[Sigia-l] RE: Hierarchies and organizing lists [was History of "Information Architecture"]

[Gent, Andrew]

>>>"As I looked into the organization of information, I realized that
there were only five ways to do it. 

>>Then where does he fit the quintessential example of hierarchical
organization - a tree-structure? I don't see it fitting into any these
five, including the last one, considering his definition. 

Tree structures are simply nested lists. For example, if you are looking
for character toys on E-bay, the tree structure is category, category,
alphabetical (Toys & Hobbies > TV, Movie, Character Toys > Hello Kitty).
The point is that each level in the tree structure must have some
organizing principle. 

By "simply" I am not implying hierarchies are trivial. Wurman does not
tackle the issue of the larger structure and LATCH will not help you
define what we think of as a hierarchy. (Which may be why Peter and
others downplay his significance to the profession.) However, it can be
quite useful for double-checking your results, making sure each level
does not run counter to a natural organizational scheme, mixes multiple
schemes (such as time and category), or that you are not switching
schemas too much between levels. This may seem obvious, but when working
with large teams, it can be a valuable sanity check.

Andrew Gent