News
For updates, follow @morville and subscribe to the intertwingled blog.
Semantics
See all Semantics articlesSubscribe
Books
MIND BLOWN OPEN, rearranged, and reshaped. Intertwingled took me on a twisty adventure in how to think, see, design, and experience the world differently. It’s like stepping through a door to a shifted universe that’s richer, deeper, and more connected.
Kathy Sierra
Columns
Semantics is Peter Morville’s irregularly irreverent column about information architecture, user experience, organizational strategy, and culture.
Strange Connections was a feature of the Argus Center for Information Architecture from 2000 to 2001. It explored the evolving definition of information architecture.
Web Architect was a column in Songline Studio’s Web Review magazine from 1995 to 1999. It offered a humorous yet practical exploration of information architecture topics.
Articles, Interviews & Resources
IA Exit Interview. The Informed Life. (12/04/24)
identity, retirement, consulting, wisdom, donkeys
IA Changes Every Crisis. Good Morning UX. (07/26/22)
finding patterns, digital products, crisis IA, future of design
Profiles in Knowledge. Profile by Stan Garfield. (04/18/22)
knowledge management, information architecture, user experience, biography
Surfacing. Interview by Lisa Welchman & Andy Vitale. (09/22/21)
hiking, farming, consulting, fear, design, knowledge management
A Lens A Day. Interview by Dan Brown. (08/09/21)
descriptors, exemplars, culture, change, language, classification
Brave UX. Interview by Brendan Jarvis. (07/26/21)
stakeholders, capitalism, compassion, entrepreneurship, endurance
Emancipating Information Architecture. Interview by Jorge Arango. (10/25/20)
sanctuary, mental models, identity, humor, leadership
Planning for Everything. Interview by Matt Finch. (10/21/20)
democracy, uncertainty, ecology, misinformation, legacy
Information Architecture Rising. EuroIA. (10/24/20)
daughter, father, ageism, crisis management, weddings, emancipation
Planning for Everything. The Being Human Podcast. (09/27/19)
star finder, ultra marathon, planning your life, sentient sanctuary
Seductive Information. The Informed Life. (05/26/19)
sleep, diet, exercise, sentience, rootstriking, biofeedback, seduction
A Planning Masterclass. Podcast Interview. (05/15/19)
nonlinear planning, principles, practices, paths, goals, hovercraft
The IA Studio. Interview at the IA Conference. (03/17/19)
information architecture, history, alexandria ocasio-cortez, truth, power
UX Discovery Session. Interview by Gerard Dolan. (09/19/18)
shetland sheepdog, library science, strategic design, animal sanctuary
Planning, User Research, Mindfulness. Aurelius Podcast. (05/15/18)
systems thinking, experts, goals, dangerous metrics, adversity, diversity
A Balanced Approach to Planning and Life. WEMU 89.1. (04/19/18)
balance, hope, well-being, mindfulness, planning, waypower, happiness
Reflecting. An excerpt from Planning for Everything. A List Apart. (04/03/18)
memory, truth, beliefs, retrospectives, double loop learning, confabulation
The Big Web Show. Interview with Jeffrey Zeldman. (03/23/18)
peak chaos, belief bubbles, information architecture, improvisation
Planning for Everything. Book Illustrations.(03/08/18)
figures, images, diagrams, illustrations, sketches, paths, goals
Ann Arbor District Library. Interview. Responsive Web Design. (03/05/18)
responsive web design, libraries, information architecture, accessibility
Framing. An excerpt from Planning for Everything. UXmatters. (03/05/18)
paths, goals, fear, mountains, fixity, influence, grit, truth
The Evolution of User Experience. Interview. UX London. (02/20/18)
subsumption, integration, humble inquiry, ethics
UX Strategy & Planning. Interview. UXmatters. (04/24/17)
information architecture, strategy, planning, spime, time
