Defining 5 Methods of Information Architecture

An information architect will generally do a variety of activities as part of a UX project team. Common tasks include research, navigation creation, wireframing, labeling, and data modeling. Most of these tasks are valuable because of the process they follow, and some also result in deliverables, which we’ve referenced where relevant. https://globalcloudteam.com/ In our Complete Beginner’s Guide to Interaction Design, we also referenced cognitive psychology as a common methodology. Cognitive psychology is the study of how the mind works, and what mental processes take place there, so it’s not surprising that it influences both the interactions we design and the way we architect information.

Information architects can attend conferences, and join a variety of associations and community groups intended to help promote the field and those who work in it. Louis helped create the profession of information architecture, co-authoring its leading text, and was president of its best-known consulting firm, The User Experience Network, for seven years. Lou co-founded the Information Architecture Institute and is a member of its Advisory Board. After conducting this research, an IA will begin to analyze the data.

Similar to Ubiquitous Information Architecture (

Providing clear navigation is a big part of information architecture. Compare and contrast the different architectural structures presented here based on their functional and formal qualities. Define the different types of function and apply them to architectural examples. We can also consider Lin’s work as an example of ethical function, or the ability of architecture to express the ethos of the society that produces it. This idea, best explored by philosopher Karsten Harries, asks what architecture’s responsibility is to its community.

Information architects should have a good understanding of the content that the product offers. Content inventory, grouping, and audits help UX architects achieve this. Information architecture is the foundation for efficient product design.

Navigation

Also called wireframes or schematics, these are probably the most controversial of the IA’s deliverables. Too precise wireframes, and visual designers feel dictated to, too loose and the architecture can be misinterpreted. To understand the difference between the two, it’s important to remember what UX design is.

OOUX allows you to get at the deeper organizational layers, establishing the specific hierarchy of objects on an individual page and determining the relationship between pages that link to one another. Gather qualitative and quantitative data through interviews, contextual inquiry, user observation, and other relevant methods. Provide participants with cards listing the content/information you will have on your site, albeit with no predesignated themes or categories. To get at the deeper layers of what Information Architecture makes possible, it’s essential to understand it as a storytelling tool as well. I’m really looking forward to discussing information architecture with you.

In the big IA view, information architecture involves more than just the organization of a website; it also factors in user experience, thereby considering usability issues of information design. Simply defined, architecture is the art of designing structures and spaces. Think of all the buildings, structures, and spaces you encounter day-to-day . All of these places were intentionally designed to serve a particular purpose. You likely don’t pay attention to every structure you pass by, and this is intentional. As we’ll learn, not every building is meant to stand out and, in fact, many are built to recede into their surroundings to avoid visual chaos.

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The first defines the structure of content, while the second defines how users will move through it. IAs also need access to the results of usability tests to determine whether the structure they’ve created worked for their users. While IA isn’t really visible to end-users, it is the backbone for the design. The information architect’s job is to create an experience that allows the user to focus on their tasks, not on finding their way around.

Many of these people are your co-workers in the non-IT departments of your organization. These intelligent and able people could use simple, quickly understandable on-screen directions in what names and numbers to enter into which areas of a DB front-end screen. It doesn’t have to look fancy or “cool;” indeed, that just needlessly complicates what you’re trying to simplify.

Christina is a partner at Carbon IQ, a San Francisco consultancy specializing in user centered Information Architecture. She also runs Elegant Hack and a newsletter on the subject. UX architects might also visit users in real-world environments to see how they interact with a product. The IA practitioner will join other team members to ask questions related to product design.

As a result of these challenges, organizations spend billions of dollars in managing their Information Technology instead of focusing on their core business challenges. UX Booth is trusted by over 100,000 user experience professionals. The Information Architecture Community Group is an online community hosted by W3C. Members of the community can pose questions or discussion points and engage in conversation with other IAs around the world using the online forum.

Cross-linking reveals the relationship between different objects, leading to contextual navigation. Review the creative brief and pull out key nouns, extracting “objects” from goals. Organize – and reorganize, as needed – the individual points into meaningful categories that can be used to create accurate defining information architecture personas, logical layouts, and intuitive interactions. Allow participants to label and describe each created group. From project work to new ventures to managed services, Fresh is your end-to-end team for innovation. By revealing related content is what today’s successful websites and apps do.

Content inventory and audit

An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape. This 2003 book speaks to the multidisciplinary nature of information architecture. It addresses the integration of skills from visual design, information design, library science, information science, and human-computer interaction to accomplish an IA’s work. In the book, which is more of a history than a how-to, Morrogh talks about the purpose of creating information environments that are beautiful, valuable, and easy to use. We mentioned earlier the importance of making decisions as to where information lives.

“The art and science of shaping information products and experienced to support usability and findability.” The practice of organizing the information / content / functionality of a web site so that it presents the best user experience it can, with information and services being easily usable and findable . The implementation model is how the product works from a technical point of view. The conceptual model is the message the designer or IA sends to the user about how the product works.

These videos also outline broader issues of why we build and the different functions of architecture. “For Information Systems, there are often cases where large applications are built, with little or no consideration for the essential role of architecture. It is not difficult to find examples of large failed projects, which might have had better chances of success if more time was invested to be sure that the Information Architecture was correct. Now on its fourth edition, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is one of the foremost books on information architecture. It is so ubiquitous in UX departments and agencies that many people know it only as “the polar bear book,” nicknamed for the polar bear on the cover.

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W3C is very clear that, although they host the community, the opinions and ideas do not necessarily represent their organization. The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) is an association not only for web architects, but also librarians, researchers, developers, and professors and students. Their goal is to close the gap between theory and practice of information science. They run Strategic Planning Town Hall sessions, a journal publication, and events and webinars for their members. The content audit can be documented in whatever tool you’re comfortable in, whether it’s a spreadsheet like the example above.

• The IA might classify the items using categories, sections, or metadata tags.
• Read on to learn more about this field and its applications.
• Information architects spend their time structuring content so it’s easy for users to find what they are looking for.
• After conducting this research, an IA will begin to analyze the data.
• In this article we’ll discuss what information architecture really is, and why it’s a valuable aspect of the user experience process.
• An example of a content audit spreadsheet, listing every page within a website or in an app.

Occasionally they will not produce all seven, sometimes the deliverables will include others such as a thesaurus or taxonomy. I’ve presented them in rough chronological order, though these are a toolset, not a rigid methodology, and the choice of which to use and when to use them will depend on the needs of the project. Prioritize user flows that allow the protagonists of the user stories to achieve their goals. Reorder elements by imagining which will be most important to your users. Using each object, determine what elements make up an object.

What is Information Architecture?

Typically, it involves a model or concept of information that is used and applied to activities which require explicit details of complex information systems. These activities include library systems and database development. In the analogy of constructing a building, the early phases of development involve understanding the needs of the building, its potential tenants, and local building codes. Information architects and user experience designers work closely together to determine those needs and requirements.

Determine the best menu to help people find their way, there’s still more to do. Page on our website, how we choose which links to put in our navigation menus. You can see the wood beams under the roof, the use of brick at the base of the structure, and the use of frosted and etched glass surrounding the seating area.

Towering buildings, golden domes, mountains, signs, storefronts, trees, doorknobs, and other objects that serve as spatial reference points. I mean architect as used in the words architect of foreign policy…as in the creating of systemic, structural, and orderly principles to make something work. Hayley Carter, “Information architecture”, Work Study, Vol. Dan Klyn has been working as an information architect for nearly twenty years in agencies, e-commerce organizations, and non-profits. He also teaches information architecture, at the school of Information at the University of Michigan, and is the co-founder of The Understanding Group .