Juxtaprose blog

One of the recent projects we’ve completed is a new website for InfoClear Consulting, who offer search and content strategy, and semantic technology implementation.

Here’s a screenshot of the site, which, of course, you can see for yourself, as well:

InfoClear Consulting is Wendi Pohs and Michael Kilgore, and although we haven’t all yet met in person (they’re based in Issaquah, which is part of the Seattle-metro area), I can speak from our experience that they’re great to work with.

What they do is actually related to the information architecture consulting work I’ve done in the past—and still do. But, in many ways, their work is “the future” that I had glimpses of back in the 1990s when I worked as a “digital librarian.” They are working with cutting edge search and content organization systems to make vast amounts of digital information findable and available to the people who need it—e.g., in the enterprise.

Part of what was fun working with Wendi and Mike is that they had a desire to have their site reflect their own enthusiasm and passion for the work they do. And, they didn’t want the site to fall prey to that dryness / blandness that is something of a standard for websites about enterprise information strategy in general, and search / semantic technology in particular.

So, it was great for us to be able to design a site that was first of all going to be a communication of Wendi and Mike’s vibrancy as professionals in this field. This then created a context where we could include all kinds of facts and comments about their work, but have it inherit that energy in the design.

Yes, they do have a list on the website of the Taxonomy Tools that they work with, but I think we all found a way to give that list a context that makes for a web experience that is simultaneously straightforward and enjoyable.

One of the projects we’ve recently launched is a website for Lori Fienberg, a Los Angeles-based interior designer (who also happens to be Jay’s sister-in-law; you probably recognized the last name!)

I first designed Lori’s business cards, which then became the basis for the web design. We used turquoise and brown colors (two of her favorites), which add a warmth to the site, and also used stripes in both the masthead and the background, to add some playful design elements. We worked to have the site express the feeling of how Lori works with design, as well as communicate the range of services that she offers.

We’re excited to see Lori’s site online, and look forward to watching her business grow.

(I wrote this post in September 2009, but am just now getting around to posting it—because I have a follow-up post that I am writing that needs to reference this one!)

The World Wide Web has succeeded where other hypertext systems have failed due to the WWW’s strong assertion of hierarchy. Hypertext provides a way to view information that, in the extreme, offers no starting point, no destination, to top, no bottom.

Not only does hypertext, in this sense, make it easy for people to feel lost in information, but hypertext was inspired by people who were thrilled to feel lost in information.

Some of us are likely more inclined towards that kind of thrill, but note that the total quantity and range of varieties of digital information that was so thrilling for some to feel lost in, circa the 1980s, was positively microscopic compared with the vast quantity and variety of information on the WWW today.

So the WWW (and all of us) made hypertext more accessible by corralling hypertext to work within three strong concepts of hierarchy: DNS, web and file directory paths and, most importantly, the “website.”

Specifically, these hierarchies make something come first when we think of the web. We generally start into the web via either a domain name (the first part of a URL), or a specific page / file represented by the file path (the final part of a URL). And, in both cases, we now expect to find a “site” in our browser. That “site” is, almost by definition, a fundamentally hierarchical view into more information.

I was thinking how this is loosely analogous to the classical question about chicken and egg: What came first, the chicken or the egg?

This is a dilemma (specially, it’s a dilemma of circular cause and consequence) But, isn’t this pretty much the same as asking: what came first, the parent or the child?

When we think of ourselves, we know that our parents came “first,” before us. And, at least in my mind, the dilemma disappears just by changing the words.

But the key trick is that there’s an obvious difference between “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” and “what came first, this chicken named Lucy or that egg she just laid?” We tend to think of “parents” and “children” more like this latter, specific case—no doubt because we think in terms of ourselves when faced with the parent / children comparison more than we do with the chicken / egg comparison.

This trick isn’t a real solution to the philosophical dilemma, but rather it’s about the introduction of a constraint that changes the original context in which we were stuck with a philosophical dilemma:

Something specific comes first.

And this added constraint is what we call hierarchy.

So, similarly, the WWW introduces constraints on hypertext that alleviate the dilemma of “what comes first.” We don’t so easily get lost because we can find our way (back) to starting points (or, way points) from which we branch out on new paths.

The idea that any web page is related to a bunch of other web pages as a “website,” and then that the website has a home page (and further, typically, that the home page is at the top of a directory tree at the “root” of a domain name), describes key hierarchies that make the WWW different than older hypertext systems—and easier to understand and use.

We’re happy to announce the launch of a new website for Sharon Eiler, who is a Seattle-based counselor and psychotherapist:

We designed and built Sharon’s site in WordPress, so she could easily refine the content, and make the updates herself. Since choosing a counselor is a very personal matter, we worked to create a site that communicated who Sharon is as a therapist and a person. She did a great job on her content too, which is well written and articulate.

Thanks Sharon, it was great working with you!

A big thanks to all our clients, collaborators, and colleagues for making 2009 a great one for us. Highlights of 2009 for us include:

• creating and keeping updated 30+ websites for authors, small businesses, and smart, creative, and interesting people
• keeping busy all year, even with the economy the way it was (thanks to everyone who hired us, referred business our way, and kept moving forward!)
• participating in a long weekend retreat in beautiful Tofino, B.C. with like-minded business people and great new friends
• having had time for personal endeavors and overseas travel
• planning some exciting new things for Juxtaprose 2010

Cheers – to an even better one next year!

—Jay & Anastasia

P.S. for more about “Free Schmidt,” be sure to read Lisa Lutz’s The Spellmans Strike Again when it’s published in March 2010!