A Conversation with Peter Morville. Video. WebExpo in Prague. (09/23/16)
user research, ethnography, planning, solving life’s problems
Peter Morville’s Podcast. Interviews. (08/21/16)
planning, prototyping, design, architecture, improvisation
The Architecture of Teaching & Learning. Video. IA Summit 2016. (05/06/16)
retrieval, interleaving, garnishing, organization, reflection
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. Video. World IA Day Depok. (02/20/16)
information architecture, nuts and berries, reading gardens, unity in diversity
Peeking Over the Walls. Podcast. Rosenfeld Media. (02/16/16)
information architecture, user experience, pace layers, ethics, get off my lawn
O’Reilly Design Conference Interview. O’Reilly Media. (01/22/16)
polar bear, jorge arango, user experience, libraries, internet of things
The Architecture of Understanding. Video. SVA NYC. (12/02/15)
intertwingled, titanic, isle royale, inflection point, daylighting
The Age of Information Architecture. UX Booth. (12/01/15)
polar bear, pace layers, finding, understanding, reframing
UX Discovery Session. Podcast. (02/07/15)
libraries, culture, context, vitruvius, fallingwater
Intertwingled in Japan. Introduction. (01/30/15)
form, function, tokyo, earthquake, organic simplicity
Understanding Context. Foreword. (12/15/14)
grand canyon, rattlesnakes, argus, tug, maps, places
Creating a Cultural Fit. Book Excerpt. (10/09/14)
volleyball, ethnography, artifacts, values, assumptions
Putting the “Twingle” in Information Architecture. Interview. (10/07/14)
dualism, reductionism, tribalism, embodied cognition, buddha
Connections. Book Excerpt. (10/06/14)
music, poetry, hypertext, xanadu, links, loops, forks
The Present and Future of IA. Interview. (05/06/14)
places, service ecosystems, wearables, drones, courage
Medium. IA Summit Closing Plenary. (03/30/14)
kindness, generosity, shorts, danger, liminality, hope
15 Years of the IA Summit. Interview. (10/25/13)
diversity, medium, poetry, synthesis, culture
Understanding Information Architecture. Prezi. (02/28/12)
story, structure, time, nonlinear, context, maze, labyrinth
The System of Information Architecture. Journal of IA. (01/30/12)
systems thinking, new loops, leverage, feedback, understanding
User Experience Russia Interview. Parts 1 and 2. (07/06/11)
web strategy, self-driving cars, polar bear, cross-channel
Foreword. Designing Search. (05/13/11)
ecommerce, search, bazaar, meatspace, multi-channel
Foreword. Pervasive Information Architecture. (04/04/11)
cross-channel, user experience, resmini, rosati, ubiquitous
UIE Book Club. Interviewed by Jared Spool. (12/07/10)
search, browse, switching sides, making the case, 5by5
Design Critique. Interviewed by Timothy Keirnan. (11/10/10)
search, wayfinding, paradox of the active user, marathon
Ubiquitous Information Architecture. IDEA 2010 Slides. (10/01/10)
intertwingularity, multi-channel, cross-sensory, synthetic synesthesia
No Shortcuts to Findability. Federal Computer Week. (06/28/10)
smithsonian, library of congress, findability, multi-channel
Search Interview. Project Information Literacy. (06/01/10)
search, presearch, learning, decision making, education
Faceted Navigation (Book Excerpt). A List Apart. (04/20/10)
adaptive facets, scented widgets, transitions, minimal disruption
The Bridgeline Interview. Interviewed by Marc Garrett. (04/19/10)
faceted, parametric, semantic, reference interview, java
The Johnny Holland Interview. Interviewed by Brad Nunnally. (03/29/10)
interaction, gestures, grunts, maps, search, discovery
The Web’s Fun and Wicked Problem. O’Reilly Radar. (02/19/10)
averted vision, augmented reality, information literacy, spime
Leveraging Search Patterns. Interviewed by Jared Spool. (02/05/10)
best first, advanced search, faceted navigation, spoolcast
