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
| Foreword |
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ix | |
| Preface |
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xi | |
| Acknowledgments |
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xix | |
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PART I THE CONTEXT PROBLEM |
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Chapter 1 Everything, Yet Something |
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3 | (8) |
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Chapter 2 A Growing Challenge |
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11 | (8) |
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Chapter 3 Environments, Elements, and Information |
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19 | (16) |
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PART II PHYSICAL INFORMATION |
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Chapter 4 Perception, Cognition, and Affordance |
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35 | (32) |
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Chapter 5 Attention, Control, and Learning |
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67 | (20) |
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Chapter 6 The Elements of the Environment |
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87 | (26) |
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Chapter 7 What Humans Make |
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113 | (14) |
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PART III SEMANTIC INFORMATION |
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Chapter 8 How Language Works |
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127 | (14) |
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Chapter 9 Language as Infrastructure |
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141 | (20) |
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Chapter 10 The Written Word |
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161 | (14) |
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Chapter 11 Making Things Make Sense |
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175 | (24) |
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PART IV DIGITAL INFORMATION |
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Chapter 12 Digital Cognition and Agency |
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199 | (16) |
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Chapter 13 Digital Interaction |
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215 | (20) |
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Chapter 14 Digital Environment |
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235 | (18) |
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PART V THE MAPS WE LIVE IN |
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Chapter 15 Information as Architecture |
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253 | (10) |
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Chapter 16 Mapping and Placemaking |
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263 | (14) |
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Chapter 17 Virtual and Ambient Places |
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277 | (28) |
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Chapter 18 The Social Map |
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305 | (34) |
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PART VI COMPOSING CONTEXT |
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Chapter 19 Arrangement and Substance |
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339 | (12) |
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Chapter 20 The Materials of Semantic Function |
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351 | (22) |
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Chapter 21 Narratives and Situations |
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373 | (14) |
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Chapter 22 Models and Making |
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387 | (30) |
| Appendix: Coda |
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417 | (4) |
| Index |
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421 | (20) |
| About the Author |
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441 | |
Andrew Hinton is a well-known speaker, writer and long-time community member of the information architecture, interaction design & user experience fields, as well as a co-founder and past board member of the IA Institute. But besides all that, he's a dad, a husband and the keeper of a "spirited" Boston Terrier named Sigmund.
