Information Architecture

The Five of Maps symbolises disappointment, and the feelings that come when things go differently to how you expected them too. A user experience hasn’t turned out the way the user have hoped it would. This is what happens when you haven’t paid enough attention to Information Architecture.

As Jefferey Zeldman puts it, ‘Good information architecture enables people to find and do what they came for. Great information architecture takes find out of the equation: the site behaves as the visitor expects. Poor or missing information architecture neuters content, design, and programming and devalues the site for its owners as well as the audience it was created to serve. It’s like a film with no director. The actors may be good, the sets may be lovely, but audiences will leave soon after the opening credits’

A bit of history

Richard Saul Wurman who came up with this definition in his book ‘Information Architects’ in 1997. He had coined the term much earlier in his career. Which co-incided with the explosion of the work wide web.

‘a. the individual who organizes the patterns inherent in data, making the complex clear; b. a person who creates the structure or map of information which allows others to find their personal paths to knowledge; c. the emerging 21st century professional occupation addressing the needs of the age focused upon clarity, human understanding, and the science of the organization of information.’

This was closely followed by ‘Information Architecture for the World Wide Web’ by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville which really laid the foundations for the discipline of Information Architecture as part of being a UX designer. Soon we were all busy drawing site maps, and worrying about taxonomy, and doing epic card sorts.

Sadly…

I think Information Architecture is becoming one of the lost skills of digital design. Which is a shame as I think it is at the core of everything we do. I think search has a bit to do with this, the number of times I have watched users who cannot find something on a site, just open a new browser window and ‘google it’ is very sad.

As Wurman has emphasised all through his career it’s all about making information understandable.

‘Allow the information to tell you how it wants to be displayed. As architecture is ‘frozen music’, information architecture is ‘frozen conversation’. Any good conversation is based on understanding.’

Or as Massimo Vignelli elegantly put it

‘Graphic Design is the communication of information in an appropriate visual manner.’