Information architecture

IA News Network

"This News Network is designed to help people track and share news about IA." (Jan Hot Strudel Jursa)

Posted on November 05, 2008 | Permalink

Is there an architect in the house?

"What was intriguing about this particular conference was the diversity of people, both in professional and geographic terms. There were graphic designers, interaction designers, technical leads, managers, and oh yes... 'information architects'. What was interesting about the attending information architects was that they came from so many backgrounds to become an information architect. There were actual classically trained architects that became IA's, there were designers that were IA's and so on." (Adam Kallish - Spill)

Posted on October 23, 2008 | Permalink

IDEA 2008

"The speakers pushed the boundaries of what it means to design complex information spaces of all kinds. We can all expand our practice by absorbing their experiences and ideas. In cooperation with the IA Institute, we're happy to bring you recordings of most conference talks. We hope you enjoy listening to nearly the entire conference via these recordings." (Jeff Parks - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on October 17, 2008 | Permalink

Redesigning the Library Experience

"(...) one of the major challenges facing small public libraries today: rethinking the user experience to help bridge the digital and physical realms while enabling library administrators to better respond to patrons’ changing needs." (Michael Magoolaghan - ASIS&T Bulletin Oct/Nov 2008)

Posted on October 07, 2008 | Permalink

Roadmap for an European IA Network

"A staged approach to realising a network of IAs in Europe." (Søren Muus et al.)

Posted on October 06, 2008 | Permalink

Extending Card-Sorting Techniques to Inform the Design of Web Site Hierarchies

"Card sorting is a useful technique for discovering user perspectives on site navigation. However, designers or user researchers who conduct card-sorting exercises should be aware of the method’s challenges and assumptions. This column has presented a number of alternative methods that can extend and complement card sorting and thus provide the most comprehensive insights for designing an effective information hierarchy." (Michael Hawley - UXmatters)

Posted on October 06, 2008 | Permalink

Thoughts on the Euro Information Architecture Summit 2008

"At the moment I'm trying to pull back and see information architecture as a new but somewhat established field. Invention used to be necessary of everyone, but now it's only needed from a few. Compare it to another field like electrical engineering. At the beginning there was a lot invention, but now we know enough to simple do it. Today, some engineers continue to push the envelope in the design of microprocessors while others specify the wiring in the next model of speaker phone. I would expect IA to settle into the same spread." (Victor Lombardi - Noise Between Stations)

Posted on September 29, 2008 | Permalink

Social Networks Going Global

"I'm giving a presentation on Taking Social Networks Global, at the EuroIA Summit in Amsterdam. I was working on it the past days, and I'm pretty happy with how the talk is turning out. As a preview, here are my slides (so far, they might still change slightly)." (Peter Vandijck)

Posted on September 22, 2008 | Permalink

Thoughts on the Open IAI initiative

"(...) my main concern is that this discussion about openness and transparency could be distracting us from the main question we need to be addressing right now: what is the IAI's vision and its role in society?" (Jorge Arango) - courtesy of petervandijck

Posted on September 15, 2008 | Permalink

When Information Architecture Can Fall Short

"Information Architecture involves the design of organization and navigation systems to help people find and manage information more successfully." - the conversation is the interesting part. (Jeff Sexton - Future Now's GrokDotCom) - courtesy of michelvuijlsteke

Posted on August 18, 2008 | Permalink

Planning out a website

"This article is going to look at the early stages of planning out a web site, and a discipline that is commonly referred to as Information architecture, or IA. This involves thinking about who your target audience will be, what information and services they need from a web site, and how you should structure it to provide that for them. You’ll look at the entire body of information that needs to go on the site and think about how to break that down into chunks, and how those chunks should relate to one another." (Jonathan Lane- The Web Standards Curriculum)

Posted on August 14, 2008 | Permalink

The Site Map: An Information Architecture Cop-Out

"These days, there are two predominate ways that users get to a web site. Either they type the URL into the address bar, bringing them to the site's home page, or they come to the site through an aggregator or referral, such as Google, often taking them to a specific page within the site. For some sites, the home page is the most popular route, but increasingly, users link deep into the site." (Jared Spool - User Interface Engineering)

Posted on August 12, 2008 | Permalink

The SEO Guide to Information Architecture

"This article will explore the basic concepts of designing optimized site architectures for efficient spidering by search engines. Building an easily spidered site has ramifications in how pages, sections of a site, and entire domains are topically understood and categorized by bots, which influences indexing and rankings." (AudetteMedia) - courtesy of thehotstrudel

Posted on August 08, 2008 | Permalink

How Buildings Learn TV series

"In 1997, the BBC aired a three-hour documentary based on Stewart Brand's book, 'How Buildings Learn'. Brand has posted the whole program on Google Video in six 30-minute parts." (via Jason Kottke)

Posted on August 05, 2008 | Permalink

Convergence and Emergence: 2008 IA Summit

"It is clear that the discipline of information architecture is undergoing change. I was amazed at the range of job titles I encountered. Very few people actually had the title information architect. This must be a sign that the rapid development of the Web and the technological advances that are occurring are just moving so fast what we do is very hard to define. It is just a label, and we shouldn't become too hung up on it, but I think the IAI need to be aware and wise to the developments that are going on in other disciplines such as IxD and UX in general." (James Kelway - UXmatters)

Posted on July 22, 2008 | Permalink

The what, when and why of wireframes

"They are a visual representation of the content of a web page that is the culmination of user research, business objectives and content. Best brought together in a sequence of pages to illustrate paths of navigation and interactions on the page." (User Pathway) - courtesy of thehotstrudel

Posted on June 27, 2008 | Permalink

Is Information Architecture worth saving?

