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Information architecture

Information architecture is the categorization of information into a coherent structure, preferably one that most people can understand quickly, if not inherently. (source: Wikipedia)

Organizing digital information for others

Added on 15 March 2012 Peter Bogaards
The other is the most significant subject in your professional live.

“When we interact with web and intranet teams, we find many struggling to move beyond conceptual-level discussions on information organization. Hours on end are spent on discussing the meaning of “metadata”, “controlled vocabulary” and “taxonomy” without any strategic understanding of how everything fits together. Being so bogged down at this level they fail to look beyond to the main reason for their pursuit—organizing information for others (the end users) so that they can find the information easily.”

(Maish Nichani a.k.a. @maish ~ PebbleRoad)

How to assess the maturity of your information architecture

Added on 6 March 2012 Peter Bogaards
We have models for maturity levels of usability, UX, CX and IA. Next up IxD, CS and what-have-you.

“These UX design practice verticals were the product of an IA exercise that charted the primary activities of eight unique forms of practice that play out in any comprehensive UX design project-large or small. Information architecture is one of those practices. It’s possible to arrange the following six tiers of the IA practice vertical-which together make up the primary areas of interest of information architecture-in a way that permits the quick evaluation of a site’s IA maturity.”

(Nathaniel Davis a.k.a. @iatheory ~ UXmatters)

What Does Digital Analytics Have in Common with Content Strategy, InfoArch and UX?

Added on 1 March 2012 Peter Bogaards
Another take on the same event.

“Not many would dispute that organizations need a Web strategy to be successful. When it comes to execution, operational governance is considered the key to getting the organization to act on the strategy. Governance takes the strategy and makes it real through alignment of roles, responsibilities, management policies and budget decisions.”

(Web Analytics Management)

The De-Evolution of UX Design

Added on 15 February 2012 Peter Bogaards
InfoArch gets rehabilitated.

“By bringing the IA phase back and by concentrating first on the information, several things will happen. First, your sketching and interface design becomes much, much better because you have prioritization and buy off on the content, context, and users you are designing for. This means that your wireframe/prototyping phase becomes a lot more about the interface and not what content should go in the interface and why. Second, you are showing your stakeholders that UX design truly isn’t just form, but really is also about function. We are moving away from the interface, which is how we started, and towards a real solution of which the interface is only a part. Third, we stop lying to ourselves, and we stop saying that the best UX solutions aren’t just the coolest or the best aesthetically, but they are those that take content, context and users into consideration while creating an aesthetically appropriate interface. Most importantly, we stop UX’s slide down the evolution scale back towards the time of print design and outputs, and instead continue our climb up the mountain towards being the user experience experts.”

(Elisabeth Hubert a.k.a. @likehow22)

IA Strategy: Addressing the Signatures of Information Overload

Added on 6 February 2012 Peter Bogaards
Info overload gets to be a IA/UX issue as well.

“The one thing we know about information overload on the Web is that we don’t know enough. The rapid rate at which people and organizations create and propagate information complicates our getting a grip on information overload in the domain of information technology. Our information includes things like our Honey-Do lists, gigabytes of digital documents, and the deluge of email messages that pile up in our email inboxes. The amount of information we consume and manage is growing in both its volume and volatility. Probably worse than the self-inflicted burden of information glut that we’ve invented for ourselves is the fact that the less we know about information overload, the less we can know about the relevance of our collective stockpiles of information.”

(Nathaniel Davis a.k.a. @iatheory ~ UXmatters)

The System of Information Architecture

Added on 30 January 2012 Peter Bogaards
Systems lead to models, and modelling is what we do.

“Information architects are inveterate systems thinkers. In the Web’s early days, we were the folks who focused less on pages than on the relationships between pages. Today, we continue to design organization, navigation, and search systems as integral parts of the whole. Of course, the context of our practice has shifted. Increasingly, we must design for experiences across channels. Mobile and social are just the beginning. Our future-friendly, cross-channel information architectures need to address the full spectrum of platforms, devices, and media.”

(Peter Morville ~ Journal of Information Architecture Volume 3 Issue 2)

A Brief History of Information Architecture

Added on 30 January 2012 Peter Bogaards
Great write-up of the founding mothers and fathers of our beloved field.

“Information architecture is a professional practice and field of studies focused on solving the basic problems of accessing, and using, the vast amounts of information available today. You commonly hear of information architecture in connection with the design of web sites both large and small, and when wireframes, labels, and taxonomies are discussed. As it is today, it is mainly a production activity, a craft, and it relies on an inductive process and a set, or many sets, of guidelines, best practices, and personal and professional expertise. In other words, information architecture is arguably not a science but, very much like say industrial design, an applied art.”

(Andrea Resmini & Luca Rosati ~ Journal of Information Architecture Volume 3 Issue 2)

State of Interaction Design: Diverging

Added on 24 January 2012 Peter Bogaards
Like any other practice, through time professionals gravitate towards different epicentres of expertise.

“Interaction Design is reaching a critical point in its history. We have spent the better part of the last half century converging. We have built our entire identity by bringing in other disciplines and practices into our fold. We are often decried as ‘land grabbers’, but I say it is more about shoring up our knowledge base and practice so that we can be ready for the ever-increasing complexity of the tasks set before us through our acknowledged focus on human behavior as it relates broadly to the interaction of systems.”

