Participatory, systemic, emergent, conversational, reverent Information architecture

Participatory, systemic, emergent, conversational, reverent
Information architecture
Marc Rettig
Fit Associates, CMU Design, SVA Design for Social Innovation

marc@fitassociates.com
@mrettig

Marc Rettig @ World IA Day Pittsburgh | Systemic and Deeply Human IA | 20 February 2016
Three hats
design.cmu.edu
My colleague Hannah du Plessis and I are involved with the school of
design at Carnegie Mellon. We teach a course in the Spring called,
“Foundations of Practice for Social Innovation and Transition” (here’s the
course syllabus: fitassociates.com/syllabus-dsi-fundamentals). In general
we are supporting their efforts in social innovation and transition.
dsi.sva.edu
Every Fall we teach a “Fundamentals” course at the MFA in design for
social innovation at the School of Visual Arts in New York. It’s a nice
commute.
fitassociates.com
And we have a firm here in Pittsburgh called Fit Associates. We help
companies, teams, and leaders shift the way they talk together,
collaborate, and create together. We equip them to work with people in
a way that can change the patterns in their systems. We draw from
design practice, theater and the arts, living systems, conflict resolution,
personal development and life coaching, social innovation,… getting help
wherever we can find it.

Point of view
I think I was invited here for my perspective, which has been shifting
over the last few years. In 2009, I deliberately stood up from where I was
working in interaction, experience, product strategy, and sometimes IA,
and I started walking into a different part of the territory. I’ve been
asking, “How can our work become more deeply systemic, and more
deeply human?”
Where I once asked, “How can this home medical device help people not
need the medical device anymore?”, I now ask, “Who does this
organization need to become in order to participate in the new
landscape of care?”
Where I once asked, “How can this software improve the clarity and
reliability of brain MRIs?”, I now ask, “How can the software company
open its boundaries to include doctors, radiologists, hospital
administrators, and patients throughout their creative process?
And so on.

Information architecture?
You should know that I’m not going to say a lot about information
architecture as it is practiced today. There are lots of people here who
will do a better job of that than I could. I’m looking forward to it.
I will say that, later in the talk when I am referring explicitly to
information architecture, I’m referring to both the big and small
definitions. Some of you here may remember when there were
practically fist fights over “defining the damn thing.” To oversimplify,
some people use the term information architecture to describe the
practice of categorizing and organizing information. Other people see it
as a branch of design for experience, including the practices of usability,
interaction design, obsessing over kerning, and so on. And by the way, I
don’t think any of those people would limit IA to the digital world.
Anyway, when I use the term today, I mean both.

The need for a bigger story
One bigger story: what’s going on?
Two examples of that story
What about information architecture?
Ways to help the story along
Useful superpowers
A personal note: three movements
The shape of this talk

I don’t see like I used to.
I’m have become fascinated with the language of frontiers, and the
powerful notion of a frontier identity. What new country are we being
invited into? What threshold are we standing on? And most importantly,
what could we be doing if only we weren’t so afraid? The most profound
frontiers are the ones that scare us. And with practice, we can learn to
look at them without giving in to the impulse to flinch away, to steer our
gaze back to what’s familiar, and therefore comfortable and safe.

Poetic imagination: a story that’s big enough
In my current phase of life, I tend to look at things through the lens of
poetic imagination. By that I mean, imagining and then holding a story
that is big enough to help us make sense of all the other stories.
A field like design or information architecture can be the comfortable
home we have made for ourselves, where we know just what to do, who
to ask when we have a problem, we know where to get a job and what
job title we like, and how much we should be paid. We are known for our
expertise, we know who we are, and we feel great. But that same home
can become a warm prison if it has no windows that look toward the
horizon, no door through which you might pass on to the next thing. The
world changes outside, we become stale, and we aren’t really paying
attention. We need our poetic imagination not only to help us make
sense of what’s going on, but to call us to open the windows to look
outside, to open the door and step outside.
And that is one way to talk about a frontier identity.