"I'm a person who is deeply passionate about Information Architecture, but also troubled about its future. In 10 years, will we be iRise jockeys or strategic leaders…or something else entirely? If you ask me, my gut says that Information Architecture is definitely worth saving, but right now, I can't tell you why." (Matthew Milan - Experience Matters)

Posted on June 25, 2008 | Permalink

A historical exploration of analogous architectures of the Information Society 

"Analogous Spaces refers to the fact that every science or knowledge, every thought, every memory, every action creates its own space and that these spaces are organised according to a similar structure or architecture." (Charles van den Heuvel - Analogous Spaces presentations)

Posted on June 18, 2008 | Permalink

Demystifying Information Architecture

"This afternoon I presented my session at WebDU on the topic of information architecture for designers and developers. In the particular case of WebDU, these designers and developers mostly specialise in Flex and Flash." (Patrick Kennedy - Pat's Point of View)

Posted on June 13, 2008 | Permalink

Europe's Fourth Information Architecture Summit Programme

"EuroIA invites your participation to this premier European event on Information Architecture. Join us in Amsterdam, Netherlands September 26-27, 2008, for two incredible days of presentations, panels, and networking with information architects from across Europe and around the world. This year we will explore the theme of 'Redrawing the Map', both between countries and online – from forging new international alliances to adapting traditional deliverables to the needs of a Web 2.0 world." (Euro IA 2008)

Posted on June 10, 2008 | Permalink

Information Architecture Television

A collection of online vids concerning usability, information architecture, interaction design and user experience design. (Jan Jursa - The Hot Strudel)

Posted on June 10, 2008 | Permalink

User Interface Implementations of Faceted Browsing

"Just as it is important to choose the proper knife when slicing-n-dicing vegetables, it is critical to prescribe a suitable user interface to support faceted filtering. Faceted filtering allows you to narrow down a large list of objects to a manageable size by applying flexible combinations of attribute filters in any order. Rather than forcing you down fixed paths within a website’s information architecture, faceted filtering allows you to multi-dimensionally slice-n-dice the information in a manner that best accommodates your specific needs. A user interface that optimally supports faceted filtering must expose its robust functionality in a way that expresses affordances, controls complexity, and follows existing standards that have been pre-established across the web." (Mike Padilla - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on May 02, 2008 | Permalink

Linkosophy

"Giving this talk at the IA Summit was a blast; I'm so grateful for the positive response, and the patience with these still-forming ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing where the conversation goes from here! NOTE: You need to view this in 'Full Screen' mode, which you can only do from the SlideShare page itself. Otherwise, the narrative text isn't readable." (Andrew Hinton - inkblurt)

Posted on April 17, 2008 | Permalink

IA Summit 2008 Tagged Pix at Flickr

A growing number of pictures from the Information Architecture Summit 2008 (April 10-14, 2008 - Miami Florida)

Posted on April 17, 2008 | Permalink

IA Summit 2008 Tagged Slides at SlideShare

A growing number of presentations from the Information Architecture Summit 2008 (April 10-14, 2008 - Miami Florida)

Posted on April 17, 2008 | Permalink

Video Interviews with IA Pioneers

"At the 2007 IA Summit in Las Vegas, IAKM worked to gather video interviews from the top and pioneering professionals in the Information Architecture-related fields. Through the course of the Summit, many interviews were collected to be used in IAKM courses as well as in an effort to create a video history of the discipline. Following are some clips from the interviews. A video repository is currently under development." (Information Architecture and Knowledge Management Kent State University) - courtesy of bloug

Posted on April 14, 2008 | Permalink

IA Summit 2008 Slides

"There have been some absolutely phenomenal presentations at the IA Summit in Miami so far. If you didn't happen to make it out to the conference or you'd like to revisit the material, I've amassed a list of IA Summit podcasts and PowerPoint slides. Not all presentations have been made available online yet so I'll make a follow-up post in a couple of days to capture any new presentation links." (NLC Internet Marketing Blog)

Posted on April 14, 2008 | Permalink

Meet Your Peers

"Meeting new people and catching up with old friends is one of my favorite things about attending the IA Summits. The folks in this community are some of the smartest and most welcoming people I know! Alas, while concepts and practices can be clearly conveyed in publications such as Boxes and Arrows, it is very difficult to describe the people behind these ideas in a way that does them justice. Perhaps if they introduced themselves to you." (Jorge Arango - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on April 09, 2008 | Permalink

Document Engineering and Information Architecture

Complete syllabus with lecture notes and audio recordings - "This course introduces the discipline of Document Engineering: specifying, designing, and deploying electronic documents and information repositories that enable document-centric or information-intensive applications. These applications include web services, information supply chains, single-source publishing, composite applications/virtual enterprises/portals, and so on. Course topics include developing requirements, analyzing existing documents and information sources, conceptual modeling, identifying reusable semantic components, modeling business processes and user interactions, applying patterns to make models more robust, representing models using XML schemas, and using XML models to implement and drive applications. The syllabus contains over 20 short case study examples from different industries, with special emphasis on business-to-business, healthcare and medical informatics, and e-government." (Robert J. Glushko)

Posted on April 03, 2008 | Permalink

Webstock Recordings

"Here are all the recordings from Webstock 08 and Webstock 06. These recordings will be permanently archived at the following links. Where there is no recording for a particular session, that was the decision of the speaker and we fully respect that. (...) We'd love to hear from you if you find these recordings useful. Please drop us a line and let us know, especially if you weren't at Webstock and/or are from locations other than New Zealand. Enjoy!" (Webstock)

Posted on March 21, 2008 | Permalink

The Architects of the Information Age 

Editorial Insert in the January 21 edition of Fortune Magazine - "Understanding the way information is used is particularly crucial in relation to the Internet: Sites that help users find what they need quickly and easily tend to win customers. Sites that frustrate users lose them—fast. So, to get their data game-plan right, savvy companies are turning to the increasingly important field of information architecture." (The Information Architecture Institute)

Posted on January 31, 2008 | Permalink

IA Summit 2008: Experiencing Information

"This year your peers and industry experts will speak about how topics such as social networking, gaming, patterns, tagging, taxonomies, and a wide range of IA tools and techniques can help as users 'experience information'. - April 10-14, 2008 (Miami, Florida USA)" - (About the Summit)

Posted on January 31, 2008 | Permalink

Videos from the Second Italian IA Summit

"The first batch of full videos from the Second Italian IA Summit (Trento, November 16-17 2007) is available from the web site (as published by Brightcove). Some of the presentations are in English, so you might find interesting stuff even if you do not know Italian. The second and final batch will be published in the coming days and the full papers are scheduled for the end of the month." (Andrea Resmini)

