Basics of Information Architecture

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What is IA• Information = data + it’s context

• Architecture = way things are organized & inter

relationship between them

• Thus, Information Architecture is the way data,

content, web pages and documents etc of a Portal

are organized,

• It also defines the way they objects of a Portal are

to be accessed and modified and the overall flow

Defining IA• Define the whole structure (sites, sub-sites, sub-sub-sites,

web pages etc)

• How shallow or deep the web site structure should be

• Define which sub-sites will be used for what purpose

• Associate sites/sub-sites to people/departments/groups

• Define roughly the layouts of important web pages

• Define Search page layout and search entry criterias

• Define Search results layouts

• Define permissions

• Define navigations and menus/sub-menus

• Define taxonomy and meta-data structures

Tools to Define IAThe tools can be as simple as Excel spread sheets, MS Word or can be MS Visio or can be a professional tool like XMindor Mindjet. Normally, MS Visio serves as a good companion.

• Excel spreadsheets listing site, subsite hierarchy

• Excel spreadsheets listing user groups, permissions

• Excel spreadsheets detailing the taxonomy terms

• Visio diagrams showing various site pages, their inter-relation, hierarchy between them etc

• Wireframe diagrams indicating page layouts

• Clickable HTML prototypes showing the navigation and flow

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