Information architecture (IA) is a crucial aspect of user experience (UX) design, often shared among designers, developers, and content strategists. It’s a distinct field with its own methodologies, tools, and resources. This article explores the definition, history, methodologies, and practical aspects of IA, providing a comprehensive overview for both beginners and experienced practitioners.
What is Information Architecture?
Defining information architecture can be challenging. Unlike roles like content strategist or interaction designer, “information architect” is rarely a specific job title. Instead, IA is a valuable and necessary discipline that overlaps with various roles.
The Information Architecture Institute (IAI), a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the field, defines IA as:
Helping people understand their surroundings and find what they’re looking for, in the real world as well as online.
Essentially, information architecture involves creating a structure for websites, applications, or other projects that allows users to understand their location and find the information they need. This process results in site maps, hierarchies, categorizations, navigation systems, and metadata. When a content strategist organizes content into categories or a designer sketches a top-level menu, they are engaging in information architecture.
Key questions to consider when practicing information architecture include:
- What is the user flow through our site or application?
- How does the application help users organize and categorize their information?
- How is that information presented back to the user?
- Does the presentation of information help the customer and drive their decisions?
To answer these questions effectively, information architects must focus on the target audience, the technologies involved, and the data being presented.
Foundational Methodologies
Information architecture, as we understand it today, emerged around the 1970s, well before the rise of web and mobile applications or the popularization of user experience design. Its foundations lie in various fields and methodologies that UX practitioners still utilize, including library science, cognitive psychology, and architecture.
Library Science
Library science can be defined as the development of “knowledge-organization systems,” as described by the University of Washington. It involves studying how to categorize, catalogue, and locate resources in various settings, from traditional libraries to museums, science labs, and hospitals.
Two particularly valuable aspects of library science for information architects are cataloguing and archival science. Cataloguing is the process of creating metadata and assigning it to content for future retrieval. Archival science involves building and curating archives of content, which may require editing or removal to maintain the integrity of the archive. Both elements translate directly to UX work, where the goal is to create an information architecture with appropriate and usable metadata and a well-maintained content archive.
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology, the study of how the mind works and the mental processes that occur within it, influences both interaction design and information architecture.
Information architecture draws on specific elements of cognitive psychology to structure information effectively:
- Cognitive load: The amount of information a person can process at any given time. Understanding cognitive load helps information architects avoid overwhelming users with too much information at once.
- Mental models: The assumptions people hold before interacting with a website or application. Information is easier to find when it aligns with the user’s mental model of where it should be.
- Decision making: A cognitive process that allows us to make choices. Information architects can support decision-making by providing relevant information at key moments.
Architecture
Richard Saul Wurman, considered the founder of modern information architecture, was a graphic designer and architect, not a web designer. He believed that information should be structured like a building, with a solid foundation. As Gary Wolf explained in a Wired Magazine article about Wurman, Wurman’s work contributed to the idea that “the presentation of information can be more important than the information itself.”
Similar to physical architecture, information architecture can take various forms and is based on a precise, intentional structure and a solid foundation of ideas, applicable to libraries and websites alike.
Daily Tasks and Deliverables
An information architect typically performs a variety of activities as part of a UX project team. Common tasks include user research and analysis, navigation and hierarchy creation, wireframing, labeling, taxonomies and metadata creation, and data modeling.
User Research and Analysis
Information architects need access to the results of usability tests, card sorting exercises, stakeholder interviews, and user interviews to understand the project’s audience. They often actively facilitate interviews or card sorts, observing how prospective users categorize terms. Through this research, IAs learn how people will interact with an application, how they will use the information provided, and what mental models they hold.
Following research, an IA analyzes the data and presents it to the team as spreadsheets, recommendations, or user personas that represent typical users, their goals, and their approach to the application.
Navigation and Hierarchy Creation
The information architect is primarily responsible for determining how information is displayed and accessed across a website or application. This involves considering user expectations and the organization’s goals.
For example, an organization might want users to associate their FAQ with their Help page, placing both under a “Support” section. However, research might indicate that users expect an FAQ to be under a “Product” section. The IA must make this decision, weighing the benefits of each option or considering alternatives that achieve both goals. These decisions create the structure for the rest of the site or application. The main deliverable associated with this work is a site map, which illustrates the hierarchy of content.
Wireframing
Some information architects use wireframes to represent the connections between different screens and demonstrate how the site will work from a practical perspective. Based on research and hierarchy decisions, an IA sketches key screens to show how users will interact with the available information.
This approach is common when the designer is responsible for information architecture work. Wireframes are valuable deliverables to share with clients and for developers and visual designers to reference during mockup, prototype, and final product development.
Labeling
Deciding where information lives is crucial, but so is determining what to call each section. Labeling, or naming pages and links on a site, ensures that the navigation and hierarchy are appropriately titled, which significantly affects users’ ability to find information. This task might fall under a content strategist’s purview, but every IA should contribute to labeling decisions, whether they are also the content strategist or a designer.
Taxonomies and Metadata
A taxonomy is a system of classifying and grouping similar types of content or information. Information architects select appropriate taxonomies for a website or app based on the target audience’s mental model. They then “tag” content with metadata, enabling users to search for content based on these taxonomies.