Posted on January 11, 2008 | Permalink

Italian IA Summit 2007

The proceedings of the 2nd Italian Information Architecture Summit held on 16=17 november 2007 in Trento are availble. At the moment only slides, but soon papers and videos too. Furthermore, Paolo Massa and Andrea Resmini publish their trip reports. courtesy of lucarosati

Posted on December 02, 2007 | Permalink

IA Konferenz 2007 - Keynote

Audio files from the IA Conference in Germany - "Keynote Speech, Victor Lombardi, Smart Experience, New York (USA). Content: Tools - Background - Patterns of other fields (e.g. publishing) - Why tools? - What does this mean for designers? - Tools we can create now." (Deutsche IA Konferenz 2007 - iavoice) - courtesy of wolfnoeding

Posted on November 30, 2007 | Permalink

Intranet Information Architecture

"In analyzing 56 intranets, we found many common top-level categories, labels, and navigation designs, but ultimately, the diversity was too great to recommend a single IA." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted on November 26, 2007 | Permalink

Make Tools

"In my keynote talk at the 2007 IA Konferenz in Stuttgart, Germany this month, I argued we need to create fewer artifacts and more tools. We're already doing this, but it's easy to get stuck in a make-more-web/mobile-sites rut and that could lead to irrelevance." (Victor Lombardi)

Posted on November 26, 2007 | Permalink

euro IA Summit 2007 Posters

The posters of the third European summit on Information Architecture (21-22 September, Barcelona) are available for download. (euroIA.org)

Posted on October 19, 2007 | Permalink

What is browsing - really? A model drawing from behavioural science research

"It is argued that the actual elements of typical browsing episodes have not been well captured by common approaches to the concept to date. Empirical research results reported by previous researchers are presented and closely analysed. Based on the issues raised by the above research review, the components of browsing are closely analysed and developed. Browsing is seen to consist of a series of four steps, iterated indefinitely until the end of a browsing episode: (1) glimpsing a field of vision, (2) selecting or sampling a physical or informational object within the field of vision, (3) examining the object, and (4) acquiring the object (conceptually and/or physically) or abandoning it. Not all of these elements need be present in every browsing episode, though multiple glimpses are seen to be the minimum to constitute the act. This concept of browsing is then shown to have persuasive support in the psychological and anthropological literature, where research on visual search, curiosity and exploratory behaviour all find harmony with this perspective. It is argued that this conception of browsing is closer to real human behaviour than other approaches. Implications for better information system design are developed." (Marcia Bates - Information Research Vol. 12 No. 4, October 2006)

Posted on October 16, 2007 | Permalink

Take-away facts and quotes from the Euro IA Summit

"(...) I was in Barcelona for the Euro IA Summit, and I made a solemn vow to my wife and myself that I was actually going to concentrate on doing stuff rather than spending my time and energy blogging about doing stuff. However, it did seem rather churlish not to at the very least post my favourite take-away facts and quotes from the conference itself." (Martin Belam)

Posted on October 15, 2007 | Permalink

The information architect as change agent

&ot"In this article I argue, with a bit of logic and a bit of experience, that IAs can do their jobs better if they understand organizational change management, even if they don’t need to be change management specialists. I'll also suggest a variety of concepts and practices that can (hopefully) help IAs in their change agent role, and I promise to throw in something entertaining as well." (Matthew C. Clarke - Posted on October 11, 2007 | Permalink

euro IA Summit 2007 Proceedings 

The proceedings of the third European summit on Information Architecture (21-22 September, Barcelona) are available for download. With its theme 'Translating Information Architecture' and under the great orchestration of Eric 'FatDUX' Reiss, 150 participants from 18 countries had two great days full of presentation, poster and panel sessions. See how they network at the Flickr picture impression 'euroIA2007'. Next year's euroIASummit (26-27 september 2008) will be in Amsterdam! - (euroIA.org)

Posted on October 01, 2007 | Permalink

Building Block Definitions (Containers)

"Joe Lamantia dives deep into the components of the building block system. Each has a place in his design framework for dashboards and portals. Get full coverage on how you too can use these same elements in your work." (Joe Lamantia - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on September 26, 2007 | Permalink

Processes + Patterns

"After explaining the concepts of patterns and collections, I spoke about how I thought process patterns and design patterns could be combined and about what the benefits would be to designers and team managers (and of course users and clients) once they were combined." (Peter Boersma)

Posted on September 26, 2007 | Permalink

Playful IAs

"I had some great reactions to this talk and I want to thank all the people who engaged with me in discussions afterwards. It’s given me a good picture of what areas I should develop further in future subsequent talks. I’m also pleasantly surprised to see that contrary to what some people think, the IA community (the European one at least) is very much open to new ideas. That’s really nice to experience firsthand." (Kars Alfrink - Leapfrog)

Posted on September 26, 2007 | Permalink

Universal Information Architecture Modeling Language

"UiaML is a symbolic modeling language like UML that is meant to be a supporting tool for information architects. At it's current state UiaML supports low fidelity modeling. With future development of UiaML we hope to support high fidelity models, too." (Alex Jongman)

Posted on September 24, 2007 | Permalink

Organizing global websites

"At the European IA Summit in Barcelona, I'll give a talk about information architecture for global websites. The slides without the talk aren't that great, but here they are anyway, maybe it'll help you decide wether to attend this talk or one of the other great ones." (Peter Van Dijck)

Posted on September 19, 2007 | Permalink

Review of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages

"Information architects - and anyone curious about the roots of information management - will find much of interest in Glut's thought-provoking tale. Given the stimulating and contrarian nature of Glut's ideas, one only wishes Wright would occasionally return from the corridors of the time tunnel and bring his well-informed perspective back to our present age." (Bob Goodman - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on September 12, 2007 | Permalink

Card Sorting: Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned

"Card sorting is a simple and effective method with which most of us are familiar. There are already some excellent resources on how to run a card sort and why you should do card sorting. This article, on the other hand, is a frank discussion of the lessons I've learned from running numerous card sorts over the years. By sharing these lessons learned along the way, I hope to enable others to dodge similar potholes when they venture down the card sorting path." (Sam Ng - UXmatters)

