Information Architecture: Making Things Clear
Reading about UI Design and Usability, I often came across Information Architecture (IA). Even if at first the meaning of IA seemed obvious to me, I decided to read a bit more on the subject. Here are my findings.
Definition :
“An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.”
From Information Architecture, O’Reilly,Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville
IA Matters :
1. Users
The ones who will use the sofware, the end-user.
2. Information itself
Well, nothing more to add here.
3. The business (or organization)
Understandind the business goals and the mission.
“… Technology isn’t just another cool toy that you spend money on just to say that you have it. It’s there to serve the needs of the business, and the minute you forget that, the business suffers.”
How ?
In site observation, survey, focus group…
Conclusion
From my point of view, IA is a philosical exercise about how to organize information for the end-users.
For a more detailed definition of IA you can read this IBM paper which is also my source and inspiration (you will find the link below).
Finally, I found a useful IA checklist made by the Australian Government (!). Here is the pdf.
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Source/inspiration: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ar-infoarch/
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_architecture
Nice blog: http://informationarchitects.jp/
Tagged as 101, IA + Categorized as Usability, Information Architecture
