what is information architecture

Interface DesignNavigation

DesignInformation

Design

The Surface PlaneOn the surface you see a series of Web pages, made up of imagesand text, sensory design.

The Skeleton PlaneBeneath that surface is the skeleton of the site: the placement ofbuttons, controls, photos, and blocks of text. The skeleton is designed to optimize the arrangement of these elements for maximum effect and efficiency.

The Structure PlaneThe skeleton is a concrete expression of the more abstract structure of the site. The skeleton might define the placement of the interface elements on our checkout page; the structure would define how users got to that page and where they could go when they were finished there. The skeleton might define the arrangement of navigational elements allowing the users to browse categories of products; the structure would define what those categories were.

The Scope PlaneThe structure defines the way in which the various features andfunctions of the site fit together. Just what those features andfunctions are constitutes the scope of the site.

The Strategy PlaneThe scope is fundamentally determined by the strategy of the site.This strategy incorporates not only what the people running thesite want to get out of it but what the users want to get out of thesite as well.

Meet the Elements of UX

The Structure PlaneThe scope is given structure on the functionality side throughinteraction design, in which we define how the system behavesin response to the user. For information resources, the structure is the information architecture: the arrangement of content elements to facilitate human understanding.

The Skeleton PlaneThe skeleton plane breaks down into three components. Onboth sides, we must address information design: the presentation of information in a way that facilitates understanding. For functionality-oriented products, the skeleton also includes interface design, or arranging interface elements to enable users to interact with the functionality of the system. The interface for an information resource is its navigation design: the set of screen elements that allow the user to move through the information architecture.

Why it matters?The cost of finding informationWhat is the cost of frustrating your customers with a poorly organized web site?

The cost of not finding informationHow many bad decisions are made every day in your organization because employees didn’t find the information they needed?

The value of educationWhat is the value of educating your customers about new products and services related to the ones they’re actively seeking on your web site?

The cost of constructionWhat does it cost to design and build a web site? How much does it cost to redo?

The cost of maintenanceWhat does it cost to ensure that good designs don’t crumble over time?

The cost of trainingWhat does it cost to train employees to use that system? How much could you save if it wasn’t so complicated to use?

The value of brandIf customers can’t find what they need, your brand loses value in their eyes.

Information architecture has somewhat different meanings in different branches The structural design of shared information environments

• The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities, and software to support findability and usability.

• An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

• The combination of organization, labeling, search and navigation systems within websites and intranets.

• Extracting required parameters/data of Engineering Designs in the process of creating a knowledge-base linking different systems and standards.

• A subset of Data Architecture where usable data (a.k.a information) is constructed in and designed or arranged in a fashion most useful or empirically holistic to the users of this data.

DebateThe difficulty in establishing a common definition for "information architecture" arises partly from the term's existence in multiple fields. In the field of systems design, for example, information architecture is a component of enterprise architecture that deals with the information component when describing the structure of an enterprise.While the definition of information architecture is relatively well-established in the field of systems design, it is much more debatable within the context of online information systems (i.e., websites). Andrew Dillon refers to the latter as the "big IA-little IA debate“. In the little IA view, information architecture is essentially the application of information science to web design which considers, for example, issues of classification and information retrieval. 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.

IA in different industries

Where it is used?

What isn’tGraphic designalso known as communication design, is the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content. The form of the communication can be physical or virtual, and may include images, words, or graphic forms

Interaction designis the behavior of tasks and processes that users encounter in software and information systems at the interface level.

Usability engineeringUsability engineers understand how to apply the rigors of the scientific methodto user research, testing, and analysis.

Experience designis an umbrella term that encompasses information architecture, usability engineering, graphic design, and interaction design as components of the holistic user experience.

Software developmentInformation architects rely on developers to bring our ideas to fruition. Developers help us understand what is and isn’t possible.

Enterprise architectureis a conceptual blueprint that defines the structure and operation of an organization. The intent of an enterprise architecture is to determine how an organization can most effectively achieve its current and future objectives.

Knowledge managementdevelop tools, policies, and incentives to encourage people to share what they know.

Content managementis the administration of digital content throughout its lifecycle, from creation to permanent storage or deletion. The content involved may be images, video, audio and multimedia as well as text.

Who can be hired?Graphic design and information design

Information and library science

Journalism

Usability engineeringMarketing

Computer science

Technical writing

Architecture

Product management

Many more…

Requirements

Information Architect generally want to understand the following parameters of the project:

1.User goals and needs2.Business/organizational goals3.Technical constraints4.Content constraints5.Project constraints

What is Information Architecture

The practice draws on deep roots of library science, cognitive psychology, semiotics, cybernetics, discrete mathematics, and of course, architecture itself.

Information architecture is considered to have been founded by Richard Saul Wurman. Today there is a growing network of active IA specialists who constitute the Information Architecture Institute.