Posted on September 11, 2007 | Permalink

A Map-Based Approach to a Content Inventory

"After giving it some thought, I find that the thing I like most about the map is that it is pure, stripped down navigation. Harry Beck decided that including streets, districts and other geographical information on his underground maps was distracting and added little value. All you need to know is how to get from A to B. I suspect that the same may be true in information spaces." (Patrick C. Walsh - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on September 06, 2007 | Permalink

Ambient Findability and The Future of Search

"At the crossroads of ubiquitous computing and the Internet, the user experience is out of control, and findability is the real story. Access changes the game. We can select our sources and choose our news. We can find who and what we need, when and where we want. Search is the new interface of culture and commerce. As society shifts from push to pull, findability shapes who we trust, how we learn, where we go, and what we buy. In this cyberspace safari, Peter Morville explores the future present in mobile devices, search algorithms, ontologies, folksonomies, findable objects, digital librarianship, and the long tail of the sociosemantic web. Reflect with Peter he challenges us to think differently about the power of search - and findability - to redefine our sources of authority and inspiration in an increasingly digitized and networked information environment." (Peter Morville - Google Video) - courtesy of markvanderbeeken

Posted on August 31, 2007 | Permalink

Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages

"What do primordial bacteria, medieval alchemists, and the World Wide Web have to do with each other? This fascinating exploration of how information systems emerge takes readers on a provocative journey through the history of the information age." (Alex Wright)

Posted on July 24, 2007 | Permalink

Using Design Games

"No matter how you talk about them, design games can add vitality, energy, and fun to your work and change the game of requirements gathering with your team." (Jess McMullin - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on July 19, 2007 | Permalink

Things You See: Four Views into the Transformation Room

GK VanPatter in conversation with Bob Goodman (UX Consultant), Peter Jones Ph.D. (Redesign Research), and Eric Reiss (FatDUX and President, Information Architecture Institute) - "Considering the complexity involved our purpose here is not to try to redefine Information Architecture or other disciplines but rather talk about whether or not what we are doing has changed, is changing and what we might do to help others understand what that might mean, how we think about all the change that is occurring ourselves, how do we make sense of it? In no particular order I invite you to share your own thoughts and then lets jump off from there." (NextD) - courtesy of puttingpeoplefirst

Posted on July 09, 2007 | Permalink

ASIS&T Bulletin Jun/Jul 2007: Special Section Information Archtecture

"(...) a bi-monthly news magazine packed with developments and issues affecting the field, pragmatic management reports, opinion, and news of people and events in the information science community." (ASIS&T)

Posted on June 12, 2007 | Permalink

Peter Morville's Visual Library

"What is the meaning of the Picasso polar bear? What is the Spanish strategy? Is it the art of branding? And, which country will be next? Feel free to upload your version to Flickr, tag it with remixpolarbear and explain your country's unique contribution to information architecture strategy and practice. Just don't tell the folks at O'Reilly." (Peter Morville - findability.org)

Posted on May 30, 2007 | Permalink

IA One Sheeters

"One-Sheeters are quick and easy marketing tools for information architects. They're like mini brochures to advertise IA deliverables and promote the IA practice in your company. One-Sheeters help people envision what deliverables you produce and where they fit into a project. They're quick to produce and easy for anyone to understand." - courtesy of elearningpost

Posted on May 21, 2007 | Permalink

Zen and the Art of IA

Book review on 'Designing the Obvious' (Hoekman 2006) - "Zen is the art of practicing meditation in everything you do and existing solely in a mental space. Envisioning surroundings as full of peace creates an image of actions as poetry. If information architecture is poetry, it gives just meaning, placement, and timing to an overall message or theme. The flow of numbers, letters, images and sounds together form a medium for the mind, a zen space of constant understanding." (Clifton Evans - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on May 09, 2007 | Permalink

Conference Review: IA Summit 2007 (I/II)

"On the whole, IA Summit 2007 was an excellent conference. Though, because of the deficiencies of the venue, it was less successful than last year’s Summit. Next year’s IA Summit looks promising. It will take place at the Hyatt in Miami, Florida, on April 10–14, 2008. Its theme: Experiencing Information." (Pabini Gabriel-Petit - UXmatters)

Posted on April 26, 2007 | Permalink

Information architects on communicating to IT managers

"Our final source suggested asking the provocative question 'what would happen if someone simply pulled the plug on their website. Would their organization become stronger or weaker?' He also cautioned against talking about information architecture specifically; people are interested in the ends, not the means." (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted on April 19, 2007 | Permalink

Enterprise IA Methodologies: Starting Two Steps Earlier

"Information architects working within enterprises are confronted by unique challenges relating to organisational culture, business processes, and internal politics. Compared to public website or interface design projects, key aspects differ in the application of IA discipline relating to uncertainties around the exact nature of the business problems being solved." (James Robertson - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on April 18, 2007 | Permalink

Information Architecture & Ethical Design

"My presentation at the 2007 IA Summit, in Las Vegas, covering professional ethics, ethics of user experience and cultural ethics. Subjects include privacy and trust, evolutionary psychology, virtual status and ubiquitous altruism, applied to social networking and the mobile internet." (Olly Wright)

Posted on April 12, 2007 | Permalink

Reaction to NextD

"I would recommend one thing for the IA Community to consider: invite someone from the NextDesign Leadership Institute to speak at the 2008 IA Summit (Miami, Florida, USA, April 10-14). We have a history of giving our biggest critics a voice at our main event - Mark Hurst and Mark Bernstein are just two examples. Time to find our long-lost twins." (Keith Instone)

Posted on April 10, 2007 | Permalink

Shared Presentations from the IA Summit 2007

"Slideshows for tag: iasummit2007." (SlideShare) - courtesy of elearningpost

Posted on March 30, 2007 | Permalink

Deep Context

"(...) by exposing ourselves to different cultures, we develop a deeper understanding of our own, and this will make us better designers. When we create an information architecture for a website—irrespective of its intended target audience - we will inevitably be called on to express the contextual assumptions that allow the website’s messages to be properly understood. Knowing that these assumptions exist (and understanding how the various audiences may interpret them differently) is the first step in creating sites that communicate more effectively across cultural lines - even if they are within our own society." (Jorge Arango - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on March 12, 2007 | Permalink

