Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become

Description

How do you find your way in an age of information overload? How can you filter streams of complex information to pull out only what you want? Why does it matter how information is structured when Google seems to magically bring up the right answer to your questions? What does it mean to be "findable" in this day and age? This eye-opening new book examines the convergence of information and connectivity. Written by Peter Morville, author of the groundbreaking Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, the book defines our current age as a state of unlimited findability. In other words, anyone can find anything at any time. Complete navigability.

Morville discusses the Internet, GIS, and other network technologies that are coming together to make unlimited findability possible. He explores how the melding of these innovations impacts society, since Web access is now a standard requirement for successful people and businesses. But before he does that, Morville looks back at the history of wayfinding and human evolution, suggesting that our fear of being lost has driven us to create maps, charts, and now, the mobile Internet.

The book's central thesis is that information literacy, information architecture, and usability are all critical components of this new world order. Hand in hand with that is the contention that only by planning and designing the best possible software, devices, and Internet, will we be able to maintain this connectivity in the future. Morville's book is highlighted with full color illustrations and rich examples that bring his prose to life.

Ambient Findability doesn't preach or pretend to know all the answers. Instead, it presents research, stories, and examples in support of its novel ideas. Are we truly at a critical point in our evolution where the quality of our digital networks will dictate how we behave as a species? Is findability indeed the primary key to a successful global marketplace in the 21st century and beyond. Peter Morville takes you on a thought-provoking tour of these memes and more -- ideas that will not only fascinate but will stir your creativity in practical ways that you can apply to your work immediately.

 

Table Of Contents

About the Author

Preface

1. Lost and Found

     Definition

     Information Literacy

     Business Value

     Paradise Lost

2. A Brief History of Wayfinding

     All Creatures Great and Small

     Human Wayfinding in Natural Habitats

     Maps and Charts

     The Built Environment

     Wayfinding in the Noosphere

     The Web

     The Baldwin Effect

3. Information Interaction

     Defining Information

     Information Retrieval

     Language and Representation

     The People Problem

     Information Interaction

4. Intertwingled

     Everyware

     Wayfinding 2.0

     Findable Objects

     Imports

     Exports

     Convergence

     Asylum

5. Push and Pull

     Marketing

     Design

     Findability Hacks

     Personalization

     Ebb and Flow

6. The Sociosemantic Web

     Us and Them

     The Social Life of Metadata

     Documents

     A Walk in the Park

7. Inspired Decisions

     Bounded Irrationality

     Informed Decisions

     Network Culture

     The Body Politic

     Information Overload

     Graffiti Theory

     Sources of Inspiration

     Ambient Findability

Index