Information architecture (Wikipedia)
An encyclopedia article on information architecture: its definition in user-experience design, three other technical senses of the term (information systems, data architecture, enterprise systems design), and a named list of eight principles. See Information Architecture.
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Key points
- Defines information architecture, in the user-experience sense, as “the structural design of shared information environments… comprising the study and practice of organising and labelling web sites, intranets, online communities, and software to support user experience, in particular, the findability and usability of information.”
- In the “information systems” sense, describes information architecture as “the combination of organization, labeling, search and navigation systems within websites and intranets” — the four-systems framework Information Architecture builds its own structure around.
- Distinguishes two further senses that concern data and enterprise architecture rather than interface design: a data architecture sense (arranging usable data for the people who use it) and a systems design sense (the information component of enterprise architecture).
- Names eight principles of information architecture (objects, choices, disclosure, exemplars, front doors, multiple classification, focused navigation, growth) without individually defining them, each sourced to a 2010 paper by Dan Brown in the (paywalled) Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.
- Names card sorting, tree testing, and site maps as related methods/artifacts, and controlled vocabularies and faceted classification as related organizing techniques.