[Information Design] Pros and Cons of Sense-Making

"Sense-making" is a theory of information design proposed by Brenda Dervin, who believes that the practice of information design is not new, but an old practice with a new name and new channels. She separates information into two categories - the knowable, ordered reality, and the expression of chaotic abstract. In this, she states that information has always been designed, but now it is done "on far larger scales, much faster, at greater distances, and with much greater frequencies." (Dervin, p. 36)

The Pros of this theory are that it makes a clear delineation between information and information mediums - that is, the channels used to deliver information. Second, it takes a hard look at what information actually is, rather than just assuming it to be a natural phenomena. Third, it assumes information at any given time is incomplete, limited by human perception. For example, the image below: 

From Pooja Thapliyal

If one can only see part of the cylinder, they may believe it to be either a square or circle, depending on their perspective. Another pro of Sense-making is that assumes information has always been designed - prompting an in-depth consideration of what really counts as information design. 

The Cons of this theory are that, first, it greatly broadens the spectrum of information design. If information design is how humans make sense of chaos, then language itself counts as information design - and while all languages came about with the intent to allow for communication, very few were designed, making most languages arbitrary and contradictory to an extent. (A notable exception being modern Korean.) 

Another con of this theory is its disregard for medium - while it may seem contradictory to consider this both a pro and a con, the medium used to present information can greatly alter the way it is received. The media philosopher Marshall McLuhan believed that media itself - regardless of the information it contained - greatly affected a society, which is a direct foil to Dervin's beliefs. While focusing on information itself can cause clarity, disregarding media entirely could have the adverse effect of ignoring an entire half of information design in its own right. For example, delivering a television advertisement through text alone is both ineffectual and not utilizing the medium - regardless of how well the information is presented in that text. 

A third con of Sense-making is, that if we go back to the image above, there is no "truth" - the cylinder, square, and circle are all equally "true" due to human perspective. Even if the reality is the cylinder, Sense-making would argue that there is further reality we are not perceiving - which may be true, but also complicates simple ideas into more complex ones. 

In conclusion, Sense-making is a great tool for examining what information really is, but it also disregards medium as a form of information design in and of itself. 

In a blog setting, Sense-making could be used to explore context more in-depth; that is, to try and get further "into the weeds", so to speak, of what something means - such as how the idiom "into the weeds" itself means to examine very closely at the metaphorical "root" of a topic. As Dervin's theory states the information design is the human way of making sense of chaos, "digging" into the "heart" of a subject is one way to try and see the way chaos has been ordered for human consumption.

Wikipedia contributors. (2018, December 26). Marshall McLuhan. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:44, February 3, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marshall_McLuhan&oldid=87536679


Dervin, B. (2000) Chaos, Order, and Sense-Making. Information Design pp. 35-57. The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.