It feels strange to blog about this, but here it goes: Today, April 10 2006, I believe I have seen where my professional life as an IA is heading. "And that feels good". Because today I had an Epiphany (for lack of better words) about "design in the age of findability".
Believe it or not, this is actually the second epiphany of my life, but none of my epiphanys have been religious ones. Both have been primarily about the Internet.
I had my first "epiphany" back in 1992, when I by coincidence picked up a theme issue about technology and the Internet in the norwegian anarchist magazine Gateavisa. That was when I knew to do with my life, something along the way of: "I need to be part of this, and my job should be about shaping it somehow." This was the epiphany that governed my educational and work related choices after that, and I have since earned a master in Media and Communications and have been working as a web journalist and information architect for the last 10 years.
Fast forward to today, 14 years later. I'm sitting at a table at Hoppeloppeland with about 500 screaming youngsters aged 1-10 years around me, including my own two sons (2 and 4 years old). While my wife is chasing the kids, I'm trying to sketch out a concept for a service for city parents that we've been thinking about for the last two years.
Then it hits me. An epiphany about how the notion of Epicenter Design that Jason Fried and the rest of the 37signals have been talking about could be extended with Inward and Outwards Pahts to sum up just about everything I've been thinking and talking about for the last 14 years.
Right now I'll have to hit the sack, but I've been writing a good 2 hours about my concept in between chasing our kids, hosting a dinner with friends and packing for our eastern holiday. And the model seems to hold water, in all the cases I've been testing out!
So I'm planning to spend the better part of this holiday writing out an article for Boxes&Arrows or a similiar publication. After that, I'm quite certain I have the material in me to write a book about the subject, which will include a design philosophy as well as steps and deliverables in a "framework for design in the age of findability".
Epicenter+Paths. Stay tuned, I will definitely be blogging more about this. You can pick up my english RSS-feed if you want to be in the loop.
Update Apr 18: I've realized that Core is a better wording than Epicenter.
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