How to Make Sense of Any Mess: Information Architecture for Everybody

The first step to taming any mess is to shine a light on it so you can outline its edges and depths.

Most importantly perhaps, we realize that for the first time ever, we have easy access to other people's experiences to help us decide if something is worth experiencing at all.

What are you trying to change? What is your vision for the future? What is within your abilities? What do you know about the quality of what exists today? What further research will help you understand it? What has been done before? What can you learn from those experiences? What is the market and competition like? Has anyone succeeded or failed at

What channels do your users prefer? What context are they likely in when encountering what you're making? How are they feeling? Are they in a hurry? Are they on slow Wi-Fi? Are they there for entertainment or to accomplish a task?

The meaning we intend to communicate doesn't matter if it makes no sense, or the wrong sense, to the people we want to reach.

As users, our context is the situation we're in, including where we are, what we're trying to do, how we're feeling, and anything else that shapes our experience. Our context is always unique to us and can't be relied upon to hold steady.

Why does this work need to be done? Why is change needed? Why do those changes matter? Why should other people care? Why hasn't this been tackled correctly? Why will this time be different?

Too much information Not enough information Not the right information Some combination of these

Who's most important to serve? What words might make them defensive? What words might put them at ease? How open are they to change? How will this affect their lives? How does the current state of things look to them? Is that good or bad?

But to make sense of real-world problems, you need to understand how users, channels, and context relate to each other.