Content Analysis Heuristics

"Many Web professionals consider content inventories critical parts of most projects. Are there certain specific things to look for during a content inventory? Fred Leise definitely thinks so. He proposes a set of content analysis heuristics and discusses how to utilize each one." (Fred Leise - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on March 12, 2007 | Permalink

More Thoughts on the Impending Death of Information Architecture

"How 'information architecture' is defined much too broadly, frames design in the wrong way, and suffers from infoprefixation." (Joshua Porter - Bokardo)

Posted on March 02, 2007 | Permalink

European LIS Curriculum Project

"The European LIS Curriculum Project (...) was an innovative exploration of views and practice regarding library and information science (LIS) curriculum in Europe. The Royal School of Library and Information Science, Denmark, was the contracting agency for the project, which involved more than 100 European educators." (ASIS&T Bulletin Dec/Jan 2006)

Posted on February 15, 2007 | Permalink

Building IA Means Building Local Groups

"The IA profession is growing, but a large proportion of IAs still work in relative isolation. Few organizations can boast an internal IA practice, so many rely on individual contractors – IAs who have to work on their own. Even companies with IAs on staff often lack managers who understand and care about information architecture. (...) But local groups are more than just a nice thing to have – they're the key to the future. Building IA as a profession requires building IAs as professionals. This process happens one person at a time." (Stacy Merrill Surla - ASIS&T Bulletin Dec 2006 - Jan 2007)

Posted on February 15, 2007 | Permalink

The Holy Grail of Information Architecture

"It all comes down to creativity: Our documents need to support our creativity. They need to be able to radically change at any time to permit new and unique project demands. The simpler the document format or template, the more likely it is to be able to be adaptable to new and innovative ways of thinking about our products." (Christopher Fahey - graphpaper.com) - courtesy of elearningpost

Posted on February 06, 2007 | Permalink

ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit 2007 Conference Progam

"The Information Architecture Summit is a premier gathering place for information architects and for discussion about information architecture. Everyone who touches on IA is welcome to share and learn. Last year's IA Summit attracted over 500 attendees, including beginners, experienced IAs, and people in a range of related fields." (IA Summit 2007)

Posted on January 15, 2007 | Permalink

Notes from the IA Retreat in Chile

"(...) I'd rather leave more detailed commentary to the other participants. Here are some excerpts from comments that have been published online (...)" (Javier Velasco - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on January 02, 2007 | Permalink

2001 to 2006: Five Years of Information Architecture

"But I know an IA spirit when I see one. They have a passion for the complex combined with a desire to help out. They are the sort who, on discovering the library books pulled from their shelves, would relish sorting the mess out rather than bemoaning the terrible transgression." (Karen Loasby - Freeprint) - courtesy of elearningpost

Posted on December 21, 2006 | Permalink

Information Architecture 3.0

"(...) the future's quite bright, especially for information architects who find ways to connect the timeless principles of design and organization with new transmedia models of interaction, co-creation, tagging, and user participation." (Peter Morville - Semantic Studios)

Posted on November 30, 2006 | Permalink

Enterprise Information Architecture: A Semantic and Organizational Foundation

"Two key elements distinguish an enterprise IA from a basic IA. The first is the role an EIA plays in the design, development, and maintenance of an enterprise’s semantic infrastructure. The second is the scope and type of projects an EIA can be involved in as they develop applications that use and build on this semantic infrastructure." (Tom Reamy - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on November 29, 2006 | Permalink

Information Architecture Is Not Dead ... But It Might Be Stuck

"(...) information architecture is stuck. While this implies a problem with the practice, I’m going to suggest that it really has more to do with the practitioners. The practitioners are stuck and the conversation is not evolving. Not enough of us are getting uncomfortable and knocking down fences to reach out to other people from other fields and engaging in meaningful conversation about design and business problems. The conversation is stuck and we need to evolve." (Scott Weisbrod - Experience Planner)

Posted on November 28, 2006 | Permalink

A Polar Bear for Christmas

"We have done our best to balance old and new. We have addressed emerging technologies while maintaining a focus on fundamentals. And, we have tried to emphasize goals and approaches over specific tactics or technologies. In this way, we hope to provide not only knowledge about information architecture, but a framework that will enable you to learn and unlearn over an extended period of time." (Peter Morville - findability) - chapeau lou and peter

Posted on November 28, 2006 | Permalink

IA Retreat in Chile

"If you couldn't be there, you can read a nice overview by Jorge Arango, view the photos and presentations, and even watch the movie. Podcasts from the subsequent Encounter will be posted soon." (Peter Morville - findability)

Posted on November 26, 2006 | Permalink

Thoughts on the Impending Death of Information Architecture

"But the fact is that IA is a theory about the inherent structure of information - the architecture of information - and if we are moving away from that we should call it something else. Relationship Architecture, perhaps?" (Joshua Porter - bokardo)

Posted on November 21, 2006 | Permalink

IA: More Than Just Rearranging Marketing Sites

"We still need IA to make a good user experience. All the Ajax in the world couldn't make a great site if there wasn't a solid structure and organization holding it together. I hope we don't lose sight of that." (Chiara Fox - Adaptive Path)

Posted on November 14, 2006 | Permalink

Why am I so angry?

