A design manifesto for the present-future of information architecture and user experience design.
Information architectures become ecosystems
When different media and different contexts are intertwined tightly, no artifact can stand as a single, isolated entity. Every artifact becomes an element in a larger ecosystem. All of these artifacts have multiple links or relationships with each other and have to be designed as part of one single seamless user experience process.
Users become intermediaries
Users are now contributing participants in these ecosystems and actively produce new content or remediate existing content by ways of linking, mash-ups, commentary, or critique. The traditional distinction between authors and readers, or producers and
consumers, becomes thin to the point of being useless and void of all
meaning.
Static becomes dynamic
On the one hand, these architectures aggregate and remediate content that physically might reside elsewhere and that might have been released for completely different purposes. On the other hand, the active role played by intermediaries makes them perpetually unfinished, perpetually changing, and perpetually open to further refinement and manipulation.
Dynamic becomes hybrid
These new architectures embrace different domains (physical, digital, and hybrid), different types of entities (data, physical items, and people), and different media. As much as the boundaries separating producers and consumers grow thin, so do those between different media and genres. All experiences are bridge- or cross-media experiences spanning different environments.
Horizontal prevails over vertical
In these new architectures, correlation between elements becomes the predominant characteristic at the expenses of traditional top-down hierarchies. In open and ever-changing architectures, hierarchical models are difficult to maintain and support, as intermediaries push toward spontaneity, ephemeral or temporary structures of meaning, and constant change.
Product design becomes experience design
When every single artifact, be it content, product, or service, is part of a larger ecosystem, focus shifts from how to design single items to how to design experiences across processes. Everyday shopping does not concern itself with the convenience store or supermarket only, but configures a process that may start on traditional media, include the Web, proceed to another shop to finalize a purchase, and finally return to the Web for assistance, updates, customization, and networking with other people or devices.
Experiences become cross-media experiences
Experiences bridge multiple connected media and environments into ubiquitous ecologies, a single unitarian process where all parts contribute to one global seamless user experience.