Rhetorically Defining 'Information' For Designers and Technical Communicators: Transport, Institutional Shift, and Usability

Abstract

"Information" is a boundary concept affecting work in multiple sectors. This paper examines classical information theory and modern research in technical rhetoric and circulation to define "information" for technical communicators and designers as something other than a usable unit or quantified intelligence. Defining information as a pattern allows designers to consider what leads to "information" and what its consequences are as part of usability. This paper also examines how knowledge is being made in the current climate of uncertainty and institutional erosion.