Embodied Research in
Information Architecture
Tasks
In contemporary design practices, digital ecosystems are often designed in isolation from the analog environments in which they are used. This tendency to prioritize friction-less, screen-bound interactions optimized for clarity and speed frequently neglects the sensory, spatial, and embodied dimensions of human experience.
This research project was funded by Emily Carr SIG explore grant resulting in a poster presented at the Information Architecture Conference 2024 (IAC24) and talk presented at Information Architecture Conference 2025 (IAC25).
This research aimed to move beyond fixed hierarchies in information architecture, embracing fluidity, relationships, and complexity. By exploring how spatial cognition and information architecture intersect in blended environments, we sought to help participants experience and map the transitions between digital and physical spaces, revealing richer ways to design for contemporary information ecosystems.
Precedent Research
This practice-centered approach draws from Andrea Resmini’s influential precedents, who advocates for a spatial turn in information architecture to address the complexities of designing for today’s hybrid environments. Resmini emphasizes the need to integrate techne (practical knowledge) and episteme (theoretical understanding), grounding design thinking in spatial awareness.
What is Blended Spaces?
A blended space simply means any place where the digital and physical worlds are combined into a single experience. More formally, blended spaces are hybrid environments in which physical and digital elements are meaningfully integrated so that users perceive and interact with them as a coherent whole (Resmini, 2014). For example, a museum that uses augmented reality to display historical scenes over real artifacts, a retail store with digital price displays and app-based navigation, or a city tour that overlays geo-tagged stories onto buildings all create blended spaces that merge information and environment into a unified, richer experience.
At its core, the Blended spaces framework is concerned with experience-level blueprinting, more than device-level detailing, which is relevant to information architects more than ever in this modern age.
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Do all interactions with digital tools take place within blended spaces?
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User Identification:
Who is this for?
Blended spaces users are individuals and groups navigating both physical environments and digital tools. Core users include students using digital lessons, museum visitors with smart guides, hospital patients with digital maps, shoppers seeing digital labels, and office workers in smart rooms. Supporting them are teachers, IT staff, curators, and building managers. Others, like policymakers, researchers, funders, and community members, shape or are impacted by these systems. Together, they co-create environments where digital and physical worlds merge.
Experience Planning:
How did we plan?
At the heart of this exploration is the Blended Spaces Vancouver Walk-shop, an exercise designed to move participants beyond classrooms and screens. It invites them to experience firsthand how physical and digital information environments intersect, shaping our cognition, movement,
and spatial understanding (Hilton, 2014).
Preparations
We designed a three hour workshop inspired by the Copenhagen Walkshop, coordinating with Andrea Resmini, gathering precedents, and mapping routes to avoid overlap. We introduced controlled friction through analog sketching and note taking to slow observation and deepen attention to blended digital physical information experiences.
Participants
We formed groups through an interactive sorting exercise using a familiar object. Participants who photographed it joined the digital group (using only digital tools), those who sketched joined the analog group (using only physical tools), & those who did both joined the hybrid group. This structure surfaced navigation habits and highlighted contrasts between digital, analog, and blended wayfinding.
Tools
We introduced choreography, topology, and ontology to prompt reflection on how movement, spatial structure, and meaning shape information experiences. Screens often flatten context, but by foregrounding embodied navigation and interpretation, we can design more thoughtful, context aware digital experiences.
The Walkshop
The Walkshop was conceived as a three-hour interactive field activity designed to blend indoor and outdoor environments, introduce friction through analog documentation, and surface how tools shape navigation, memory, and perception. Three distinct groups Digital, Analog, and Hybrid, were created to explore different modes of interaction, each following a separate route to prevent overlap while leading to shared destinations. To guide participants, we created a handbook containing prompts for each stage of the journey, encouraging them to reflect, answer questions, and record their observations. These prompts supported tasks such as documenting a tree, finding specific books in the library, and reflecting on how each method of navigation shaped their experience. The prompts ensured that participants engaged with both their surroundings and the tools they were using, making their interactions more intentional and reflective.
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