The relationship between the built environment and the virtual environment is both tenuous and obvious. Seeing that relationship is like looking at an optical illusion. First you see the young woman, then the old, or maybe vice versa, if by chance you notice the difference or have been tipped off that there is one.
But when you see one, you can’t see the other. You have to remember that the single image contains both views. Switching from one view to the other can be slow at first. With practice, it takes seconds. But however quick the switch, I contend that you cannot see both images at the same time.
The same can be said for the separate disciplines of architecture and information architecture, which I have chosen as an underlying theme for my blog, bytesandbricks.com. It is obvious that you cannot see the structure of a building and the structure of a website at the same time. But the similarity in structures exists, and others, such as authors Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld, have identified it and used it in their classic IA primer, Information Architecture and the World-Wide Web, 3rd Ed.
I am inspired by these experts in the fields of information architecture and user experience. They show the way to better website design — an area that I, like many others, have become interested in through happenstance. For me, it was the need to retool my skill set for the current job market.
However unintentionally, they also showed me a new way to look at the world. Where before I took the built landscape for granted, I now appreciate its profound influence on the daily quality of our lives if not our personal identities. Where before I saw websites as conveniences, I now see that at least some of them provide a rich trove of information and visually pleasing design.
I chose the domain name for my blog to telegraph to potential readers the nature of the content I plan to cover. The term “bytes” in the context of my blog means a special kind of building material, and the term’s technical meaning as an eight-bit unit of digital information supports my definition. These eight bits encode a single character in a computer. Characters make up words. Words make up thoughts, and thoughts make up sentences, which when committed to WordPress, make up a blog post. Bytes are malleable units of information, as are words. Though a blogger cannot and does not manipulate bytes to write a blog post, he or she depends on their behind-the-scenes malleability for structuring, formatting, and publishing blog content. Less malleable than bytes owing to their definitions, words nonetheless are raw materials that can be manipulated to build a case — to make an argument that conveys the writer’s logic and passion. Bricks are material units of construction that can be manipulated into different structures — roads, walls, and towers. Organizing these separate units — of digital information, of denotative and connotative meaning, of formed and baked clay — into a cohesive and coherent structure is akin to magic. It’s like making something out of nothing. That’s why I’m interested in these topics. That’s why I gave my blog its name.
I admit there are other reasons. I liked (sort of) the alliteration of the title and thought it might be catchy. I also thought it might be (or kind of is) dumb, but took a chance and forged ahead. I have seen other websites using the terms bricks, sticks, and stuff in their titles. Low-end merchandise is not what I’m selling. I hope instead to provide interesting information on a variety of topics related to architecture, information architecture, and the contributions to quality of life, or at least user experience, that each has. The well-designed house and well-designed neighborhood support residents’ safety and sanity. The well-designed website supports the need of users for quick access to information. The built environment we live in gives us a sense of place, which in turn contributes to our sense of identity. The virtual environment we use to conduct our daily business gives us greater access to information and arguably more control of our lives. I believe these topics are worth investigating.
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