What’s going on?
There are a few big containing stories we could make about information
architecture, but I’m going to pick just one. And that story has to do with
What’s Going On.

Meet Ezio Manzini
The Italian designer Ezio Manzini has a nice framing for What’s Going On, and how design in
general fits into that story. I’m going to steal directly from him. If you want more from Ezio, ask
Google about his talks and his book, both titled “Design When Everybody Designs.”

The story starts with two observations:
We are living in a time when expert design and what he calls “diffuse
design” – people’s efforts all over the world to create for themselves --
co-exist. And increasingly the two are working together. Expert design is
supporting community design, for example. Ezio calls that “Co-design.”
Here could talk about ideo.org’s public course in HCD. Or Frog Design’s
“Collective Action Tool Kit.
So as we look for the bigger, containing story for information
architecture, this is one bigger thing that’s going on. Expert design is
learning to truly work alongside the people in the world who are taking
creativity into their own hands, not waiting for business or government
to do it for them. We are standing firmly on the shores of a time of
“design with” in addition to the old familiar “design for.”
More “diffuse design” than expert design

But it’s not all roses…
María del Carmen
Lamadrid
www.thesis.mlamadrid.
com/?page_id=4
As a side note, I’ll add
that for all its good
intentions this expert-
to-community thing
can have a dark side.
Here is someone
pushing back explicitly
against Frog’s kit.

The second premise of Manzini’s story is that we are living in a time of
crisis, when the problems with the way that society has been doing
things are all becoming dangerously clear all at once, and there is
tremendous energy for shifting to a more sustainable way of life (in
almost every facet, technical, social, political, cultural).
Both expert design and diffuse design are responding to these crises in
their own way. Expert design is adding tools and mindsets, becoming
more systemically equipped and more socially focused. Meahwhile
people by the tens of thousands are going it on their own, exploring
new ways of living, producing, seeing the world and each other.

And here is just
one example. It’s a
farm – not a
donkey farm, but a
farm called the
little donkey farm –
that is exploring a
different
relationship
between urban
and rural life.

Bottom-up initiatives, collaborative interventions for everyday life,
anticipating sustainable ways of living (being, doing, thinking)
www.slideshare.net/DESIS_Showcase

Recommended: vimeo.com/122184793

Manzini’s belief—his story—is that the road to a sustainable way of life
for our society goes through the country of diffuse design. Expert
design alone will not get us there. Expert design is not our savior.
Why? Because it stands apart from the day-to-day rhythms and
routines where the new ways are being born and lived out. Where they
are evolving through the daily pressure of reality. Where they are
driven by personal ingenuity, enthusiasm and courage. Expert design is
most often holed up in businesses and institutions. We need it, but we
need it most to equip and work alongside the much larger movement
of diffuse design.
So there is one poetic story that is large and true enough to help us
make sense of the frontier we stand upon. Our crises are finally driving
us out of our comfort zone, and we are setting out on the road to the
country of sustainable ways of life. We don’t know what it will look like
when we get there, but we know we must get there. And we know that
the people living there will be us. The future is made of us, and the
materials of that future are the way we get along, power things, get
food, raise our children, care for each other, govern ourselves, make
new stuff, and so on.
That is a big story for design. It is one story big enough to help make
sense of many other stories, and to invite us out the door. For starters,
let’s look out the window.

Story 1
Social innovation
and “diffuse design”

Jason Roberts
How to build a better block
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntwqVDzdqAU

From Wikipedia

This work is…
Embedded. Local.
Connected.
Playful. Eager.
Experimental: probe, stabilize, feed.

Story 2
Expert design and
diffuse design work
side by side

If expert + “diffuse” design
collaboration is the way
forward, what might those
projects look like?