1. The structural design of shared information environments.

2. The combination of organization, labeling, search, and navigation systems within web sites and intranets.

3. The art and science of shaping information products and experiences to support usability and findability.

4. An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Saul_Wurman

How it works

Basic Concept

Systems

Deliverables

Sitemaps Labels Navigation Search

Information Architecture problems require creating categorization schemes that will correspond to our own objectivesfor the site, the user needs we intend to meet, and the content that will be incorporated in the site. We can tackle creating such a categorization scheme in two ways: from the top down, or from the bottom up.


Architectural ApproachesThe basic unit of information structures is the node. A node can correspond to any piece or group of information—it can be as small as a single number (like the price of a product) or as large as an entire library. By dealing with nodes rather than with pages, documents, or components, we can apply a common language and a common set of structural concepts to a diverse range of problems.

In a hierarchical structure—sometimes called a tree or hub-and spoke structure—nodes have parent/child relationships with other related nodes. Child nodes represent narrower concepts within the broader category represented by the parent node. The concept of hierarchical relationships is well understood by users and because software tends to work in hierarchies

Organic structures don’t attempt to follow any consistent pattern. Nodes are connected together on a case-by-case basis, and the architecture has no strong concept of sections. Organic structures are good for exploring a set of topics whose relationship is unclear or evolving.

Sequential structures are the ones you are most familiar with from offline media

A matrix structure allows the user to move from node to node along two or more dimensions. Matrix structures are often useful for enabling users with different needs to navigate through the same content.


Labeling is a form of representation. Just as we use spoken words to represent concepts and thoughts, we use labels to represent larger chunks of information in our web sites. For example, “Contact Us” is a label that represents a chunk of content, often including a contact name, an address, and telephone, fax, and email information. You cannot present all this information quickly and effectively on an already crowded web page without overwhelming impatient users who might not actually need that information.

Contextual linksHyperlinks to chunks of information on other pages or to another location on the same page

HeadingsLabels that simply describe the content that follows them, just as print headings.

Navigation system choicesLabels representing the options in navigation systems

Index termsKeywords, tags, and subject headings that represent content for searching or browsing.


Navigation systems are composed of several basic elements, or subsystems. The global, local, and contextual navigation systems that are integrated within the web pages themselves. These embedded navigation systems are typically wrappedaround and infused within the content of the site. They provide both context and flexibility, helping users understand where they are and where they can go. The design of navigation systems takes us deep into the gray area between information architecture, interaction design, information design, visual design, and usability engineering, all of which we might classify under the umbrella of user experience design.

Global, local, and contextual embedded navigation systems

Supplemental navigation systems


The Visual Vocabulary is a system for diagrammingarchitectures ranging from the very simple (top) to the verycomplex (bottom)


An information architect will typically understand about how a search engine might benefit users by leveraging metadata, how its interface could be improved, or how it should be integrated with browsing and their respective needs, discuss how these might impact one another, and ultimately present a unified set of requirements when evaluating search engine applications. This is not always possible for political and other reasons. That’s why the information architect must be prepared to argue strongly for owning at least an equal responsibility for selecting and implementing the search engine that will best serve users.

Interface Design

Interface design is all about selecting the right interface elements for the task the user is trying to accomplish and arranging them on the screen in a way that will be readily understood and easily used. Tasks will often stretch across several screens, each containing a different set of interface elements for the user to contend with. Successful interfaces are those in which users immediately notice the important stuff. Unimportant stuff, on the other hand, doesn’t get noticed—sometimes because it’s not there at all. One of the biggest challenges of designing interfaces for complex systems is figuring out which aspects the users don’t need to deal with and reducing their visibility.

Text boxes

Dropdown list

Check boxes

Radio buttons

Text fields Action buttons

Navigation Design

The navigation design must accomplish three simultaneous goals:1. It must provide users with a means for getting from one point to another on the site. Navigation elements have to be selected to facilitate real user behavior—and by the way, that means those links have to actually work, too.

2. The navigation design must communicate the relationship between the elements it contains. What do those links have to do with each other? Are some more important than others? What are the relevant differences between them? This communication is necessary for users to understand what choices are available to them.

3. It must communicate the relationship between its contents and the page the user is currently viewing. Communicating this helps users understand which of the available choices might best support the task or goal they are pursuing.

Global navigation provides access to the broad sweep of the entire site.

Supplementary navigation provides shortcuts to related content that might not be readily accessible through the global or local navigation.

Contextual navigation (sometimes called inline navigation) is embedded in the content of the page itself.

Supplementary navigation provides shortcuts to related content that might not be readily accessible through the global or local navigation.

Information Design

Information Design comes down to making decisions about how to present information so that people can use it or understand it more easily. Sometimes information design is visual. Sometimes information design involves grouping or arranging pieces of information.

References• http://www.aiga.org/guide-whatisgraphicdesign/• http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/content-management-CM• http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/enterprise-architecture• http://www.ejitime.com/materials/IDC%20on%20The%20High%20Cost%20Of

%20Not%20Finding%20Information.pdf• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fields-where-information-architecture-

taxonomy-used-theresa-putkey• https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/us-inarch/• http://semanticstudios.com/pdfs/historia.pdf