using abstraction to increase clarity
DESCRIPTION
Abstraction can be used at the beginning of a project to facilitate communication and reflection in order to establish a shared framework. This clarifies goals for decision makers and gives direction to the production team – preventing the project from getting stuck in the weeds. In our everyday work, as people who create digital products, we are under a lot of pressure from clients/employers to produce concrete outputs – often with little clarity concerning goals. This leads to stress and ineffectual outcomes. Looking at the course of human history, people have always used methods of abstraction to make sense of a complicated world (like mapmakers). As IAs we can take advantage of this natural human tactic to abstract the complex, in order to bring clarity to our work by using tools such as maps, blueprints, and personas.TRANSCRIPT
#AbstractionforClarity#AbstractionforClarity
Using Abstraction to
Increase ClarityKaarin HoffInformation Architect, The Understanding Group (TUG)#AbstractionforClarity
#AbstractionforClarity
Abstraction:the intentional filtering of
information to focus a conversation on the core
goal(s)
#AbstractionforClarity
http://iqcontent.com/blog/2009/11/dublins-new-subway-system-well-subway-map/
#AbstractionforClarity
http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/subwaymap/pdf/routemap_en.pdf
#AbstractionforClarity
Abstraction Best Practices
• If its going to distract from the conversation, don’t include it
• Use a model that fits the information, not vice versa
• Clearer: not necessarily less, could even be more• Allow your models to combine information
from multiple sources
#AbstractionforClarity
Too often we are asked to jump to the detailed
#AbstractionforClarity
Thoughtfully using abstractions can avoid a lot of this pain and keep
projects from getting stuck in prior assumptions
#AbstractionforClarity
We must choose carefully the model we
use to facilitate conversations
#AbstractionforClarity
We must choose carefully the model through which we hold conversations
Marriot
#AbstractionforClarity
We must choose carefully the model through which we hold conversations
http://ffffound.com/home/vvva/found/
#AbstractionforClarity
We must choose carefully the model through which we hold conversations
www.google.com
#AbstractionforClarity
We must choose carefully the model through which we hold conversations
#AbstractionforClarity
We must choose carefully the model through which we hold conversations
#AbstractionforClarity
We must choose carefully the model through which we hold conversations
#AbstractionforClarity
Customer Journey Example
#AbstractionforClarity
Concrete
User
User
User
User
Stakeholder ?See the things they expected to see.
Do the thing they already wanted to do.
#AbstractionforClarity
Abstractions help stakeholders DISCOVER
#AbstractionforClarity
Concrete AbstractedPlausibleImprobableNarrativeVisualUser
User
User
User
IA Brain
#AbstractionforClarity
#AbstractionforClarity
#AbstractionforClarity
IA Brain
Stakeholder
Dev-eloper
IA Brai
n
#AbstractionforClarity
Goal Alignment Example
#AbstractionforClarity
Concrete
“information”
“need, need!”
“want”
“information”
“need, need!”
“want”“information”
“information”
“information”
“want”
#AbstractionforClarity
Concrete
“information”
“want”
“information”“information”
#AbstractionforClarity
Concrete Abstracted
“information”
“need, need!”
“want”
“information”
“need, need!”
“want”
“information”
“information”
“want”“information”
-Goal #1 Reasons:
-Goal #2 Reasons
-Goal #3 Reasons
IA Brain
#AbstractionforClarity
-Goal #1 Reasons:
-Goal #2 Reasons
-Goal #3 Reasons
IA Brain
#AbstractionforClarity
Abstraction Best Practices
• If its going to distract from the conversation, don’t include it
• Use a model that fits the information, not vice versa
• Clearer: not necessarily less, could even be more• Allow your models to combine information
from multiple sources
#AbstractionforClarity
Try it out, keep the conversation going
Kaarin [email protected]@kaarinh
Group#AbstractionforClaritySlideshare