How can social innovation design influence the health of a
community? And who should be part of the conversation?
The community in question is East Harlem, where DSI is
already partnering with the Poptech Institute, the Arnhold
Global Health Institute, and Harlem community organization
Strive International on Harlem First, an initiative bringing
together designers, community leaders, residents, data
scientists and health care professionals to conceive a
different future of wellness care.
dsi.sva.edu/news/2015/11/save-the-dates-harlem-first-mapping-the-health-of-a-community/
impactdesignhub.org/2015/12/08/community-mapping-initiative-identifies-and-investigates-communitys-health-needs/

Community mapping is a process through which citizens in the
community participate in the collection of their own data –
recording what they view as forces that influence health – as well as
the creation of solutions.
DSI students began by mapping an East Harlem neighborhood,
looking at factors that are beyond the traditional purview of the
medical profession, such as crime, homelessness, open space,
poverty, availability of healthy food, and gentrification. Students
collected data on negative health impacts, including noise, access to
open space, and availability of health services and, working with
Harlem residents to map the same area, recorded what they view as
forces that influence health.

“The guiding thesis of Harlem
First is to co-create with the
community, not for it.”

Their place.
Their data.
Their meaning.
Expert process.
Expert tools.
Power to convene.

Seasoned designer District attorney
Community leader Policy advisor
Physician
Housing advocate

The following clip is extracted
from the panel discussion.
Listen for IA and design
opportunities, and think
about what it would take to
pursue them.
dsi.sva.edu/blog/2016/02/mapping-the-health-of-a-community-through-social-design

This work…
Is personal and connected, not done at a
distance, not dealing in abstractions
alone.
Fosters a shift from “us/them” to “we.”
Places a great emphasis on listening
together as a systemic habit.
Pairs analysis with
reflection and dialogue.

This work is different

Adding to our kit
Systemic
Participatory
Start with local
Emergence (+ planning and design)
High-touch and full-on human (not always
comfortable, but certainly satisfying)
If we are living and working at the
confluence of these two streams –
expert and diffuse design – and we
are all setting out on this grand
journey toward sustainable society
together, but meanwhile our history,
the country we’re setting out from,
is the country of design in service to
business, some things are going to
change.
Our work will…
be more systemically entangled.
Be more social
Be more local
Involve emergence as well as
planning and design

What about
information
architecture?

What is systemic IA?
What is participatory IA?
What is IA with and for local community?
What is full-on human IA?
I can offer some invitations.
I’m curious to know what excites you.

Shifting patterns
need IA’s help

A system is born. It thrives and
grows and then reaches its apex,
at which point it begins to decay.
This framework comes from The Berkana Institute:
berkana.org. The sketched diagram is by Chris
Corrigan (chriscorrigan.com), as shown in his video,
Dynamics of Complex Living Systems:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1_tpzZVWTY

At the same time, some people
begin to question the old system,
and jump off. We call them
pioneers.

The pioneers start out as solo
players, but soon connect to
others to form networks…

...and the networks evolve into
communities of practice, joining
their efforts in common purpose.

Eventually this group becomes the
new system of influence and the old
system decays.

As the new system grows, it builds
bridges back to the old system, to
assist people in crossing into the new.

The Berkana Model
Berkana Institute
Diagram by Lauren Gardner, SVA

IA: Support the pioneers
Help consider the choice
Get a view of those
who’ve already jumped

IA: Help pioneers form networks
Find each other
Interconnect their efforts
Disseminate language and practice
…
These networks are essential for people
finding like-minded others, the first stage
in the lifecycle of emergence.
IA? People as information. We are tangled
in a conversation about identity and
privacy. People ask for anonymity, and at
the same time they are blasting out selfies
and hey look at me’s. But this isn’t a
general public, the same for everybody
kind of question. This is about the
pioneers finding each other. Recognizing
that they are not alone.
How can they find each other? How can
they move from being a scattering of
pioneers to becoming a community of
practice?

