The Super Bowl of Information Architecture
Pete Bell
The Explain Information Architecture contest (blogged earlier) ends this Thursday, and here are three more entries I enjoyed. (Disclaimer: Endeca is a sponsor of the contest, though for a price significantly lower than Google’s Super Bowl commercial.)
The first two pair nicely. Each entrant — working independently — tried to explain IA in terms simple enough for a 5 year old. I know US newspapers are supposedly written at a 4th grade level, but given how chronically underfunded IA is, I think the profession has learned to go even younger as a survival skill.
In the first version, from benry, he literally asks his 5 year old son to whiteboard what he thinks his dad does at work. You’ll find annotations for the pictures at the link. There are few job descriptions as abstract as information architect, yet this interpretation covers a surprising amount.
This pairs with the next entry in a way that reminds me of the Monster Engine, a site where a professional artist reinterprets drawings by his kid niece. To that end, Boltron made a claymation short of a mother dinosaur explaining IA to her 5 year old child. Great creative, but I particularly like explaining what an IA does by explaining what an IA doesn’t do.
And finally, eincarsten’s entry is a simple “reveal” that starts with a finished web page and then peels back the layers until you’re left with its information architecture. Since IA is embedded so deeply in a site, this explanation by excavation works.
The last time I blogged the Explain IA contest, it led to a healthy discussion about the relationship between Search and IA. More on that next time.
on February 23, 2010 at 5:05 pm
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[...] Search Facets » The Super Bowl of Information Architecture The first two pair nicely. Each entrant — working independently — tried to explain IA in terms simple enough for a 5 year old. I know US newspapers are supposedly written at a 4th grade level, but given how chronically underfunded IA is, I think the profession has learned to go even younger as a survival skill. (tags: informationarchitecture reference) [...]