Pace,Timing and Rhythm in Information Architecture

Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Dec 2004/Jan 2005 by Dillon, Andrew

Is there a temporal aspect to interaction that we should acknowledge? Surely there is a pace that leads to the best fit for each of us between tool and task, between goal and accomplishment, between resource and purpose. Sometimes making it faster just works against making it better, and I am not sure where this insight finds resonance in information architecture or systems design. The rhythm of interaction is partly set by the underlying design choices and that makes it matter of IA for me. Pace, timing and rhythm; there's a whole world of information architecture yet to be done.

Andrew Dillon is dean of the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached by email at adillon@ischooLutexas.edu