"Despite no longer calling myself an information architect (I've been happy with entrepreneur for some time) and despite a deep affection for the community I've been part of for so long, the lists have been making me crazy. I'd been off them for a while, and had gotten back on for a number of reasons, from promoting the new Boxes and Arrows features to seeing if new trends were emerging in my (former?) profession. And I was shocked at the blatant stupidity I thought I was seeing. Only it wasn't stupidity; I had radically changed my point of view. It was as if I had been enjoying the company of swans for some time, went to sleep and woke up a duck-- and thought the swans looked silly, all long necked and white and show." (C. Wodtke - Elegant Hack)

Posted on November 12, 2006 | Permalink

Idea 2006: Provocation and revelation

"In a room full of designers, software developers, architects, museum design professionals, and even a solitary (but charming and Canadian) archaeologist, here was a profound statement of principles about the relationship between designer, information, and audience. So much of the activity around the profession of information architecture and user-centred design in my experience is based on tasks, goals, functions, and flows. It's about attempting to control the user's experience to such a degree that some claim to be able to actually design an experience. And here was a set of principles, first articulated 50 years ago that seemed as relevant and as fresh as anything we'd seen or talked about at the conference." (Gordon Ross - Disseminate) - courtesy of heyblog

Posted on November 12, 2006 | Permalink

Idea 2006: Audio and some slides

"We have audio from every talk, and slides from many of them, free for download. Enjoy!" (idea 2006 blog)

Posted on October 30, 2006 | Permalink

Lakoff's Women, Fire, & Dangerous Things

OZ-IA 2006 talk - "What every IA should know (...). I think this was the best presentation I have ever given. This is a quite hard topic and somehow it ended up quite hilarious (...)" (Donna Maurer)

Posted on October 26, 2006 | Permalink

EuroIA 2006 Berlin revisited

"EuroIA 2006 was a great success. I've dwelled a bit on the not-so-good presentations, but I'll get back with details on the great stuff too." (Stig Andersen)

Posted on October 20, 2006 | Permalink

No more information seeking models please

"Most models of information seeking behavior look at more than behavior, they consider cognition which is quite natural for information activities, except that behavior and cognition are not the same." (Andrew Dillon - InfoMatters)

Posted on October 17, 2006 | Permalink

EuroIA 2006 in Review

"(...) there was little or no concession made for the multilingual nature of the event. The conference was conducted in English - which was just as well for me (there's nothing like being in Europe to make you feel like a neanderthal for speaking only one language) - and understandable as English was the common tongue. Yet I couldn’t help but think that it seemed kind of strange that the proceedings were, well... so English." (Leisa Reichelt - disambuity)

Posted on October 08, 2006 | Permalink

IA or not IA

"I no longer identify myself professionally as an IA, that is to say, and I'm no longer so terribly interested in attending or presenting at IA-centric events." (Adam Greenfield - V2)

Posted on October 08, 2006 | Permalink

IA for Web Developers

"My recent presentation at Web Directions South on Informaiton Architecture for Web Developers is now here live online." (Thomas Vander Wal)

Posted on October 08, 2006 | Permalink

Are We There Yet?

"Collaborative iteration is the secret to getting to the right design solution. It's embarrassing that we tripped up this way, knowing how many articles this site hosts on good process. We should have realized a contest was the very opposite of good collaboration." (Christina Wodtke - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on October 02, 2006 | Permalink

6 Ways to Fix a Confused Information Architecture

"When your website's users consistently go to the wrong sections, you have many options for getting users back on track, from better labels to clearer structure." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted on September 25, 2006 | Permalink

Polar Bear Book (3rd ed.): Survey results

"Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld are working on a third edition of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, the 'polar bear book'. In order to make sure they include the best ideas and examples, they are conducting a series of community surveys. Five surveys have been completed. Many thanks to those of you who took the time to share your thoughts and insights." (Information Architecture Institute)

Posted on September 21, 2006 | Permalink

Oz-IA 2006 Conference Programme

"On the last weekend of September 2006 there will be a conference/retreat on information architecture in Sydney." (Oz-IA 2006)

Posted on August 08, 2006 | Permalink

ASIS&T Euro IA 2006 Conference Programme

"The 2006 Euro IA Summit will take place in Berlin during the last weekend of September (30 September - 1 October). This year’s theme is ’Building Our Practice’." (ASIS&T Euro IA 2006)

Posted on August 08, 2006 | Permalink

The Organization of Information about Information Organization

"Every field of social science has been integrating culture and meaning into their theories and methods - some more than others - and we as designers should be doing the same. To do that, we need a framework that takes these things into account as well." (Bob Glushko - Doc or Die)

Posted on July 16, 2006 | Permalink

A conversation with Lou Rosenfeld about search analytics, information architecture, and designing for usability

"(...) topics including information architecture, search analytics, print and online publishing, designing for usability, tagging, and microformats. We had a great conversation!" (Jon's Radio - InfoWorld)

Posted on July 02, 2006 | Permalink

On the architecture and design of information environments

"Though it's common practice, thinking of information retrieval exclusively as 'search' is an arbitrarily narrow way of framing an area of capability with strong impact on overall perceptions of user experience quality and effectiveness. In the long term, it limits opportunities to offer customers more effective solutions to broader and more fully understood needs that involve information retrieval, but are motivated by other goals. This narrow view is especially limiting for the user experience architect, as it implies an immediate focus on the search aspects of information environments." (Joe Lamantia) - courtesy of donnamaurer

Posted on June 22, 2006 | Permalink

The Confluence of Research and Practice in Information Architecture

"Of course there is a great deal of relevant research, as can be said of any area. However, this relevant research is scattered across many disciplines and over numerous journals, using various names and taking multiple forms. Seldom does it establish an explicit connection to IA, let alone describe itself as IA research." (Karl Fast - ASIS&T Bulletin June 2006)

Posted on June 21, 2006 | Permalink

Guiding Principles for Providing 'Remember Me' Personalization

"(...) choosing to be 'remembered' means different things on different sites. At one end of the spectrum, it's like an automatic sign in, enabling full access to account/personal information. The other end involves little more than a username pre-fill, allowing for quicker sign in." (Meg Peters - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on June 12, 2006 | Permalink

Succeeding at IA in the Enterprise

"As information architects, the core of our profession rests on the analysis of information, the identification of structure, the creation of taxonomies and site maps, and the development of wireframes and user interfaces. These skills are well-honed, and we play a significant role in the design and creation of many systems, from websites to web 2.0." (James Robertson - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on June 12, 2006 | Permalink

IA Summit 2006 Recordings

"After much procrastination, here are all my recordings from this year's Information Architecture Summit sessions. (...) I was sad to have to trash some of the recordings, but this year I sat with the trouble-making kids in the back, so the audio quality was not the best in many sessions." (Livia Labate) - Much appreciated.

