Information Architecture is about the arrangement of content and interactions in a way that makes sense. Most information architects are practitioners on the web, forgetting that our inspiration can be found off-line too, often in the most unlikely of places.
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The bumpers prevent the ball going into the gully, a defensive mechanism to prevent error but one that is user-switchable. We can intentionally make life harder for ourselves by removing the bumper; an equivalent might be the stabiliser training wheels on a bicycle.
