Goodbye, Confusion

One year ago today, How to Make Sense of Any Mess, went on sale. When I sent out the tweet and email announcing that the book was available, I could never have guessed the response it would receive. I had an over/under bet with my Mom about how many would sell in the first month. She won (by a lot) and I bought dinner.

If you are one of the people who have bought a copy in the year since, thank you for your support. You have inspired me to believe that information architecture really is for everyone.

I could not be prouder of the reactions I have heard from readers. People have written me to say that they have bought this book for their mom, their boss, their kid and their whole team. I have heard from people making sense of messes on websites, intranet systems, blogs, business processes, sales proposals, product roadmaps, personal portfolios, kitchen cabinets and garages to name a few.

One of the most exciting things that has happened in the year since the launch are the partnerships I have formed around the book’s content.

Japanese Edition

Last month, I announced that the book came out in Japanese through BNN Inc. A huge thank you to the team there for their amazing rendering of my work into another language and culture. Their attention to detail in translating everything down to the diagrams has blown me away.

Images of the Japanese version of How to Make Sense of Any Mess.

One of the most delightful moments was copying the text from the cover into Google Translate and seeing that one of the headlines on the front of the book translates as: Goodbye, Confusion. I am seriously considering having this tattooed on my knuckles.

Google Primer

Yesterday my project with the team at Google launched. They are now bringing the core lessons of the book to the world for free through their Primer App. I am totally in love with the way the Primer team framed their take aways from the book into this bite-sized (and adorable) experience. If you can’t get your boss to read the whole book, consider getting them to download Google Primer instead.

A smartphone sat on a green surface displaying information on Getting Started with Information Architecture.
Three screen grabs from an app. The first is text about organizing information. The second is a multiple choice question with the options bread, dairy, produce, and beverages. The third is two options for a website landing page.

Online Version (in the works)

I am currently working with Loren Davie from Axilent to release an online version of the full book which will include a cross-referenced hypertext enabled lexicon so the content can be read either sequentially or based on core terms. I am excited that this will allow even more people to have access to information architecture.

Screen grab from the online version of How to Make Sense of Any Mess. This page is about the word Mess.

It has been a geeky-fun IA assignment to rework the architecture of the reading experience. Thanks to Loren for his hard work and his guidance through this process. I can’t wait to show you what we came up with.

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I am excited to see what year two brings. If you have already read the book and have a moment to spare, help me feed to the Amazon algorithms by leaving a review.

Keep Calm and Post it On.