Posted on May 26, 2006 | Permalink

Peter Merholz' IA Summit 2006 Closing Plenary

"Thanks to Livia Labate, you can listen to my closing plenary at the 2006 IA Summit. It will help you if you follow along with the PDF of my slides. I'm definitely proud of this talk, though I hate hearing all my uh's and 'um's. Definitely something to work on. If you want to avoid the aspects of IA history that I dwell on and hop to the thesis, start around the 12:00 mark." (peterme) - great talk peter!

Posted on May 22, 2006 | Permalink

DC IA Summit Redux 2006

"I had a great time hanging out with the DC-IA crowd this weekend talking about the sessions and experience of going to the IA Summit in Vancouver back in March. We unfortunately ran out of time and didn’t get to talk about all the topics we wanted to address, but there were very interesting and livelly conversations nonetheless. Here are a few recordings with our discussions; feel free to download and catch up." (Livia Labate)

Posted on May 22, 2006 | Permalink

The Guided Wireframe Narrative for Rich Internet Applications

"It is true that RIAs make our jobs harder. But it is also true that they introduce some very exciting opportunities that can significantly improve user experience and flow. The Guided Wireframe Narrative technique allowed us to quickly and accurately articulate different design dimensions using familiar tools and techniques. If the job fits the technique, it's a win-win." (Andres Zapata - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on May 10, 2006 | Permalink

ASIS&T Euro IA 2006: Call for Papers

Deadline: June 15, 2006 - "The Second European Information Architecture (IA) Summit's focus is building our practice in Europe. The objective of the event is to bring together a number of disciplines and practitioner communities by providing a stimulating environment for debate and an opportunity for establishing cooperation. This community is not just limited to language or region, but all encompasses our specialisations like designing for mobile devices, and multilingual solutions. We are calling for papers that reflect those communities of practice, language and location." (Euro IA 2006)

Posted on May 09, 2006 | Permalink

Information architecture for high-fashion store

"In December 2001 the Italian haute couturier Prada opened its groundbreaking new "epicenter" store in New York City, designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. IDEO, working with Koolhaas and his architecture and research firm OMA/AMO, created the invisible technology that allows Prada staff members to choreograph the in-store sales experience. IDEO Human Factors specialists interviewed store staff and observed the technology currently in use. The results of this research were incorporated into the design of the store's information architecture, as well as the interactive dressing rooms and the in-store devices that allow the staff to focus completely on the customers, such as the Staff Device, the Recharging Trolley, the Staff Clip, and the Customer Card." (IDEO)

Posted on May 08, 2006 | Permalink

Video of Jess McMullin's IA Summit 2006 Talk on Using Design Games

"(...) how can we create better shared references to reframe conversations? Design games is one option, but there are a lot of others." (Jess McMullin - bplusd)

Posted on May 03, 2006 | Permalink

Does information need architects?

"(...) the dividing line among information architects is real. One group tends more toward control and using expertise to create a structure that should work the same way for every user. The other tends more toward flexibility and enabling user interaction to determine the structure of the site and the content of the answers. (...) I would think it's a good time to proudly state 'I am an information architect, dammit!'" (David Weinberger - KMWorld)

Posted on April 28, 2006 | Permalink

Card Sorting: A book in progress

"Card sorting is a technique that is used to gather user input to design the information architecture of a site. The technique is easy to prepare and run, and great fun. But sometimes the results can be hard to interpret and it is not always clear how to use them to design the IA." (Donna Maurer - Rosenfeld Media)

Posted on April 21, 2006 | Permalink

The six species of Information Architect

"(...) before you all go berko and abuse me for sterotyping your 'species' I don't think that anyone who works as an IA for any period of time can actually remain strictly within the confines of their species. I think you're always coloured by it, but I think the more you do and the better you get, the more you respect the other species and what they bring to the collective table. And the more you tend to extend your skills and refine your approach to take in some of these traits and build them into your personal repertoire." (Leisa Reichelt - disambiguity) - courtesy of webword

Posted on April 20, 2006 | Permalink

Learning, Doing, Selling: 2006 IA Summit Wrapup

Overview and Pre-conference sessions, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday - "(...) IAs adore long conversations about ideas. Perhaps that's why the Summit continues to be one of the most intellectually challenging of the practitioners' conferences." (Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on April 20, 2006 | Permalink

swipr

"(...) a toolset that allows information architects to create an integrated and interactive deliverable from standard Visio files." (About swipr) - congrats jacco!

Posted on April 20, 2006 | Permalink

IA Summit 2006: Gathering of the Tribe

"During March 23-28, 2006, over 500 people gathered in Vancouver, Canada, for the seventh Information Architecture Summit sponsored by ASIS&T (American Society for Information Science and Technology). The delightfully diverse attendees included not just people with the job title information architect, but also librarians, Web developers, business analysts, user experience designers, and others." (Laurie Lamar - UXmatters)

Posted on April 15, 2006 | Permalink

My IA Summit 2006 Experience: Part 1/2/3

"The seventh annual ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit—IA Summit 2006 for short—was held at the Hyatt® Regency in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, shown in Figure 1, from March 23 through 27, 2006. Its theme was Learning • Doing • Selling. While I attended the IA Summit Redux in San Francisco at Adaptive Path last year, this was my first IA Summit." (Pabini Gabriel-Petit - UXmatters)

Posted on April 15, 2006 | Permalink

Document Engineering and Information Architecture

"Document Engineering helps us specify, design, and implement these documents and the processes that create and consume them. It synthesizes complementary ideas from information and systems analysis, electronic publishing, business process analysis, and business informatics to ensure that the documents and processes make sense to the people and applications that need them. A document-centric philosophy unifies these different analysis and modeling perspectives." (Robert J. Glushko - Document Engineering)

Posted on April 06, 2006 | Permalink

Information Architecture Success Story: The Development of www.plainlanguage.gov

"(...) the site has become an increasingly important resource for federal writers and managers. The concepts of clarity and structure in text that are outlined on the site have served as the foundation for federal writing guidelines – especially guidelines for crafting federal Web content." (Thomas Haller - ASIS&T Bulletin April 2006)

Posted on April 04, 2006 | Permalink

IA Summit 2006 Presentations and Papers

"(...) this will keep you going for a while." (ASIS&T 2006 Information Architecture Summit) - Thanks Donna.

