Categories - Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything - page 31

courage to dwell in discomfort. Time spent wisely at the start of a project or journey may return
dividends for years.
Of course, the start is often too late, which is why we must engage with strategy and gov-
ernance. Ontology begins with the org chart. In making frameworks for collaboration, we must
think about goals, metrics, roles, and relationships, because how we organize ourselves changes
everything. The categories we choose and the words we use to describe the project, program,
process, product, service, or ecosystem will alter the path and destination invisibly and irrevoc-
ably. A digital strategy team is blind to physical touchpoints. A user experience designer ignores
content creators. A search engine optimization project ruins the information architecture. Words
are the interface, not just on the Web, but in our minds. As a wise woman wrote “Language as
an articulation of reality is more primordial than strategy, structure, or culture.” xxxi
To avoid blind spots, we must see (and speak) differently, using averted vision to shift focus
from center to beyond the periphery. Imaginative re-classification reveals invisible structures,
unspoken assumptions, hidden values, and novel possibilities. But it's not easy to invert the can-
on. Our biology, culture, education, and language all conspire to convince us there is a single,
right way to organize things. Blue and green are distinct colors. History and science are separate
subjects. Europe is above Africa. Books belong in fiction or nonfiction. The tomato is a fruit.
Now turn the last five periods into question marks, then consider the contrary. Go ahead, give it
a try. Like meditation, this intellectual yoga takes practice.
That's what we're doing in this topic. By framing and re-framing, we build the mental muscles
of curiosity and imagination, and we nurture our capacity to be cheeky, sassy, wise. Buddha op-
posed the caste system and dogma in general. He said “place no head above your own.” Of
course, to question the categories of custom, convention, rule, and order is to risk your neck. Ga-
lileo was found “gravely suspect of heresy” for confirming the Copernican re-classification of
the universe, Joan of Arc was burned to death for “dressing as a man” and Nelson Mandela was
categorized as a domestic terrorist by South Africa and the United States for defying the tax-
onomy - black, white, coloured, Indian - of apartheid.
Mostly what we do isn't quite so heavy. But it's unwise to ask certain questions before under-
standing politics and culture. In all organizations, from libraries, nonprofits, and government
agencies to Fortune 500s and Silicon Valley startups, visible categories are built on invisible fault
lines. So speak softly and carry some Silly String, because the dark paths that wander betwixt
taxonomies and org charts are riddled with tripwire. xxxii
Organizing for Users
Of course, since users are the center of our universe, it's our duty to take risks on their behalf.
And while we tend to talk about the visible leaves and branches of information architecture -
menus, buttons, links, labels, tags, facets, search, navigation, personalization - categories are the
root of all this work. They cleave concepts and channels together and apart.
In retail, the interfaces are different - store, catalog, website, app - but the categories are consist-
ent across channels. This accord makes it easy for users to switch systems or devices while let-