[Sigia-l] Re narrative in IA

[ruth at ruthkaufman.com]

> Re: ruth's response about wayfinding. Those ideas are indebted to the memory
> palaces I mentioned in my earlier post to Eric. For a quick read altho a bit
> out of date now, pick up Interface Culture by Steven Johnson. Also there is
> much debate about wayfinding these days amongst highway engineers with a few
> proposing their removal in favor of designing the physical environment in a
> way as to embed directionality or affordances. Examples include updating
> round-abouts, intersection paving methods, scale of lanes and curb
> redefinitions...the critique being that wayfinding distracts the eye from the
> temporal/spatial condition.

Scott,

Interesting perspective. I might need a refresher on what you meant by memory
palaces.

I would argue that "wayfinding" isn't what's distracting, but that signage that
has been designed for highways in an effort to facilitate wayfinding might be.
People do wayfinding and have been since the days of hunting and gathering.
It's how we get from one place to another by interpreting environmental cues
and without the use of instrumentation such as compasses. Even if the pavement
styles differ, people will still have to look for landmarks on roadsides, find
the sun or mountain peak to get oriented to the cardinal directions, etc.
Wayfinding, navigation, and guided movement (making up a term here) aren't
mutually exclusive -- they're all ways for people get from one place to
another.

With that said, it's a fascinating idea -- that signage disrupts the experience
of space-time. I'll have to roll that one around in my head a bit more :-)

Ruth