Theory for Practice

Theory from a constructionist view is simply the description given to what people do. There is nothing mysterious or esoteric about this view of theory (although I recognize that there are some mysterious and esoteric theories abroad). It is, however, useful to think of theory from this perspective as intertwined with practice, as a different aspect of the same thing. Theory as far as I am concerned, then, is best understood as an emergent property of practice.

Theories are in part post hoc rationalizations—the plausible stories which we tell ourselves to account retrospectively for our actions. The stories we tell as information designers are very limited, created to give coherence to certain episodes, which we call information design projects. The episodes themselves—the projects—are delimited by a kind of punctuation, like full stops or commas. The punctuation artificially marks moments in the continuous stream of life: the start of the project, the stages of its development and the finish of a design project. Thus, like the fairy tale that starts with ”once upon a time” and ends with “they lived happily ever after,” the story of many design projects begins with “a problem” and ends with “a solution.” Both these punctuated moments are constructed by us to give coherence and shape to our actions in the past so that we can shape our actions into the future. It is to these constructed stories, to which I give the name “theory.”

Thus the type of theory I want to talk about is the accumulation and refinement of stories that my colleagues and I have constructed about our past actions, which we use to construct the future. These stories take a modest view of the position of theory in information design. In the stories we create, as part of our work, you will not find mention of such things as human information processing, attitudes or feelings. We make no attempt to offer an explanation of the cognitive processes relevant to understanding information, we offer no account of attitudes towards designed objects, and make no claims to know or understand the feelings and preferences that people have towards information artifacts. Indeed, we make no explanation at all.

These stories do, however, spend a great deal of effort exploring the dynamic relationship between people and the information they use. The primary focus of interest is on the dynamics of interaction—what happens in the space between people and information. The dynamics of interaction arises solely between people and information. It exists in action, in what people do with information and the way they us it to construct meanings appropriate for actions. This leads to an exploration of the types of problems people have creating meaning from information on which they can act. And this is then followed by the development of designs that are appropriate for helping people overcome these problems. Thus the heart of information design practice is concerned with making information accessible and usable for people.

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