In the book “Structures or why things don’t fall down” by J.E. Gordon a structure is defined as “any assemblage of materials which is intended to sustain loads”, of course this definition refers to a physical structure, but the thinking behind it can be applied to information structures.
As information architects creating structures which can support data and content is our raison d’etre, these structures can be defined as “any assemblage of information which is intended to sustain storage and retrieval”.
The behaviour of these structures is precisely what we have been designing. The entry points, the navigation method, the taxonomy and the labelling have all been planned to ensure the information is accessible, findable and relevant. In a similar way lack of thinking in these areas is what causes these structures to fail.
Our only tool in trying to avoid these failures is testing and even then we cannot account for every eventuality where a failure is possible. The aim of this series is to consider the common points of failure in an information system and to discuss whether recovery is possible, or to provide answers to the question “Are websites plastic or elastic?”.
Privatisation of the transport infrastructure has led to declining punctuality of services. This has had the knock-on effect of disrupting social interaction between passengers. For instance, the transformation of the inhabitants of London and the surrounding commuter towns from talkative travellers into heads down, muted zombies is a direct result of the inability to feel part of a community that travels at the same time. As they no longer travel at the same time every day, slight differences in arrival and departure times mean that they no longer board a train in the company of familiar faces and are forced to stand armpit to face with an ever changing sea of commuters. Rectify this and maybe “broken Britain” will begin to heal.
David Shrigley is the creative mind behind Pringle of Scotland’s latest ad campaign. Particularly interesting is his computer interface that comes in at 1 min 45 secs
First task in a new job, work out how to deal with a navigation system that consists of five levels, yes that’s right five levels, which is technically known as quinary navigation. The initial three levels are dealt with by using tabs and research shows that users don’t want to use tabs to get any further down in to the content.
Suggestion One - More tabs
Maybe the user research is wrong, why not try more tabs to avoid the uncomfortable introduction of a side navigation. The sense in this comes from the separation of the main navigation (in pride of place sitting across the top of the page) from the inpage/incontent local navigation. This approach allows the site to feel more shallow than it really is because the user never leaves the section landing page when looking at content buried two levels below it.
Suggestion Two - Don’t tell anyone
Build the navigation into the content, using contextual and related information links the user can browse and navigate around the content using their back button and cunning little “back” links at the bottom of each page of content. In reality this approach seems flawed as there is no structure around the user’s journey, but carefully placed trigger words could allow us to persuade and even guide the user to the content they’re after. This method will need further consideration and planning to make sure the journeys are correctly aligned with the user’s needs.
Suggestion Three - Tabs and a Lightbox
Using the tabs method to display the quaternary (do you like it?) navigation and then allow content below this to be displayed in lightbox content areas over the main page. A pretty controversial method as in my opinion the user journey is broken by the pop up nature of the lightbox, added to the fact that there is no way to navigate inside the lightbox content leaving the user with closing the lightbox as the only action after having read a captivating piece of information that makes them want to do something right now. So, how about a compromise? Why not put the tabs within the light box and allow the user to navigate around the lightbox content based on the fourth level (yeah I got bored of that too) section, with simple language to explain to the user that they return to the main section or exit in to a completely new area by selecting a link from the right hand related links area. This could work as it makes the lightbox a little more flexible.
Conclusion
I guess it’s down to the client now, I’m not hugely sold on any particular method. The problem in reality is that we’re trying to fit a whole website in to another one where it would be better off as standalone site. But therein lies the challenge!!
Great read, I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series. I think it’s a contemporary problem, less thinking about how to do something properly and more mistakes made by just getting on with it. Specifically, it seems to affect social and welfare services; education as you mentioned, but also childcare services and the national health service have been badly tarnished by what I see as exactly what is identified in this post. Our society idolises doers not thinkers, but these are the people that are really changing the world. I await the rest of the posts with anticipation.
This image was stencilled on to a wall in an urban area of Madrid, fed up with the advertising that adorns the walls in most modern cities it’s author calls for a ban on the insidious advertising that subconsciously invades contemporary minds.
Earlier this week UK politicians agreed to allow product placement on national television, whether this really changes anything is up for debate as many brands already sponsor programmes, but personally I fear for the creative integrity of the programmes. Is this an avenue we really wish to travel down? The use of subliminal advertising in programmes had been outlawed for some years now and this new legislation seems to open the doors for the “admen” to get their hands on consumers when they aren’t paying attention, slumped in front of the television after a hard day’s work.
I can’t stomach the over branded film experiences of Transformers and other such movies that have been released recently. I prefer the films and television programmes that I watch to maintain a level of realism, to provide an experience that I can believe in. I will watch will interest and enjoy seeing if viewers are ready for what I consider a brand experience too far.
100proofTRUTH is one such publication, now on it’s 5th online edition it has a growing readership from counterculture’s web savvy. As an arts and culture led magazine 1ooproofTRUTH showcases the talents and gives a voice to new and established artists. The content is deftly handled by founder King Adz, a fantastic documentary filmmaker who has profiled greats such as Blek Le Rat and Stass Paraskoss. His enviable talent for finding the best of the new breed is inspiring and marks the magazine head and shoulders above any mainstream publication that attempts to cover the same bases.
