While Information Architecture took its name from architecture, it took very little else. This is not surprising, as the early days of the web were about making sites that supported the interaction between people and data. The obvious model back then was a library; a library is a space for humans to receive knowledge. But with the rise of social networks, and the integration of community into almost all online experiences, more architecture practices are directly transferable to design. Online spaces are no longer just about findability, but about falling in love, getting your work done, goofing around, reconnecting with old friends, staving off loneliness... humans doing human things. As an early Information Architect who had been working in the search field, I found very little but entertainment from phenomenology's Gaston Bachelard or innovator Frank Gehry. But once I began working on social spaces, it all changed. We all know Christopher Alexander from his pattern-language approach to codifying design solutions, but if you go beyond the mere structure you find that in those patterns lies the answers to tricky privacy issues and the cold-start problem. Architects of buildings can help us form a new approach to the architecture of human spaces online. Poetics will go down easy with plenty of real world examples from current websites, shanty villages, air apps and cityscapes.

2. B=f(P+E) - Lewin’s Equation B ehavior is a f unction of a P erson and his E nvironment You can’t control the person, but you can design the environment to change behavior

4. A SHORT HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

5. Cave

7. Hut

9. Stone Age City

12. Durability “ Durability will be assured when foundations are carried down to the solid ground and materials wisely and liberally selected” Vitruvius

13. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel, Japan, survived an earthquake The reflecting pool provided a source of water for fire-fighting; Cantilevered floors and balconies provided extra support for the floors; A copper roof, cannot fall on people below the way a tile roof can; Seismic separation joints, located about every 20 m along the building; Tapered walls, thicker on lower floors, increasing their strength; Suspended piping and wiring, instead of being encased in concrete, smooth curves, making them more resistant to fracture.

14. Technical Earthquakes Slow loading javascript fails on low bandwidth, and can cause users to accidently search for the label inside your search box. Is your site designed to be robust when things break (for example, filter out the label from the query. Or don’t place labels in fields; it reduces usage anyhow.) I’m searching for “my architect, not “movies, directors, actors”

15. Social Earthquakes If people post jobs in discussion areas, any user can move them to job board If people use connection invites to spam/market, they can be reported.

18. “ Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.” Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian houses were beautiful, human scaled.. And didn’t have closet space. Should we choose beauty over usability sometimes?

19. Human Human The Facebook Inbox is chock full of annoying non-human mails, despite the fact they know who is human and who I am connected to. Not convenient.

20. Bilbao did not leak. I was so proud.

21. I call it the "Then What?" Okay, you solved all the problems, you did all the stuff, you made nice, you loved your clients, you loved the materials, you loved the city, you're a good guy, you're a good person... and then what? What do you bring to it? See his great TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/frank_gehry_asks_then_what.html

22. Beauty (delight) “ when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, and when its members are in due proportion according to correct principles of symmetry.” Vitrvius

23. “ Less is more.” ~ Mies

25. “ Less is a bore.” ~ Venturi

26. Is this Beautiful?

27. Do we dictate what is beautiful by constraining user choice?

28. Or support passionate use that may not meet our aesthetic standards?

29. Beautiful Convenient Durable Beautiful Convenient Durable

31. 205 Structure Follows Social Spaces Conflict No building ever feels right to the people in it unless the physical spaces (defined by columns, walls, and ceilings) are congruent with the social spaces (defined by activities and human groups). Resolution A first principle of construction; on no account allow the engineering to dictate the building's form. Place the load bearing elements- the columns and the walls and floors- according to the social spaces of the building; never modify the social spaces to conform to the engineering structure of the building. Applies directly to Linkedin, Facebook, Mysapce, etc

32. 36. Degrees of publicness Conflict: People are different, and the way they want to place their houses in a neighborhood is one of the most basic kinds of difference. Resolution: Make a clear distinction between three kinds of homes―those on quiet backwaters, those on busy streets, and those that are more or less in-between. Make sure that those on quiet backwaters are on twisting paths, and that these houses are themselves physically secluded; make sure that the more public houses are on busy streets with many people passing by all day long and that the houses themselves are exposed to the passers-by. The in-between houses may then be located on the paths halfway between the other two. Give every neighborhood about an equal number of these three kinds of homes. Applies directly to Linkedin, Facebook, Mysapce, etc

35. Space You don’t design space, you design objects that then shape the nature of the space

36. Identity Activity Relationships Social Space Sign-up Invitations Distribution (Viral)

37. Humans don’t like empty spaces. Create starter objects – newsfeeds can be good.

38. Site Site

40. Site=Context Facebook- Personal LinkedIN - Professional

42. Email this Structure of the social network sharing tools affects both reach and relevance. Email is work for user, so value tends to be higher. Consumer Broadcaster

43. Newsfeed, Network Updates Sharing with your symetrical network has lower relevance but greater reach Consumer Consumer Consumer Consumer Consumer Broadcaster

44. Groups, Asymmetric Follow Sharing with your asymetrical network is broadcasting; less relevant still but great reach spark

45. Servant and Served Spaces ‘ I do not like ducts; I do not like pipes. I hate them really thoroughly, but because I hate them so thoroughly, I feel they have to be given their place . If I just hated them and took no care, I think they would invade the building and completely destroy it.’ The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn , 1962

46. Services (settings, in this case) are separated from served)

47. Services intergraded with served is easier to comprehend and use

48. Centre Pompidou was designed with services revealed rather than hidden

49. Revealing things usually only available to employees, such as statistics can provide interest and beauty inherit to the product.

50. Views Hey, it’s the Arc de Triomphe! Corbu’s surrealist apartment obscured views, rather than framed them to create interest

51. Views into people’s lives

52. Views into the service before you sign up

54. Ad out of proportion to content

55. Ads reflect same sizes and shapes used in design

56. Speed 25mph 5 mph 60mph Medieval architecture designed to be walked by, prairie houses to drive by slowly at suburban speeds, and the strip for freeway speeds

57. Speed 25mph 5 mph 60mph Consider speed of use in design; do not slow interface with details upon sign up, richer interface for where people linger and socialize

58. Movement Gehry designed a static building to feel like it’s moving, inspired by dance

59. Why are our compositions so static? How should the eye move through this?

60. Games provide hints to new compositions, metaphors for information spaces

61. Gehry has been inspired recently by fish. What would a website be if it was a fish?

62. Twistori’s live stream of data reveals and intrigues. Do you need actual movement to engage?

64. Page about Christina Ideas?