How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert

Chapter 1: Identify the Mess | Page 15

Things may change; the messes stay the same.

We’ve been learning how to architect information since the dawn of thought.

Page numbering, alphabetical order, indexes, lexicons, maps, and diagrams are all examples of information architecture achievements that happened well before the information age.

Even now, technology continues to change the things we make and use at a rate we don’t understand yet. But when it really comes down to it, there aren’t that many causes for confusing information.

1. Too much information
2. Not enough information
3. Not the right information
4. Some combination of these (eek!)

Chapter 6: Play with Structure | Page 127

We combine taxonomies to create unique forms.

Taxonomies shape our experience at every level. We use taxonomies to make sense of everything from systems to objects. It often takes multiple taxonomic approaches to make sense of a single form.

A Form is the visual shape or configuration something takes. The form is what users actually experience.

Even a simple form like this book uses several taxonomies to help you read through the content, understand it, and use it.

A few taxonomies in this book:

• Table of contents
• Chapter sequence
• Page numbers
• Headlines that accompany brief expansions on an individual lesson
• An Indexed lexicon
• Links to worksheets