CITATION AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
Cite as: Dervin, B. (1999). Chaos, order, and Sense-Making: A proposed theory for information design. In R. Jacobson (Ed.), Information design (pp. 35-57). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Reprinted in: B. Dervin & L. Foreman-Wernet (with E. Lauterbach) (Eds.). (2003). Sense-Making Methodology reader: Selected writings of Brenda Dervin (pp. 325-340). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
© Hampton Press and Brenda Dervin (2003), reprinted by permission of MIT Press (1999).

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ABSTRACT:
In this chapter, Dervin traces briefly a history of theories of information design and proposes that most theories have charted for information the task of describing an orderly reality; and most challenges have focused on the impossibility of the task. Dervin proposes an alternative which accepts both the dominant theories and the challenges and defines information as human tool designed to make sense of a reality assumed to be both chaotic and orderly. She then explicates her proposal with a communication-based theoretical framework drawing out implications for information design. She concludes with a review of her work on Sense-Making as an exemplar theory, methodology, and practice illustrating with eleven applications and their implications for information design.

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