design, cities, physical & social interaction, play

Leapfroglog design, cities, physical & social interaction, play

Web of Data — Third of Five IA Summit 2007 Themes

In Articles on 24 April 2007 tagged , , , , , , , , , , , with 5 comments

(Here’s the third post on the 2007 IA Summit. You can find the first one that introduces the series and describes the first theme ‘tangible’ here and the second one on ‘social’ here.)

Typically, IAs have concerned themselves with the design of web sites. The metaphor most suited and used for the web so far has been space. Even the term ‘information architecture’ points to this. Nowadays, besides having to tackle the social dimension (as per the previous trend mentioned) IAs are forced to rethink the spatial metaphor in favour of a new one: the web as platform. This means designing for a web of data, where sites become data sources and tools to view and manipulate that data. This is a far cry from the old hierarchical model. Like design for social software, IAs are still exploring this new territory.

There was an excellent panel on this subject (notes and audio at The Chicken Test), with amongst others Tom Coates and Matt Biddulph (both previously employed by the BBC). Coates’ presentations (Native to a Web of Data and Greater than the sum of its parts) are essential resources. He gave a super short overview of what designing for the web of data is all about. Matt went beyond screen based media into the realm of physical computing (see the first trend) showing some cool examples of Arduino prototypes feeding into Second Life.

Jared Spool talked about the usability challenges of web 2.0 and focussed on (among many things) the shortcomings of RSS and the dangers of mash-ups. RSS as a technology is pretty cool, but no normal user intuitively understands its application. This is a technology still looking for a killer app. Mash-ups are typically made by enthusiastic amateurs looking to combine available data sources or interfaces. This means we’ll see a wave of sites with serious usability issues. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing per se, but still something to look out for.

Related posts:

  1. Social — Second of Five IA Summit 2007 Themes
  2. Using Concept Models to Design for the Web of Data
  3. Tangible — First of Five IA Summit 2007 Themes


5 Comments

links from Technoratis the fourth post on the 2007 IA Summit. You can find the first one that introduces the series and describes the first theme ‘tangible’ here, the second one on ’social’ here and the third one on ‘web of data’ here.) Like other design disciplines, IAs are typically brought in to solve a problem. The extent to which the design problem is defined and explicated is a huge determining factor in the success of their undertaking. More often than not, an IA would take

Posted by Leapfroglog on 3 May 2007 @ 8am

Thanks so much for the kind words! Very much appreciated.

Posted by Tom Coates on 24 April 2007 @ 12pm

My pleasure Tom, I like the way you try to get designers to think differently about the web. Your ‘models’ are a challenge (but fun) to put in practice when doing client work though. I’ll let you know when I come up with something smart.

Posted by Kars on 24 April 2007 @ 1pm

Kramer auto Pingback

[...] Web of data — third of five IA Summit 2007 themes [...]

Posted by IA Summit 2007 Blog on 24 April 2007 @ 7pm

[...] Web of data [...]

Posted by Tangible — first of five IA Summit 2007 themes (Leapfroglog) on 10 December 2007 @ 12pm

← →

About

Kars is an independent interaction and game designer. His main professional interests are cities, physical & social interactions and play. He is also a teacher and an organizer of events. He lives and works in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Recently

Et Cetera


← Back to Home

© Leapfroglog. Powered by WordPress using the DePo Skinny Theme.