For example, a clothing store might use taxonomies based on fabric type, clothing item, and color. An IA would tag a shirt as “cotton,” “shirt,” and “red,” allowing a shopper with the mental model “I need a new shirt” to easily find a red, cotton shirt.
Data Modeling
Also known as content modeling, this task involves collaboration between an IA and developers to determine structured content types that meet user needs, business logic, requirements, and internal editorial practices. For website redesigns, new data models often need to be mapped to existing structures to ensure smooth content migration. This work is often done in spreadsheets, outlining field types and relationship requirements, and sometimes implemented directly into a CMS. Data modeling can result in documented content types or content templates for content strategists or copywriters to use when creating content.
Influential People in Information Architecture
Several individuals have significantly influenced the field of information architecture. Here are a few notable figures to follow:
- Abby Covert: Author of “How to Make Sense of Any Mess: Information Architecture for Everybody” and President of the Information Architecture Institute. (Twitter)
- Andrea Resmini: Co-author of “Pervasive Information Architecture” and a teacher and researcher at JIBS. (Twitter)
- Andrew Hinton: Co-founder of the Information Architecture Institute and author of “Understanding Context.” (Twitter)
- Christina Wodtke: Co-founder of the Information Architecture Institute and advisor to startups. (Twitter)
- Dan Klyn: Information architect, teacher at the University of Michigan, and co-founder of The Understanding Group (TUG). (Twitter)
- Donna Spencer: Freelance information architect, mentor, writer, and trainer, and author of “A Practical Guide To Information Architecture.” (Twitter)
- Eric Reiss: Information-architecture consultant, author, and theorist, and CEO of FatDux. (Twitter)
- Jesse James Garrett: Started Adaptive Path and author of “The Elements of User Experience.” (Twitter)
- Louis Rosenfeld: Co-author of “Information Architecture for the World Wide Web” and co-founder of the Information Architecture Institute. (Twitter)
- Nick Finck: Web craftsman and author of numerous web design-related articles. (Twitter)
- Peter Morville: One of the founders of information architecture and author of “Information Architecture for the World Wide Web” and “Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything.” (Twitter)
Image alt: A visual poster explaining different aspects of Information Architecture
Essential Tools for Information Architects
While information architecture involves significant mental work, IAs use various tools to create site maps, define categories, and design wireframes.
- Omnigraffle: A diagramming and wireframing suite that allows users to create hierarchical wireframes. (Learn More about OmniGraffle)
- Axure: A wireframing and diagramming tool for rapidly creating website and application wireframes and prototypes. (Learn More about Axure)
- MindManager: A visual framework for promoting freeform thinking and organizing ideas into site maps. (Learn more about MindManager)
- XMind: Mapping software that allows users to save maps to Evernote and offers a library of user-shared maps. (Learn more about XMind)
- Treejack: Software for validating information architecture by testing how well users can find information within a site hierarchy. (Learn more about Treejack)
Conferences and Associations
Information architects can benefit from attending conferences and joining associations and community groups dedicated to promoting the field.
- Information Architecture Institute (IAI): A non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the concept, craft, and community of information architecture. (http://www.iainstitute.org/)
- Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T): An association for web architects, librarians, researchers, developers, professors, and students, focused on bridging the gap between theory and practice in information science. (https://www.asist.org/)
- Information Architecture Community Group: An online community hosted by W3C for discussing information architecture topics. (https://www.w3.org/community/informationarchitecture/)
- IA Summit: An annual conference covering data and content aspects of information architecture, addressing new challenges in digital ecosystems and the Internet of Things. (http://www.iasummit.org/)
- EuroIA: An organization and conference that runs events across Europe, including the EuroIA Summit, a leading user experience and information architecture conference. (http://www.euroia.org/)
- An Event Apart: A design conference for designers, developers, IAs, UX professionals, project managers, and more. (http://aneventapart.com/)
- Meetup: Search for “information architecture” in your city to find local networking, educational, and social groups. (http://www.meetup.com/)
Recommended Books for Information Architects
These books are valuable additions to any IA library:
- Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become by Peter Morville: Explores information overload and content usability in the age of Google. (Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become)
- A Practical Guide for Information Architecture by Donna Spencer: A practical checklist and overview of how IA and UX work together. (A Practical Guide for Information Architecture)
- How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert: Provides a seven-step process for tackling complex hierarchies. (How to Make Sense of Any Mess)
- Information Architecture: An Emerging 21st Century Profession 1st Edition by Earl Morrogh: Discusses the multidisciplinary nature of information architecture. (Information Architecture: An Emerging 21st Century Profession 1st Edition)
- Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville & Jorge Arango: A comprehensive guide to creating IAs for large websites with complex hierarchies. (Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond)
Conclusion
Information architecture is a critical component of user experience design, requiring a diverse skillset and a deep understanding of user behavior. By understanding the principles, methodologies, and tools of IA, practitioners can create websites and applications that are not only functional but also intuitive and user-friendly, leading to greater user satisfaction and success.
