How can we tell good Information Architecture from bad? What can we use to evaluate our work and persuade coworkers and clients that it’s good – or to pivot if it’s bad? More than this, what tools will help us understand how well we’re practicing and teaching IA overall, and help us develop IA as a discipline? Information architecture needs a framework for addressing how we think about and improve our field at multiple levels. We need a language of critique. This talk introduces audience members a movement currently underway to develop a robust framework for IA critique.

1. a language of critique for information
architecture
@stacysurla
#reframeiaStacy Merrill Surla

2. Banksy@stacysurla

3. Jorge Arango@stacysurla

4. The M3 diagram
Practical
problems
Solutions to
problems
Scientific
problems
Practice
Science
Theories and
models
Philosophical
questions
Epistemology Paradigms
SOLUTIONSTHEORIESPARADIGMS
The M3 diagram

5. SkeenaValleyGirl
We can... but we don’t
@stacysurla

6. Applied Work
Stacy Surla@stacysurla

7. World Bank
Theories and Models
@stacysurla

8. Noodlefish
Paradigms
@stacysurla

9. NPR
Paradigms
@stacysurla

10. Josh Liba
Paradigms
@stacysurla

11. SOLUTIONS
Practical problems Practice Solutions to problems
Scientific problems Science Theories and models
THEORIES
Philosophical questions Epistemology Paradigms
PARADIGMS
Jet Li :The Monkey King
M3 Model Example
@stacysurla

12. jennyrotten
Back at the theories layer...
@stacysurla

13. judy_and_ed
...you can change what’s possible
@stacysurla

15. starsandspirals
What’s behind what’s possible?
@stacysurla

16. Journey to the West@stacysurla

17. Exercise
http://svy.mk/1X4RQ7v@stacysurla

18. Results
@stacysurla

19. Join the conversation
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4945243@stacysurla

20. References
Foucault, Michel, The order of things: An archaeology of the human sciences, Vintage Books,
1994
Lacerda, Flavia and Mamede Lima-Marques, Information Architecture as a Discipline — A
Methodological Approach, in Reframing Information Architecture, Springer International
Publishing, 2014
Morricone, Ennio, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
Pugatch, J., et al, Systematic Review of Information Architecture of Web-based Interventions to
Improve Health Outcomes, Poster Presentation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
NCHCMM, Atlanta, GA, 2015
Resmini, Andrea, Reframing Information Architecture, ibid.
van Gigch, John P., System Design, Modeling and Metamodeling, Plenom Press, 1991

21. Stacy Merrill Surla
stacy.surla@icfi.com
@stacysurla
#reframeia