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Defining IA (What is IA?)

What is Information Architecture?

Information architecture is the practice of deciding how to arrange the parts of something to be understandable. The practice of information architecture facilitates people and organizations to consider their structures and language thoughtfully.

Information architecture (IA) is a science of organizing and structuring content of the websites, web and mobile applications, and social media software.

Information architecture (IA) focuses on organizing, structuring, and labeling content in an effective and sustainable way.  The goal is to help users find information and complete tasks.  To do this, you need to understand how the pieces fit together to create the larger picture, how items relate to each other within the system.

Information architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability; and an emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design, architecture and information science to the digital landscape.^[1] 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.

Information architecture is about helping people understand their surroundings and find what they’re looking for, in the real world as well as online. In other words, information architecture is the creation of a structure for a website, application, or other project, that allows us to understand where we are as users, and where the information we want is in relation to our position. Information architecture results in the creation of site maps, hierarchies, categorizations, navigation, and metadata. When a content strategist begins separating content and dividing it into categories, she is practicing information architecture. When a designer sketches a top level menu to help users understand where they are on a site, he is also practicing information architecture.

If you’ve ever tried to use something and thought, “where am I supposed to go next?” or “this doesn’t make any sense,” you are encountering an issue with an information architecture.

Information Architectures Are All Around Us

Information architectures (IAs) are in the websites we use, the apps and software we download, the printed materials we encounter, and even the physical places we spend time in. 

A good IA helps people to understand their surroundings and find what they’re looking for – in the real world as well as online. Practicing information architecture involves facilitating the people and organizations we work with to consider their structures and language thoughtfully.

We like to say that if you’re making things for others, you’re practicing information architecture.

Information Architecture Forms A Foundation for User Experience Design

Many people are curious how IA is related to user experience (UX) design. UX designers practice IA everyday; the two are closely connected. Put simply, IA is an important skill within UX and other disciplines, such as content strategy, technical writing, library science and interaction design. 

Our mission at the Information Architecture Institute is to get the word out about this important practice, so more people have the words for this work and can therefore better educate themselves and others on it. 

Here are some of the questions we ask when doing information architecture:

• What is the flow of users through our site?

• How does the application help the user catalog their information?

• How is that information presented back to the user?

• Is that information helping the customer, and driving decisions?

To answer these questions, the information architect must focus on a number of things: the target audience, the technologies related to the website, and the data that will be presented through the website.

Principles of IA

• Information Ecology (32, IA)

  • Three components: Users, Content, Context

• Search Types (44, IA)

  • Known item, exploratory seeking, exhaustive research, refinding

• Information Seeking Behaviors (46, IA)

  • User methods for finding: searching, browsing, asking

  • Two aspects to seeking behavior: integration and iteration

  • Two models of seeking: berry-picking, and pearl-growing

• Learning About Needs (49, IA)

  • Many research methods, but two primary examples are: search analytics, and contextual inquiry

• Physical vs. Information Environment (58, IA)

  • An information environment should be reflective of the place it corresponds to (a physical bank vs. an online bank)

• Modularity & Extensibility (67, IA)

  • 6 S’s of a building - How Buildings Learn

    
    

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• Recommended Reading

  • Books

    • Information Architecture for the Web and Beyond - O’Reilly

    • How to Make Sense of Any Mess

  • Articles

    • https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/information-architecture.html

  • Events

    • https://www.theiaconference.com/, formerly IA Summit

  • Organizations

    • Information Architecture Institute: https://www.iainstitute.org/

  • People

    • Abby Covert

    • Andrea Resmini

    • Andrew Hinton

    • Dan Klyn

    • Eric Reiss

    • Jesse James Garrett

    • Louis Rosenfeld

    • Peter Morville

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_architecture

• https://www.iainstitute.org/what-is-ia

• https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/information-architecture.html

• https://uxplanet.org/information-architecture-basics-for-designers-b5d43df62e20

• https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-information-architecture/#what