[Sigia-l] History of "Information Architecture"

[Beth Mazur]

Yikes. My apologies for being way late on this, but I cannot believe I
forgot to resubscribe to SIGIA after my Aug/Sep travel!

Anyways, peterme wrote:

> I asked Peter Morville about why he chose the term "information 
> architecture" for describing the work he did, when Richard Saul Wurman 
> had used it to define a somewhat different practice. Peter said that he 
> and Lou, simply, though Wurman was wrong in his use, and they decided to 
> apply the term in a way they thought more appropriate.

When I founded STC's information design SIG (in late 1996), I had the 
same thought as Peter and Lou. So we used Wurman's definition 
("making the complex clear") but not his terminology!

I've posted this in various places, but here's Wurman's rationale for
choosing "architect" over "design" way back then:

      I selected the term information 'architect' rather than information 
      'designer' as the term 'designer' continues to be interpreted by the
      public as an individual who is hired to come in after the fact to make 
      some project 'look better' - as opposed to a professional part of the 
      initial team creatively solving a problem.

      I do not believe I can change this popular preconception. 

I'd point to the original post, but the list archives seem to have gone
off-line :(. Curious that this same discussion is now going on with
the interaction community (some, like Tog, who think that interaction
architect is preferable to interaction designer).

As an aside, I agree that Wurman may not have been able to change the
popular preconception about design, but I must be someone who likes to
tilt at windmills...I'm not sure this is a lost cause. But that's for another
thread (or list).

For those of you who hate me for bringing up a thread you thought
died, I just couldn't help myself. Mea culpa!

Beth Mazur
IDblog: http://idblog.org