[Sigia-l] Pick a theory (was "IA and Semiotics")

[Chris Fox]

Once could also extract IA nostrums from Deleuze, Jung, Freud, Skinner,
Hegel, Spinoza, Derrida, Leibniz, Kittler, Aristotle, Levi-Strauss,
Plato, Heraclitus, hey, why not even Kabbalah or Tao Te Ching. And I'm
only being a little bit (and playfully) sarcastic. Not intending to take
potshots at the discussion so far--I think it's interesting. I honestly
do see possibilities for all of the above to inform one's practice as an
IA in some way, as well as semiotics and semiology. But that's where the
point really comes...as practice. 

To what extent would any concept borrowed from of these theories change
a design decision I made about what goes where in a digital environment,
or how it's done, or how users interact? Let's imagine statements in the
form of "When theorist X makes statement Y, I applied the inference X'
to design problem Z in the following way." Then let's imagine validating
those statements by deploying the designs in the contexts where they are
used, and then observing how they operate within those contexts. In my
opinion, that would be the method by which we could explore a
theoretically informed IA.

Unless...In the same way that architecture "proper" starting in the late
70s allowed for the possibility of purely theoretical architecture,
would anyone ever carry out information architecture specifically NOT
for the purpose of it being implemented and used? But what would that
mean?

Christopher G. Fox, Ph.D.
Principal Consultant
Logical Design Solutions, Inc.
            (www.lds.com)