IA: Nourish communities of practice
Find each other
Interconnect their efforts
Disseminate language and practice
Support place making and community building
In a community of practice, people share what
they know to support one another, and to
intentionally create new knowledge for their
field of practice.
IA? We still have the challenge of people finding
each other, and on top of that the challenge of
helping them pool their resources, knowledge,
and expertise. In the digital world, for all our
Slacks and Twitters, we still have a long ways to
go when it comes to supporting communities of
practice: formation, development and thriving,
and evolving. Too many digital tools ignore the
possibilities that come from local people having
a tool that can stand alongside their face-to-
face activities. Too often our architectures force
a particular way of seeing and working, rather
than giving people the “legos” they need to
make a home for themselves. It’s a tough
challenge.

A few much-needed
super powers

Help groups and
systems see what’s
really going on.
Superpower

In Harlem, the experts mapped, the community also
mapped, and together they made sense of it all.

A wall of the services available in the neighborhood

Signs and visual communications that residents see

Noise pollution in the neighborhood

Help people use
information and
story together.
Superpower

cognitive-edge.com/sensemaker
www.girlsnotbrides.org/resource-centre/using-sensemaker-
to-understand-girls-live-lessons-learnt-from-girls-hub

Numbers and patterns
have credibility as evidence.
Stories de-abstract the numbers,
and bring emotional life.
Together, they are persuasive.

Tools like this allow us to employ a new kind of goal:
“How might we get more stories like these, and fewer stories like those?”

Give people “Legos”
for their own good IA.
Collecting, organizing, finding, making sense, visualizing, making use.
Co-creating narratives.
Prototyping, amplifying ideas and best practices, building scenarios,
gaining cultural insight, applying open-ended and iterative processes.
Superpower

spatialcollective.com

The coding scheme was inadequate to the task: it is very
difficult to capture a problem as great and diverse in a set
of limited categories, which means that the categories
were not mutually exclusive enough. Distinguishing
between piles of trash is really hard.
Coding can be subjective: People have different
perceptions of what problems are: some mappers might
not think that a certain pile of trash is relevant.
Coders weren’t focused enough on the task.
We believe that a combination of a bad coding scheme
together with (our) lack of awareness of what the actual
hazards of waste are and ubiquitous nature of the problem
contributed to these results.

A personal note:
three movements

Recover the depth of
the creative process.
Movement

through conversations
with context and people
with attention
acting with respect and mindfulness
contributing passion and energy
with openness
listening + learning
from other people + cultures
Observation begins as a conversation with others.
First you’re on the outside looking in; slowly you
immerse yourself; then you can step back and
reflect. Where are we? Who is here? What are
they doing? (What are we doing?) What’s
important here? Why?
Observe
Hugh Dubberly, dubberly.com

Reflect
with experience + values
to understand
what people want
how culture is evolving
to integrate
by seeing patterns
by building consensus
Reflection begins as a conversation with
oneself. It considers experience and values.
And it frames the situation—or selects a
metaphor to explain it—which must then be
shared with other people.

Make
with tools + materials
to search
working quickly + iterating
taking advantage of accidents
to envision
imagining the future and making it tangible
explaining what it might mean
Making also begins as a conversation with
oneself. As it continues it increasingly
involves others.

Conversation. Dialogue.
Open attention.
At every step, quality of attention
determines quality of result.

Let go of expertise.
Sit with uncertainty.
Embrace emergence.
Movement

Remember the
importance of my
own depth of being.
Recover wonder
and reverence.
Movement

WHEN WE APPROACH WITH REVERENCE
At the heart of things is a secret law of balance and when our approach is respectful,
sensitive and worthy, gifts of healing, challenge and creativity open to us. A gracious
approach is the key that unlocks the treasure of encounter. The way we are present to
each other is frequently superficial. We become more interested in 'connection' rather
than communion. In many areas of our lives the rich potential of friendship and love
remains out of our reach because we push towards 'connection.' When we deaden our
own depths, we cannot strike a resonance in those we meet or in the work we do. A
reverence of approach awakens depth and enables us to be truly present where we are.
When we approach with reverence great things decide to approach us. Our real life
comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty of things. When we walk
on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and the
arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace. Beauty is
mysterious, a slow presence who waits for the ready, expectant heart.
John O'Donohue
Excerpt from Beauty

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