Search & Discovery Patterns. UIE Virtual Seminar. (01/12/10)
autosuggest, breadbox, context, discovery, endeca
The Future of Search. Interviewed by Byron Gordon. (12/08/09)
information architecture, search, findability, butterfly book
Search & Findability. Interviewed by Jeff Woelker. (10/26/09)
empathy, iphone, search patterns, augmented reality
Foreword. When Search Meets Web Usability. (04/04/09)
slippery rocks, thundering waters, seo, usability
Foreword. Web Style Guide, 3rd Edition. (01/15/09)
style, friendship, loyalty, universal usability
Riding the Web 2.0 Wave. Interview. Shanghai Talk. (11/1/07)
china, co-creation, tagging, syndication, mashups
Still Tomorrow’s Technology. Release 2.0. (8/1/07)
infoviz, information visualization, free beer tomorrow
Real-World Search Engines. Interview. Wall Street Journal. (7/20/07)
gps, rfid, gadgets, gizmos, loc8tor
A Crazy Librarian. Michigan Innovators. (7/4/07)
libraries, culture, participation, ubicomp
Ambient Findability and the Future of Search. Google. (6/21/07)
surface, street view, iphone, everyzing
Organizing Web Sites & Intranets. Computerworld. (2/7/07)
taxonomies, metadata, structures, schemes
Foreword. Ergodesign e Arquitetura de Informação. (8/1/06)
information architects, brazil, education, community
Ambient Findability. Live Online at The Washington Post. (7/19/06)
metrics, myspace, cyborg monkeys, semantic web
Why Information Architecture Matters. CIO Insight. (6/22/06)
findability, credibility, authority, satisfaction
A Garden of Forking Paths. ASIS&T Bulletin. (2/1/06)
book, maze, labyrinth, transmedia, everyware
The New Sense of the Web. OnPoint on NPR. (1/3/06)
geoweb, maps, mashups, long haul trucking
Ubiquitous Findable Objects. (11/17/05)
gps, rfid, spychips, alien technology, mososo
The Impact of Ambient Findability. Business Week. (11/9/05)
undesign, unfindable, undesirable, memory, lemur
Libraries at the Crossroads of Ubiquitous Computing and the Internet
delicious library, alexandria, google print, internet archive
Boxes & Arrows Interview. (10/31/05)
apophenia, safari, satisficing, everyware
Tagsonomy Interview. (10/19/05)
authority, social software, wikipedia, tagging
Ambient Findability. Digital Web Magazine. (7/21/04)
trust, informed decisions, intertwingularity, libraries
The Information Architecture Library. (4/21/04)
information architecture, articles, books, blogs
A Brief History of Information Architecture. Preface. (10/13/03)
history, ia, wurman, false memory, long bets
The Support Economy. SIGCHI Bulletin Book Review. (3/01/03)
customer-centered design, capitalism, sanctuary
Archiving Experience Design. AIGA Loop. (12/30/02)
history, education, pong, snow crash, user experience
Interview with Peter and Lou. Digital Web. (12/12/02)
big ia, little ia, roi, aifia, optimism
Mapping the Userati. (12/02/02)
co-occurrence, citation analysis, jakob nielsen, brenda laurel
Dynamic Duo of Information Architecture. WebWord. (10/18/02)
reductionism, selling ia, brand, pet peeves
Google Needs People. O’Reilly Network. (10/11/02)
google news, pagerank, humans, algorithms, golem
Building the Beast. Boxes & Arrows interview. (9/09/02)
yosemite, beef jerky, argus, café mocha, library science
Web Reference. Interview by Andy King. (8/29/02)
second edition, frank-and-beans economy, findability
FucinaWeb. Interview in English and Italian. (8/23/02)
second edition, information architecture
Foreword for Blueprints for the Web. (8/01/02)
wodtke, navigation, canoes, wayfinding, seamarks
A New Recipe for VirtualGourmet.com. Business Week. (12/3/99)
thesaurus, salmon, frogdesign, synonyms, lox
Worst Web Faux Pas. Macworld. (2/1/99)
navigation, categorization, overwhelming main pages
O’Reilly’s Information Architects. Amazon.com Interview. (5/1/98)
boot camp, memory palaces, hierarchy, hypertext