Information Architecture 101

What the heck is Information architecture?

Information architecture is the art of organizing information on a website in a way in which it is easily found. That's the one sentence version, anyhow.

Information architecture (IA) is the art of organizing content into a logical structure. In websites we need to organize all the information logically and put it in together for it to make sense to our users.

Websites are supposed to answer questions that the a user has and help users complete tasks. If a website makes it easy for you to complete your task, then you know the information architects were effective. If a website has clumsy navigation and you have a hard time finding the information then we know whoever did the architecture on the website was not successful.

How do I recognize Information Architecture?

Before asking how I visualize IA, you may want to know why you need to visualize it. The main reason is if you have to explain what IA is to others. IA is not a tangible thing and the field is new and not many people out there understand exactly what it is. That’s why in this article, I am going to give you the whole picture of IA in layman’s terms, so youhave a complete understanding are able to communicate that to other people.

You can recognize IA, by noticing the search systems and classifications/categorizations of a website’s architecture. But, it’s just not the navigation links that is IA, it’s the way information architects, categorize the structure of the information on the site.

Here is an example, let's say we are looking at a clothing store's online shopping cart. The types of clothing could be broken down like this: t-shirts, other shirts, jeans, casual pants, shorts and accessories. This is information architecture, it’s just not the words or the links, its how it is categorized.

Another example perhaps is the way content (words) are grouped on the homepage. If you look at any website – well most websites - for example the content is usually grouped into paragraphs or chunks of information, this is also information architecture.

IA is much deeper in the links on a website and how they are placed. IA refers to the content and the way in which we find it. It might be that we search for it, we could use a quick links side bar, either way it’s how we find the information.

Why information architects?

By now, we all know that IA exists without architects. If we want to create useable websites with easy to find information in complex environments, then we need architects. Without the proper professional knowledge and skills we would have a web of mess, much like it was with the crazy flashing buttons before we had web designers.

Imagine mortgages without mortgages specialists or schools without teachers. Information architecture without architects isn’t going to work either.

Alicia Harper

Vancouver Website Design Firm