Whether the already complicated field of website development needs another concept is debatable but the term information architecture is slowly taking hold. This describes the discipline of creating website structures, labeling, navigation schemes, screen design focused on the site user's needs, whether a customer, client, employee or supplier. It is a collection of techniques and processes which allow all stakeholders to develop a shared idea of what is to be built and what will work in advance of its construction by prototyping and testing the user's experience.
Though most publications, brochures and software are produced without any user testing this is becoming untenable in the brutally competitive landscape of the internet. If your competitor is a click away enterprises need to focus on giving the site visitor a satisfying and useful experience immediately.
This is why traditional marketing approaches of brochures when transferred to the web have failed, witness the frustrations of slow loading animated presentations getting in your way when all you need is product information or contact details. In turn traditional software development techniques have failed to create usable software based on the user's mental model of a task. A simple test of of an online
Print and TV approaches to marketing are based on the idea there is a difference in the user's anticipation of a product or service, mediated by advertising and brand building, and the actual experience of using the product or service. On a website the difference between anticipation and experience collapses. The people who have realised this and have acted on it successfully have been business such as Yahoo, Expedia and Amazon for example. But as basic research, customer relations, public relations and many other business processes have moved onto the internet every enterprise has to focus on user experience.
The discipline of the information architecture, defining customer needs, observing users, modeling the experience, mapping sites and content prototyping and testing help a website do this. Information architecture could be described as the glue that binds together a successful website.
Many designers and developers are already engaged in some of these processes but rarely in a systematic way. Though the role will only be distinct in the larger consultancies or in-house websites it needs to be integrated into every website's development.
A successful information architecture will be practically invisible to the end user, it affects the user interface; for example creating simpler home pages anticipating users needs and questions. The deliverables of the process; mental model diagrams, content maps, site maps, page wireframes which are intended to communicate to designers, developers may be invaluable but are rather dry. Examples on request!
I build information architecture into all projects, large or small. I am available as a consultant or associate to organisations looking at improving the user experience on larger websites. Contact me for more details.
The following examples are of sites where I have worked exclusively as an information architect as an associate with Parallel56 and had no role on the design or user-interface. I have used these skills before notably in shaping Citizens Connection from the beginning.