Understanding Context: Environment, Language, and Information Architecture

by Andrew Hinton

To make sense of the world, we’re always trying to place things in context, whether our environment is physical, cultural, or something else altogether. Now that we live among digital, always-networked products, apps, and places, context is more complicated than ever—starting with "where" and "who" we are.

This practical, insightful book provides a powerful toolset to help information architects, UX professionals, and web and app designers understand and solve the many challenges of contextual ambiguity in the products and services they create. You’ll discover not only how to design for a given context, but also how design participates in making context.

Learn how people perceive context when touching and navigating digital environments
See how labels, relationships, and rules work as building blocks for context
Find out how to make better sense of cross-channel, multi-device products or services
Discover how language creates infrastructure in organizations, software, and the Internet of Things
Learn models for figuring out the contextual angles of any user experience

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Business, Psychology, Technology, Reference

464 pages, ebook

First published November 24, 2014

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt that this book was a collection of interesting facts from different authors and disciplines. The amount of new books I added to my 'further reading' as a result of reading this one is significant but I felt that it was disorganised, jumping from one subject to another without tying it all together, and connecting properly to the UX discipline. I know more about perception and about embodiment but it is not a groundbreaking discovery that changed how I approach design. The most interesting pages for me were the last 10 pages of the book.

Some of the 'further reading' books:

-Placing words: symbols, space and the city by Mitchell William J
-The image of the city by Kevin Lynch
-Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-computer Interaction Hardcover –
by Bonnie A Nardi
-Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems (Interactive Technologies) Paperback –
by Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt
-Human Error Paperback – by James Reason
-The Ecological Approach To Visual Perception Paperback – by James J. Gibson

[Julia Kulgavchuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is packed with extensive and deep knowledge, but seen as a book "product", it's far from excellence. There's an agglomerate of concepts, ideas, theories from several areas of knowledge, all quite interesting to read, but sometimes seemingly redundant. Going too deep into a certain concept, intended to be supportive, often sidetracks from the main line of thought. So using a secondary concept, however interesting, turns out counterproductive, as it didn't in fact help to convey the thought, but only turned me, a reader, away from it. An example of a detour is a several pages foray into the abilities obtained by humans thanks to writing.

There is clearly an attempt to provide a clear visible structure for the book (physical, semantic and digital information and then five "pace layers of information"), but I don't think that it works that well.

Because of this lack of prioritizing of ideas, some red threads that are essential for the book (e.g. nesting) might get lost among the multitude of secondary, supplementary concepts and ideas. This pattern of coming up with associations and connecting everything to everything is a fantastic way of creative thinking. In this case, however, it makes for a worse book.

An abundance of other people's ideas makes it difficult to hear the author's voice.

The last chapter is really good. That's where it shines through that the book is not a compilation; Hinton speaks from own experiences and writes about them well. Too bad this kind of writing only shows up in chapter number 22.

[Isabella (BlessedByBella)]

DNF’ing the textbook for my information architecture class is kinda wild but hey 🤷🏾‍♀️

[Yasmeen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not cohesive or particularly useful as a book; the information and framework you will get from it is pretty much what you'll end up with when you google a bunch of those terms. In fact, it's better to do the latter.

[Sean Savage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful, deep. It's drawn out though – I think it would be more effective at conveying the same points in half the space.

I left the book a bit overwhelmed by the size of the Context challenges that we face – and by the fact it's growing exponentially now as our digital systems pervade our physical contexts. But that's not the author's fault.

I went in expecting more of a set of tools and methodologies, but that's not what the author set out to create. This is more of an overview of how humans create context and meaning, how they understand and navigate places. It does provides terminology and frameworks that offer useful conceptual handles to grab onto in what otherwise can be a slippery, amorphous swamp. Those handles can help in developing effective tools and methodologies. Let's get to it. Are you gonna finish those fries?

[Leslie Nyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author offers a paradigm change in the way people understand/ learn about objects and the environment they are in. The idea is that the physical world forms the basis of our internal models and how the language we use affects/ and is affected by the physical, and how the digital "world" affects everything. At some point in time, there is an introduction to Information Architecture and where that fits in the model the author is suggesting.

