Oliver Reichenstein: a chat about information architecture
TAKEAWAY: Information architecture exists to structure content and to simplify business and communication processes. It succeeds when the user experience becomes easier and more flawless. While this is a conversation that could go on for days, here is a taste of my hour with Oliver Reichenstein, of Information Architects in Zurich.
A wonderful chat with Oliver Reichenstein in Zurich
While in Zurich last week I had the opportunity to sit down with Oliver Reichenstein, of Information Architects. This was an encounter I had long anticipated. And what an instructive and fascinating conversation that was.
Oliver’s firm is well known globally for its design work for building interactive products.
I have known Oliver’s work for a few years, and included some of his expertise in my digital book The iPad Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet. In a conversation during happy hour at my hotel, I was the eager interviewer and Oliver a most gracious and generous conversationalist.
The talk flowed as smoothly as the white and red wine that we shared.
For example, I have always wondered about the name of his company, Information Architects, which I consider right on the money, but perhaps a risky move in 2005 when the company was formed.
“Well, we were told that at the time. After all, by 2005, the term information architecture was not so chic anymore. It had peaked in 2000, but five years later, it wasn’t what you would call hot,” Oliver says. “The use of the term architecture in connection with language and thought started long before Richard Saul Wurman coined the term. Architectural metaphors are very popular in Philosophy. Descartes wanted to flatten the house of his convictions to re-erect a new house of science on it. Kant uses architectural terminology in the Critique of the Pure Reason, Nietzsche repeatedly calls the philosopher an architect of thought and Ludwig Wittgenstein does not only use the term as a metaphor, he actually built a beautiful house by himself for his sister.”
The type of work IA does has taken to structure content, form interaction and simplify processes generally for such clients as: Von Holtzbrinck Media Group, the Japanese Broadcasting Association, Tages Anzeiger and Ringier Axel Springer, among many.
Information architecture is a major part of what Oliver and his team carry out. It is also a subject that I would like to know more about, and which I encourage my students at Columbia to pursue.
It should be an academic subject more readily available for students in any major, but it isn’t.
“Information architecture is more related to philosophy than any other design discipline,” says Oliver, the philosophy major.
“Philosophy is my academic background. Clearing up notions/concepts is the basic handicraft of both the philosopher as well as the information architect.”
In the course of our conversation, Oliver and I agreed that information architecture clarifies meaning, strengthens structures, simplifies processes, and defines the foundation of user experience.
I hope this will not be my last meeting with Oliver. As we parted, we started a discussion that could be a seminar in itself: the notion that information architecture as a dictatorship on UX may perhaps kill creativity like philosophers as kings ruin states.
“Well,” said Oliver. “Information Architecture does not oppose creativity. To some, structuring information might sound boring. But writing novels, drawing layouts, painting and even writing music, all creative work to a degree a form of structuring information. It’s a beautiful endeavor if you love what you are doing. What is clear is that you cannot put all your eggs in the logic basket. Information Architecture is not a purely logical discipline. Language is not purely logical. And humans… Strong logical skills are a precondition, they help you understanding and explaining, but they shouldn’t dictate human behavior. In information architecture as in all other design disciplines, you need to know the rules, before you break them. Logic is a wonderful catalyst to understanding the new. Logic has the power to make you believe what you were not prepared for. But to convince human beings, you need reach us emotionally.”