Reporting comes from a new school of thought, a school that grew up on Hunter S Thompson’s Gonzo journalism style but adds a new dimension for the future. Alexis Manning brings troubled areas to life getting into the reality that is lost from so much news reporting. Her article from Cape Flats in South Africa in issue one sets out a clear statement of intent; uncompromising, no holds barred, gritty realism. The new dimension is added by fast flowing, urban film which accompanies the written reports. The film brings a visual representation of the sights that Alexis describes providing a quick yet definite insight in her travels.
If you haven’t read the magazine yet then now is the time to start. The editions can be sporadic but believe me they are worth the wait and in the mean time you visit the wooster collective and areyougeneric to keep your mind engaged and up to date.
Just a post about my favourite current artists.
First off, in no particular order is David Shrigley, I love the way his art creates humour from the mundane whilst retaining a surreal outlook. His ability to produce art that contains mistakes empowers me to realise that they are ok, normal and something to be proud of.
Up next is Martin Parr, I first encountered Martin when I bought “Boring Postcards”. A collection of postcards depicted various scenes of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s life in the UK. I then found out that he was behind a TV series that I had watched as a teenager called “From A to B” which was about ordinary people and the cars that they drive.
I don’t know exactly what draws me to Martin’s work, maybe nostalgia, maybe his fondness of utopian/utilitarian architecture from the 60’s and 70’s but definitely his ability with a camera.
Finally for this instalment is Shepherd Fairey and in particular his “Obey Giant” work. I have always loved communist propaganda posters, the bold colours, the straight lines and the unforgettable fonts, which are used by Shepherd in a fantastic array of posters that cover a wide range of topics.
I particularly enjoy his wallpaper type pieces which for me appear as an homage to William Morris and his more politically-minded works with great graphics featuring the Islamic Mujer Fatale
Neil Boorman (Bonfire of the brands) began the evening with a spot of audience participation, he asked if anyone amongst us felt that they were unaffected by advertising and brand pulling power. A small amount of hands were stridently raised, one of these self-proclaimed “brand neutral” audience members was invited or possibly cajoled to the stage for a short exercise on unconscious advertising.
The premise of this short task was to establish if the participant was free of feeling and sentiment when viewing logos belonging to a some world leading brands. The participant was asked to write the first word that came into their head on a whiteboard, as the brands were shown words connected to the brand image of each company appeared on the board. The exercise had shown that even if we think we are not affected by brand image, we still find it easy to give the emotional response that the advertising has been feeding us.
It is true that city dwellers in our western society are subjected to some 3000 adverts during their working day. This has the effect of subconsciously conditioning an emotional response to a product or brand (exactly what the advertising is designed to do). This conditioning triggers thoughts and feelings when we visit shops and forms the basis of our eventual choice of product.
Neil took Lynx deodorant as a case in point. Levelled squarely at teenage boys, Lynx adverts seek to show that wearing the product will make you instantly sexually appealing to the opposite sex. Whilst in an adult reality we can see that this is a ludicrous suggestion, imagine the effect it has on an impressionable adolescent already worried about his self image because he does not wear the latest Nike trainers or use the most socially acceptable Sony Ericcson mobile phone.
It is exactly this type of advertising that Neil abhors, having been a fully paid up member of the brand club he self deprecates effortlessly about his former self reliance on brands to make him feel good about his life.
Since his awakening and atonement through setting all his branded possessions alight, he has made it his obligation to educate, through lectures such as these, the consumer, so that they may fight back against the ad agencies and their underhand tactics. A mission made all the more difficult by the observations of anthropologist Professor Danny Miller.
In two studies of the inhabitants of London, Danny has seen his expectations tested. It should be that people who are aware of the power of advertising, emotional responses and the evils of over-consumption, lead more meaningful lives and have more meaningful relationships than those who over consume, as they operate on a level free of materialism and individualism. But, his studies have shown the opposite. People who fully engage with emotional responses and follow them up with purchasing and consumption have meaningful relationships, have more friends and are on the whole happier with their lives.
An interesting observation, but my personal thoughts are that I require further classification on what a meaningful relationship is and of course what it means to be happy (a topic to large to get into now). More potent to me is the statistic that teenagers change their mobile phones on average every 17 months, could this same relationship pattern cause social ennui if it pervades into their personal lives and we see friends discarded when a new and more exciting model turns up.
Danny’s lecture then changed tack to look at the role of consumption in the environment and how it gets lost within a myriad of factors when applied to climate change. He argued that consumption is the driving force behind climate change, it is precisely this singular factor that increases production, pollution and in some cases causes economic and environmental disasters.
He believes that governments should do far more to halt climate change by forcing citizens to stop consuming. I agree that it should be up to the government to lead from the front and not to just leave it to the electorate to choose whether they want to make a difference or not. But, I could only work with this if scientists were to be given the floor to explain the consequences and it was clear that the government did not profit out of the actions taken.
The final lecture was given by Michael Landy a YBA whose work “Breakdown” found the artist cataloging all 7227 of his personal possessions and then destroying them using an (un)assembly line built inside the former C&A store on Oxford Street. His talk centred around his own experience of losing all of his “things” in the name of art.
Personally I found it quite an emotive action, I felt sadness for him when he said he had destroyed all of his photos, love letters and personal momentos. But, he is unaffected by it, his life has changed although he is still able to carry on doing what he did before, for me this shows with great clarity that possessions do not maketh the man. Many people lose their possessions through theft, fire or flood, these people carry on, rebuild and start again.
Maybe it is this fresh start that we all need, to shed our belongings, lose our materialism and build lives that have meaning based on love and worth instead of the pursuit of money, fame and power.
