5 ways to classify all information

5 Hat Racks
5 ways to classify all information

 location
Alpha
category
time
commitment

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Five Hat Racks


From InfoVis:Wiki

[edit] Definitions

The concept of the „Five Hat Racks” was originally developed by Richard Saul Wurman in his book Information Anxiety [Wurman, 1989]. In the words of Truong the concept sounds as follows:



There are five ways to organize information: category (similarity relatedness), time (chronological sequence), location (geographical or spatial references), alphabet (alphabetical sequence), and continuum (magnitude; highest to lowest, best to worse).

[Truong, 2004]



Wurman is chairman and creative director of the TED Conferences who focus on technology, entertainment, and design. In 1976 Wurman defines the term "information architect". In his book, Information Architects [Wurman, 1996] he presents the creations of 20 colleagues who've mastered the skill of presenting clear information. In this book he redefined his “Five Hat Racks” Concept slightly to form the LATCH Principle:



Information may be infinite, however...The organization of information is finite as it can only be organized by LATCH: Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, or Hierarchy.

[Wurman, 1996]

I've tried a thousand times to find other ways to organize, but I always end up using one of these five.

[Wurman, 1996]