Why do we say “it all depends” so often in Information Architecture? Because it is true - a design solution does depend heavily on the context of the situation. For example, taxonomies are rigid information structures that are only applicable in certain situations - but where they are applicable, they are almost compulsory.
Donna Maurer says that teaching information architecture is contextual, and Matt Hodgson says that Knowledge Management is useless when it is just seen as a way of capturing and storing information. In both cases, they are saying “it all depends”.
Human beings categorise things so as to cope with them - apart from getting it wrong in the first place, error comes in where the categorisation is not fine enough - and negative prejudices arise, and worse, circular logic - “some Asian cultures eat cats, my cat is missing, so I suspect my Asian neighbours” apart from being just plain nonsense, is circular logic - another is “my dog is red, you have a red animal, therefore it is red”. Thus are the sins of inadequate categorisation.
When practitioners of information architecture are asked to give an opinion without adequate preparation or analysis they can make mistakes. This is the sin of Best Practices and the trap they present: the easy answer. There are no easy answers - it all depends.
Sure does