It's true that there seems to be some rapid jumping of topics with he impression of flight of ideas and examples (some examples are actually very interesting by itself and may even deserve a whole book) this leads to a whole lot more books added to my "reading list". But also to be fair, the author did mention that much of this is still a work in progress and the subject itself is hard to define well. It's definitely clearer than, say, 40 years ago, but every "new" idea spawns new disciplines and redefines context as we know it.

** My take home is**
There's a lot of thought put into good design, more often than not, whether or not a design is usable or greatly adopted also depends much on people actually using the product irregardless of quality or efficiency of design.

[Mysteryfan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book places information architecture in the larger scheme of understanding the interaction between environment and people. It starts with a global approach of understanding how we understand our environment and then the additions that provide meaning and then how we process that meaning. It then moves from the physical to the digital environment. It is complex but worth reading to understand much more than simply information architecture.

[Mohit Dhanjani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Andrew Hinton has given a very lucid explanation of tough concepts and has made meaningful (if not solid) connections among a lot of different subjects and disciplines.

Regardless, it a must read book for a good introduction on Context even if you are not into software design.

A big thanks to Mr. Hinton for writing such a beautiful and relevant book.

[Juuso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ordered this book more because of the term information architecture and less in order to learn deep theories behind design. That's probably why I found the first half quite abstract and dry (even if in general I do enjoy books heavy on theory). I resonated way more with the second, more concrete and applicable, half.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was long. It just was. But some sections were particularly worth reading, and I'm happy I have a hardcopy to go back to whenever I feel like it!

[Marcelo Ferranti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super interesting first half.

[Tommy O'Keefe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book applies to a domain much larger than the world of Information Architecture. Though it "lands" directly in the weeds of that particular discipline, it provides an amazing synthesis of many disciplines that are currently grappling with sensemaking, placemaking, and a general understanding of our "context" in the 21st century.

Personally, this book helped me connect some of the seemingly random dots in my work, life, and study up this point. I realize now that my love for philosophy, my study and work with theology, and the "day job" work I do building & developing web applications all share elements of understanding and shaping the new environments we are constructing and inhabiting with digital and semantic information.

I have have finished reading this book, but the ideas presented here will provide me with food for thought and areas of further study that will last for some time!

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extremely thought-provoking, accessible, and seemingly comprehensive coverage of a fairly abstract topic. Overall this feels mostly like a philosophical work, which was very unexpected for an O'Reilly publication, but it's simultaneously grounded in plenty of practical explanations and examples such that one could make use of the ideas in a wide variety of design-related business scenarios (and "design" here can even be interpreted fairly loosely without loss of practical applications). I suspect I will continue to find relevant insights here long into the future.

[Elisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Todella metaa. Mielenkiintoista, joskin paikoin aika raskasta metatason jaarittelua esimerkiksi siitä, miten paikanilmaisut muuttuvat siinä, kun konteksti muuttuu: onko kirja "siellä" eli vaikka työpaikalla vai "täällä" eli kotona, ja jos täällä niin muuttuuko ilmaisuksi "siellä" jos kirja on kirjahyllyssä eikä "täällä" edessäni sohvapöydällä. Ehkä tämä sitten auttaa ymmärtämään sen, että maailmaa ja asioita tulee tarkastella useasta eri näkökulmasta, mutta kai se olisi tullut selväksi vähemmälläkin.

[Vlad Golovach · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't comprehend how commercial publisher have done this gibberish book (O'Really?). It's OK for academia, where abstract speculations are totally welcome, but for publishing house catering for working professionals?

Anyway, I had a trust in O'Reilly and bought that book without reading mucho reviews. It was a disappointment. The book is long, empty and completely useless for anyone who works with context rich systems.

[Prakhar Bhardwaj · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books that gave a new lens to look at the world. It can be a bit dry, as the point is to cover a lot of depth, hence I'd recommend anyone reading it to just go with it, and assess it after you are done reading it.

If you want to gain a deeper understanding of what goes on in other people's head, or how same object/things might evoke different feelings or hold values for different people - just read it right now.

[Alex Crockett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished Understanding Context. Hinton has done an excellent job of taking some core principles in a field of psychology that is still emerging and framed the relevance of contextual thinking in the work we do as designers of digital systems. Truly impressed.

[amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of long and meandering but this could be an excellent textbook introducing user-centered information work. The ideas, examples, and other work it points out to are applicable across iSchool-type programs and professions.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Metaphysics, indeed!