Websites and apps are places where critical parts of our lives happen. We shop, bank, learn, gossip, and select our leaders there. But many of these places weren’t intended to support these activities. Instead, they're designed to capture your attention and sell it to the highest bidder. Living in Information draws upon architecture as a way to design information environments that serve our humanity. "Jorge Arango proves to be an insightful tour guide to information spaces, explaining how we interact with this new architecture." — Karen McGrane , author of Going Responsive "I loved this book by Jorge so much that I asked him to help me design and build the world we want to live in." — Dave Gray , author of Liminal Thinking and Gamestorming "We spend more time in information environments every day— this book is a great place to spend some time to understand how we can design digital places that benefit us in the long term." — Dan Ramsden , Creative Director for UX Architecture and Design Research, BBC "It has never been more important to design with intention and vision. Living in Information provides a definitive roadmap on how to lead, architect, and design information environments that are intentional, resilient, add value, and shape social interactions" — Priyanka Kakar , Director, Product Design, The Walt Disney Company "It immediately and profoundly impacted the way I think about the systems I design and use." — Jeff Sussna , digital transformation consultant and author of Designing Delivery Jorge Arango is a strategic designer and information architect. Upon seeing the then–new World Wide Web in 1994, he left his career in (building) architecture to start the first web design consultancy in Central America. He has since designed information environments for organizations that range in scope from developing–world nonprofits to Fortune 500 corporations. He is co–author (with Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville) of Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond (2015) , the fourth edition of O'Reilly's celebrated "polar bear" book. He is also a former president of the Information Architecture Institute, and speaks and teaches about design leadership around the world. Jorge lives with his wife and three children in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can reach him via email at jarango@jarango.com or follow him on Twitter, where he is @jarango. Chaper 4: Engagement You walk into the kitchen with the intent of making a sandwich, when suddenly you hear glass shatter. You immediately turn toward the source of the sound. Your pulse quickens as scenarios play in your mind. Has someone broken into your house? Where are your kids? You walk into the living room to discover your son with a surprised look on his face and a ball lying on the floor next to the shattered window. Fortunately, he's alright. You comfort him and discuss what has happened, and then take your phone out and Google glaziers. You find a company that seems reputable and call them to set an appointment for the next morning. You go back to the kitchen and wonder, "Now, where was I?" Thus far in this book, we've been discussing tangible ways in which places influence our behavior. But there are also more subtle ways in which environments affect us. One that is of particular importance is how they impact our ability to focus our attention. Sometimes our attention is taken away by an exceptional occurrence, such as the sound of a breaking window. This is useful; the ability to respond quickly to changing conditions can help us escape danger. However, most of the time, we want to be in control of our attention. An environment that nudges us to spend more of our time there—or keeps interrupting us—would make it difficult for us to get things done. The places we inhabit can either allow us to remain in control of our attention or snatch it from us for purposes of their own. Unfortunately, many of today's most popular information environments are based on business models that incentivize the latter. The term used in the technology business is "engagement" the amount of time people spend looking at or interacting with components in the environment. Given how important our attention is, it's worth looking at how designing for engagement affects it. What Attention Is and Why It Matters You can think of attention as your ability to focus your mind on one piece of information among many so that you can achieve a particular goal. The sound of breaking glass offers your senses new information that interrupts your train of thought. It causes you to suspend your immediate aim—the sandwich—in favor of another, more urgent one: making sure everything's okay with your home. As you read this paragraph, you’re sensing information about your environment: the temperature of the space, various background noises, the level of lighting, and so on (including the words that make up the paragraph) Your mind is also prompting you with info