The Architecture of Piles

We need to recognize that ... piles and piling ... [are] very closely related. We tend to think that information architecture and the architecture is somehow separate from the interactions. I don't really feel that we can talk meaningfully about architecture and especially that breaking point between formal architecture that we create and the informal stuff that people create for themselves without addressing the interaction aspects of it.

Karl Fast, speaking at this year's Information Architecture Summit, explores the way people use piles to quickly externalize and organize information. He then asks what this means when we're designing architectures and applications for other people.