...until i sketched it

…until I sketched it
An ignite talk on theory and practice in
information architecture education
Thomas Wendt
Surrounding Signiﬁers
@thomas_wendt
thomas@srsg.co
srsg.co

Thomas Wendt Surrounding Signiﬁers @thomas_wendt
Thomas Wendt
Design Strategist and Researcher
!
Teacher, Speaker, and Writer
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Founder of Surrounding Signiﬁers, a strategy and design
consultancy
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Background in continental philosophy, psychology, and
literary theory
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!

Theory and
Practice
While the question of balancing theory and practice is certainly not speciﬁc to information architecture education, IA is in a unique position to show how
the dichotomy of theory and practice is perhaps not very productive. As instructors, it is easy to obsess about balancing theoretical frameworks with
practical applications. My goal is not necessarily to answer the question but to approach it in a different way.

Theory
from Theoria
conception, contemplation, look at
!
from Theoros
spectator, a view (theater)
It is helpful to refresh ourselves on what theory and practice actually mean. Theory is usually associated with detached speculation that results in a mental
conception that lives “in the head.” We teach theory because it ostensibly lays a foundation for practice, which generates understanding.

Theory
Understanding
Theory emphasizes reﬂection as a necessary means for understanding. We cannot simply parrot actions of “experts” and expect to understand anything.

Practice
from Practicare
to do, perform to acquire a skill
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Practice is associated with action. In the context of IA education, we teach practice because it’s what students will eventually “do.” Practice builds upon and
enacts theory to generate knowledge.

Practice
Knowledge
Practice emphasizes action as a means of knowledge acquisition.

Theory
or
Practice?
So the question becomes how much theory versus how much practice. This was one of the prompts for this workshop. I want to argue that this question
leads us down the wrong path. Asking the question assumes that understanding is always theoretical and knowledge is always practical. I’m not sure that’s
the case.

Dualism
Theory and practice are not always mutually exclusive. There are plenty of situations in which theory and practice blend together. In terms of IA, practical
activities like sketching and system flows are less about the artifact and more about theoretical reflection that happens “outside the head,” or what Donald
Schon might call reflection-in-action.

http://newyorknatives.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/new-york-subway-map-cropped2.jpg
For example, consulting a map is wrapped up in navigating, and vice versa. Reﬂection on the artifact cannot be disconnected from the acts of navigation
and way ﬁnding. Looking at a map is an action designed to facilitate understanding.

Mapping the ﬂow of a system is the same as reﬂecting on the system. We map things in order to understand them, not for the sake of the map itself.

Should we even
make the
distinction?
So should we even distinguish between theory and practice? What good is it doing us? I’m not sure I have the answer, but I might know where to look.

Praxis
Philosophy
Praxis philosophy, usually associated with phenomenology, was born out of a dissatisfaction with earlier dualist philosophy beginning with Rene Descartes.
Praxis philosophy aimed to break down the separation between mind and body, and show how bodily engagement with the world is what shapes
knowledge and understanding.

We can’t learn
without action
For our purposes, we can’t learn without action in context. This is pretty easy for educators to understand: this is why we have in class activities,
homework assignments, etc.

Design-as-practice
Lucy Kimbell describes this phenomenon as design-as-practice. She says, “Design-as-practice cannot conceive of designing (the verb) without the artifacts
that are created and used by the bodies and minds of people doing design. This way of thinking of design sees it as a situated and distributed
accomplishment in which a number of things, people, and their doings and sayings, are implicated.”

Or as Paul Dourish states, “Embodiment does not simply mean physical manifestation. Rather, it means being grounded in and emerging out of everyday,
mundane experience”
!
To become an information architect, one must not only perform the physical actions of the profession. One must also become embodied in the everyday
experience of information architecture.

Understanding-as-
practice
And this means practicing a form of understanding-as-practice. Through the active engagement with information architecture, the student embodies both
theory and practice. The question, then, is not necessarily about how much theory and how much practice to include in education but rather how to
properly frame the combination.

Praxis…
The problem is that we don’t have a good word for the coming-together of theory and practice. Praxis is about as close as we get, and that still doesn’t
completely embody the entirety of the concept.

“I couldn’t talk about my idea until I
sketched it.”
Former Student
Perhaps one of my former students put it best when she said “I couldn’t talk about my idea until I sketched it.” Our challenge is to name this concept
without using obscure Greek words and incorporate it into our teaching.

...until i sketched it

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