As I work on Natural Information Architecture, I’m sharing notes and quotes from my sources of inspiration and provocation. As always, your questions and suggestions are welcome.
In Information Anxiety (1989), Richard Saul Wurman explains (on the front cover to reduce the reader’s anxiety) that “information anxiety is produced by the ever-widening gap between what we understand and what we think we should understand.”
My father would ask us questions [at dinner]. If we answered one incorrectly, we had to leave the table and go find the correct answer. (34)
My expertise is my ignorance. I ask the obvious questions, the ones everyone else is embarrassed to ask because they are so obvious. (45)
Accessibility is made possible by the discovery of a structure — the simplest correct form of organization — unique to a specific subject, one that allows readers to find what interests them and feel no guilt about ignoring what does not. (45)
Never be afraid to go in an opposite direction to find a solution. (47)
Sometimes subversion is the way to understanding. (49)
You don’t have to know everything, you just need to know how to find it. (52)
You must uncover the structure or framework by which it is or should be organized. (53)
I could teach about what I already knew or teach about what I would like to learn. (53)
My expertise has always been my ignorance, my admission and acceptance of not knowing. My work comes from questions, not from answers. (53)
To use a simple, Platonic example, we are able to recognize all of the diverse furniture types that fall into the category of chairs only because we hold some idea of the concept of chair in our minds. (56)
The ways of organizing information are finite. It can only be organized by 1) category, 2) time, 3) location, 4) alphabet, 5) continuum. (59)
While information may be infinite, the ways of structuring it are not. (59)
Each way of organizing will permit a different understanding. (60)
The creative organization of information creates new information. (70)
How could you offer alternative ways of searching for information that would increase the chances that users could find it? (78)
There is only one method for transmitting thought, for communicating information in a manner that somewhat captures the spirit of the mind: the medium of the conversation. (85)
There is no right way; there may be many ways. (103)
Louis Kahn used to describe the streets of a city as “rivers” and the parking lots as “harbors.” (107)
Using words from one frame of reference [in] another sheds new light and meanings. (107)
Humor by and large gives you the opposite of what you expect. (112)
We labor under the misconception that it is better to have too much information than too little. (115)
We have asked ourselves only questions that produce “more” answers. (122)
[Experts] fail to provide the doorknob or the threshold into each thought. (125)
It is an extremely common, insidious malady among graphic designers and architects to confuse looking good with being good. (125)
Surgeons are trained to respond to problems by performing surgery. (128)
Communication equals remembering what it’s like not to know. (130)
The minute we know something, we forget what it’s like not to know. (130)
Only when subject matter is perceived as being relevant to a person’s own purposes will a significant amount of learning take place. (139)
The most creative project that we can undertake is the design of our lives, so I set to work to redesign mine in such a way that my curiosity could manifest itself in my career. (143)
I followed my path of interests into graphic design and into the architecture of information. (143)
Learn to listen to your own voice and to balance your confidence and your terror. (165)
You only learn something relative to something you understand. (168)
All I do is allow [information] to reveal itself. (187)
Stories permit information to be imprinted into memory. (236)
All selective perceptions are exaggeration. (247)
Exaggeration is a natural way of looking at things. (248)
We are unnecessarily intolerant of the idea of exaggerations. (253)
A map can be a language, a symbol, a stick, or a drawing in the sand. A map is anything that shows you the way from one point to another, from one level of understanding to another. A map depicts the route through information. (257)
Throughout history, maps have always been equated with power. (260)
You can easily be misled by maps, whether intentionally or not. (283)
Book Notes
I love how Information Anxiety (IA) diverges from the conventional book format. For instance, the table of contents includes rich content, so that the reader might plot a “personal reading path.” Richard playfully exaggerates the book’s organization and structure in order to bring attention to Information Architecture (IA).
Information Anxiety (1989)
Wurman’s contention, “you only understand something relative to something you already understand,” resonates with my understanding of mental models and categories; and we both grok the importance of maps (in our brains and in the world).
Information Anxiety (1989)
As I explain in Natural Information Architecture, I embrace the opposite of LATCH. I believe the ways of organizing information are infinite. I see LATCH as the training wheels of information architecture; it helps you get started but hurts later on.
An Opposite Truth by Dan Klyn (2017)
Richard says we must uncover, recognize, and reveal the natural order of information, as if we are Michelangelo discovering the Form of David within a block of marble. In contrast, I believe our ways of organizing are biased by brains under the influence of evolution. We create categories according to our wants and needs — fitness beats truth.
Roger & Me (1989)
To classify rabbits as pets or meat (fryers or stewers) is surprising to many of us, but to the “bunny lady” this organization is obvious — it’s a reflection of the natural order.
IA I Feel, Therefore I Am
Way back in 1976, Richard Saul Wurman organized the “Architecture of Information” conference and began calling himself an information architect, and in 1989 he published Information Anxiety, so it’s fair to call him a visionary of the information age.
But the zeitgeist has changed. It’s time for a sequel. As AI eats IA (information architecture, intelligence augmentation), and we all ponder the value(s) of humanity, the book we need now is Intelligence Anxiety: Intelligence Isn’t Why We Matter.
Reality is Merely a Consensual Hallucination (2025)
Seriously, we can’t subtract our anxiety by adding information or intelligence. The problem is the environment. That’s why my next book to review is on ecopsychology.