(David Malouf a.k.a. @daveixd ~ Core77)

The T-Model and Strategies for Hiring IA Practitioners: Part 2

Added on 8 November 2011 Peter Bogaards
Or what the form of the character T can initiate. And what about the A, K, or X?

“This second installment of my series on hiring IA practitioners, therefore, expounds on the Boersma T-model by presenting a grid that can help hiring managers make informed recruiting decisions by giving them a clear picture of the key verticals of UX practice, while taking into account three potential levels of an IA practitioner’s professional experience.”

(Nathaniel Davis a.k.a. @iatheory ~ UXmatters)

Fear of Content

Added on 19 October 2011 Peter Bogaards
Not really sure why we changed data and information into content, as if it’s something completely different.

“Content can be a little frightening, it’s true. Not to everyone mind you. Some people simply love content, with all its oddities and challenges. More often than not these are the people who spend much of their time designing and creating content. But there are definitely people who look somewhat askance at this thing called ‘content’. The reasons why some people are less than enamored with content are worth considering and not only to refute them. There may well be good reasons to be afraid – or at least to approach content with due respect.”

(Joe Gollner a.k.a. @joegollner ~ The Fractal Enterprise)

Taxonomy and Metadata and Findability Influence Traditional Roles

Added on 19 October 2011 Peter Bogaards
Some things are innate, others you have to learn. It’s called Hard Fun.

“Taxonomy and metadata skills are now much more important library skills. A lot of information being created today does not fit into the Dewey Decimal Classification, the Library of Congress Subject Headings or many other classification systems. Companies struggle with how to organize digital information to ensure everyone can find it and many companies are starting to move away from file servers and into content management systems where taxonomy and metadata are crucial to categorizing and retrieving information. However, most people don’t have the instinctual skills to create information organization structures that are useful or the practical knowledge and experience to be confident in the structures they create.”

(Theresa Putkey ~ Key Pointe Usability Consulting)

Information Overload, Information Architecture and Digital Literacy

Added on 7 October 2011 Peter Bogaards
So, information architecture and digital literacy fix filter failure.

“When thinking about folksonomies and similar user-generated knowledge organization, we can see that professional goals would most probably require not only the use of these unsophisticated tools, but also classification and subject indexing that employ classification schemes, top-down hierarchical taxonomies, thesauri and other formal structures.”

(Tibor Koltay ~ ASIS&T Bulletin Oct/Nov 2011)

Is Information Architecture Dead?

Added on 7 October 2011 Peter Bogaards
Dead of alive? Who cares? Making the complex clear and understandable is more necessary than ever.

“Employees need to perform their jobs to support their clients. Information architects are on the front lines when it comes to improving performance. We know how to listen to what users want from a system; we know how to analyze what we learn so we can determine what to put in and what to leave out; we know how to cluster information into smaller usable chunks that support information processing and decision-making; and we know how to test our assumptions and optimize a system so it is directed toward a common goal.”

(Thom Haller ~ ASIS&T Bulletin Oct/Nov 2011)

The Strategic IA

Added on 5 October 2011 Peter Bogaards
A column is like a site. Great to start but a hell of a job (for most) to maintain it on a regular basis. As always, benefit of the doubt.

“This column explores the strategic aspects of information architecture and the tools to equip information architects for success. Topics will address the business, strategy, user experience, and implementation of strategic information architecture, including organizational, content management, and tactical considerations.”

(Andrea Ames and Alyson Riley ~ STC Intercom)
courtesy of keithinstone

The T-Model and Strategies for Hiring IA Practitioners: Part 1

Added on 4 October 2011 Peter Bogaards
Or, what a simple diagram can bring.

“What I also find disturbing is the lack of competency that some senior IA practitioners, with three to five years of experience, demonstrate when looking for employment. As a manager of an IA team, I have reviewed many resumes and portfolios of IA practitioners who don’t meet the basic requirements; whose design artifacts don’t reflect what I would expect of someone with senior-level experience. Does anyone know what junior or senior means? UX design managers, managers of information architecture, and IA practitioners should have a shared understanding of what makes a junior or senior IA practitioner a viable candidate.”

(Nathaniel Davis a.k.a. @iatheory ~ UXmatters)

What I Bring to UX From… Architecture

Added on 30 September 2011 Peter Bogaards
Sounds more like information architecture, projects and clients to me.

“To do well in either architecture or user experience design, the ability to communicate well is key, and the most important part of communicating is listening. As designers, we need to listen to our clients and their customers to understand their needs and requirements. We need to communicate our designs to both our clients and our development teams in a way that they will understand. Our ideas need to be translated into designs and made concrete, through user scenarios, workflow diagrams, mock-ups or wireframes so that they can be discussed, understood, tested and improved upon. Communication becomes even more important once those designs start being built. As I already stated, nothing ever gets built as planned. Therefore, communication is key in working with the development team to evolve and refine the design as it gets built, and to manage the expectations of the client throughout the development process as those changes are occurring. And, a lot of that communicating is listening.”

(Jennifer Fraser a.k.a. @jlfraser ~ Johnny Holland Magazine)