to cope with this wave of trends.”
The capital market often does not wait until everything is ready before erupting. Instead, it vaguely knows that there is a big demand and it will surge all the way. Rosenfeld, who wanted to make money, was not familiar with these capital operations, but he did not waste his time. In 1991, he began to participate in the co-design and construction of the “Gopher” query system at the University of Michigan Library ( Gopher, a hierarchical information query system) helps the public access and retrieve information in new ways. By 1993, when Rosenfeld was studying for his master’s degree, he founded a small company, Argus Clearinghouse, to help customers build website classification directories, which was considered the first step into IA.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, the Internet was growing as fast as Jack’s pea shoots, and there was a huge demand for useful websites that could be built through information architecture. Rosenfeld soon faced a choice between academia and business. He chose the latter, and the Argus Associates company co-founded by Peter Morville, the later co-author of “Information Architecture” was operating quite successfully.
Since 1994, Argus Associates has operated purely on its own funds, with an average annual growth rate of 85%, and its business has almost doubled every year. By 2000, it had 37 employees and annual revenue of US$3.8 million. Its clients include AT&T, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Compaq, HP, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Ernst & Young and other world-class companies. It won the 1996 Michigan Best Small Business Award. The first edition of the well-known “Information Architecture” was also launched during this period. In 1998, it won Amazon’s “Best Internet Book of the Year” the same year it was published. It sold more than 100,000 copies and was translated into many languages such as Italy, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Russia, and Spain.
In 2001, the Internet bubble burst. Since all large corporate customers were affected, Rosenfeld and Morville had to close the company. However, Rosenfeld saw that despite the severe blow to the market, the community interested in IA has not dispersed. So he established the IA Institute, held seminars, continued to write the second edition of “Information Architecture”, and took on cases as an independent consultant. In 2005, he discovered that User Experience (UX) was gradually receiving more attention. In view of the limited number of people who could communicate at the seminar, he concentrated more on publishing, specializing in books on IA and UX.
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HPX founder Richard Tsai recalled that “Information Architecture”, which was nicknamed “Polar Bear” because of its cover, was the first book that inspired him to establish a book club. The picture shows HPX’s first book cover badge (Photo source: Richard)
Three-circle rolling career development
Based on his personal experience, Rosenfeld pointed out that “writing nourishes teaching, teaching nourishes consultants, and consultants can turn around and nourish writing, forming a virtual three-circle rolling.” As the three circles grow larger and larger, more and more people will be affected. Nowadays, UX has been combined with business and has become a prominent science; in contrast, IA is a “basic engineering” and often plays the role of an unsung hero.
Are you a founder from 0 to 1, or a manager from 1 to 100? After going through the ups and downs, Rosenfeld seems quite indifferent to whether he is a scoring player in the limelight, but more like a hard worker struggling to get in position under the basket. What he cares more about is, did he catch the rebound? Because of rebounds, teammates have opportunities to attack. He gave an example, such as when students were required to submit homework, usually no one would be the group leader, but there would always be someone who would roll their eyes and say, “Forget it, I’ll do it.” He laughed at himself as being the same kind of person.
Rather than choosing anyone else, it’s better to say that Rosenfeld saw early on that he was suited to do groundbreaking work. He further explained: “In an era of rapid change, it is necessary to distinguish whether you are a [starter] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starter) (starter) or a manager (steward), which will help you find the right position.” Rosenfeld understands that he is the former and is willing to continue to open up new territories for IA, so even if he encounters setbacks, he can find a way out in the darkness. When the trend is favorable, you will not be swept away by the temporary wave.
It seems that the godfather explained the truth clearly and thoroughly, but in fact he was just trying to cross the river by feeling the stones along the way. Rosenfeld said that when he encountered the Internet boom in his early years, even though he didn’t know how to start a company, he figured it out once he started it. When I opened a company, I realized that professional knowledge only accounts for a small part of running a company. The operators have to find financial resources, manage administration and lead the team themselves. Fortunately, there is no burden to support a family when you are young, and the cost of failure is low; the sooner you start trial and error, the sooner you can learn more things. “It’s good to do foolish things. We should do more foolish things.” He concluded briefly: “Be foolish.”
Does it seem like stupid behavior? It doesn’t seem to be the case. On the contrary, it’s close to “so stupid and naive”, just like his enthusiasm for IA has only increased with age.
New opportunities for IA: Promoting cross-departmental communication within the enterprise
In his eyes, from desktop websites to mobile apps, to the Internet of Things and big data, the more developed network applications are, the more complex the corresponding information and data will be, which means the greater the development space of IA. Not only products, services, and research are needed, but also business management. Therefore, Rosenfeld proposed the concept of “Enterprise UX” (Enterprise UX), which aims to bring the understanding of management, employees, and customers on the same basis.
For example, he said, for example, if you are coming to Taiwan this time and booking a flight online, it is the management, designers and engineers who decide the final appearance of the booking system; but only God knows how far their understanding differs from that of consumers and front-line salesmen. Through enterprise UX based on IA, it helps to receive, understand and respond to various information in a unified manner, promotes cross-department integration, and reduces communication barriers caused by departmentalism.
Rosenfeld said that when he first introduced this concept five years ago, he was still a little hesitant. Unexpectedly, not long after, corporate customers took the initiative to ask how to introduce it, which greatly increased his confidence. He knew that this step would involve changes in corporate culture, and it would take at least 5 to 10 years to see any results, but being able to follow IA and keep pace with the times was more important than anything else. He believes that there are two driving forces for its sustainability for more than 20 years. One is to prove that library and information science will definitely be more important in this era of information explosion; the other is to start from oneself, hoping that library and information researchers can maintain confidence, “It’s my mission!”
An evolving classic
“[Information Architecture](https://www.books.com.tw/exep/assp.php/vista/products/0010774361?utm_source=vista&utm_medium= “ap-books&utm_content=recommend&utm_campaign=ap-201804)” has been updated to the fourth edition. From the early desktop version of the website, it has gradually added apps, information space and other contents. Its intention has changed from the English subtitle “For the Web and Beyond” can be seen. Consultant [Andy of international design company Frog Design Dr. Fitzgerald] (http://www.andyfitzgerald.org/) praised this book: “When it comes to recommending good introductory books on website information architecture, the Polar Bear Book has always been my first choice. In addition to updating the basic content of information architecture, the new version of this book also adds new content, including action, meaning shaping, system design and the importance of context. Therefore, this book will be my first choice for anyone who is engaged in the design of any type of digital information space.”
Louis Rosenfeld This pioneer who has never stopped, has been writing the fourth edition for more than 20 years, and is still the first choice for UX books, leading more people to sort out the complex world in a concise and easy-to-understand way. “Remember the original intention” is simple to say, but it is like IA in practice. It is more than just a word.
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Rosenfeld is not only the godfather of IA, but also a marathon runner. The picture shows his completion photo of qualifying for the 2018 New York Marathon on October 9, 2017 (Photo source: Louis Rosenfeld)
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