Posted on March 31, 2006 | Permalink

Social information architecture, sorting, and tagging

"Here are my raw notes from Rashmi Sinha's talk at the IA Summit, 'Sorting, Tagging and Social Information Architecture' or The Missing Chapter in the Polar Bear Book." (Christian Crumlish - You're It!)

Posted on March 31, 2006 | Permalink

IA Summit 2006 Closing Plenary

"Giving a closing plenary is a nerve-wracking experience. I realized I had a hard time relaxing and enjoying myself at the summit, because in the back of my mind, I was continually tweaking my talk." (Peter Merholz) - congrats!

Posted on March 29, 2006 | Permalink

We Are Not Alone: IA's Role in Optimal Design Teams

"By studying several dozen design teams, the UIE research team has spent the last few years looking at how different compositions lead to the most effective results. How do you build a team to produce the best possible designs?" (Jared Spool - UIE Brain Sparks)

Posted on March 29, 2006 | Permalink

Stone Age Information Architecture

"(...) my talk explored the question of how pre-literate cultures manage their collective intellectual capital. In particular, I focused on the use of folk taxonomies (not to be confused with 'folksonomies'), visual symbol systems, and the cultural effects of the transition from oral to literate cultures. Finally, I tried to probe the relevance of these systems to present-day problems in information architecture." (Alex Wright)

Posted on March 28, 2006 | Permalink

Information Architecture Research Agenda

"Here is an overview of my points, with links to background information I compiled in prepration for the panel, as well as some of my notes." (Keith Instone)

Posted on March 27, 2006 | Permalink

The Information Architecture Institute: Annual Report 2004-2005

"This, our third eventful year, was marked by significantly increased visibility in the community and a more focused range of initiatives and services. Between 1 September 2004 and 31 August 2005 our membership grew 51%; as of 31 August 2005, the Institute had 845 members from over 55 countries. Our cash flow is positive, our volunteer rate is up, and our administrative activities have been streamlined. And clearly, the economic recovery experienced over the past year is having a positive effect on our industry." (IAinstitute)

Posted on March 26, 2006 | Permalink

Euro IA Summit 2005 Proceedings 

Building Our Community - Document as handed out to all participants. October 15-16, 2005 - Brussels Belgium (Eric Reiss) - The Euro IA Summit 2006 will be in Berlin.

Posted on March 20, 2006 | Permalink

Web 2.0, Reframing Web 1.0

"By framing the web with a particular metaphor, certain concepts are established as the main unit of currency, so to speak. Those concepts, in turn, force us to think about structure in a particular way." (Dan Brown Greenonions)

Posted on March 19, 2006 | Permalink

Change Architecture: Bringing IA to the Business Domain

"Using the paradigm of change architecture, IAs can become more aware of the idea that when we step onto the business stage of a project, we will first need to unfreeze aspects of the situation and the environment, and ultimately make the path from recommendation to action visible to the participants. " (Bob Goodman - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on March 15, 2006 | Permalink

Four Modes of Seeking Information and How to Design for Them

"The most important issue is not whether you notice a mode of seeking information that fits into one of these categories, but that a range of modes exist. Observe how your users approach information, consider what it means, and design to allow them to achieve what they need." (Donna Maurer - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on March 15, 2006 | Permalink

A Garden of Forking Paths

"As the Web becomes both interface and infrastructure for an Internet of objects we can barely imagine, what metaphors will shape our fate? Clearly, the sea level will rise, but our children need not drown nor suffer information anxiety. These are painful analogies born in the journey from past to present. They fail to anticipate the future." (Peter Morville - ASIS&T Bulletin Feb/Mar 2006)

Posted on March 03, 2006 | Permalink

Developing a Participation Economy

"I think it'd be safe to say that the IAI has been successful. It has over 800 members in about 40 countries. It has provided the IA community with a few excellent services, like a mentoring program, a job board, and a high-quality moderated discussion list. And it's had a hand in a number of successful events around the planet." (Louis Rosenfeld - bloug)

Posted on March 03, 2006 | Permalink

7th IA Summit

Main Conference Session Details (IA Summit 2006)

Posted on February 16, 2006 | Permalink

Architecture and the Internet: Designing places in cyberspace

"By looking at physical architecture as a case study and metaphor for organizing space into meaningful places, this paper explores the possibility of organizing Cyberspace into spatial settings that not only afford social interaction, but, like physical places, also embody and express cultural values. At the same time, because Cyberspace lacks materiality, is free from physical constraints, and because it can only be 'inhabited' by proxy, these 'places' may not necessarily resemble their physical counterparts." (Yehuda E. Kalay and John Marx - First Monday Special Issue #5)

Posted on February 07, 2006 | Permalink

Fundamental Forms of Information

"Fundamental forms of information, as well as the term 'information' itself, are defined and developed for the purposes of information science/studies. Concepts of natural and represented information (taking an unconventional sense of representation), encoded and embodied information, as well as experienced, enacted, expressed, embedded, recorded, and trace information are elaborated. The utility of these terms for the discipline is illustrated with examples from the study of information seeking behavior and of information genres. Distinctions between the information and curatorial sciences with respect to their social (and informational) objects of study are briefly outlined." (Marcia J. Bates)

Posted on February 01, 2006 | Permalink

The Lazy IA's Guide to Making Sitemaps

"Sitemaps can be useful tools and are a whole lot easier when you separate the data from the visualization. After you have done these steps a few times, you will be able to update a sitemap in under a minute." (Stephen Turbek - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on January 31, 2006 | Permalink

Visio: The interaction designer's nail gun (2nd edition)

"The reason why Microsoft Visio is a popular prototyping tool is because of its interface widgets that you can drag and drop onto pages and its ability to link pages and view them as web pages. But what distinguishes Visio from other prototyping tools is its use of layered backgrounds." (Henrik Olsen - GUUUI)

Posted on January 16, 2006 | Permalink

Information architecture as a means of assessing and creating organisational information coherence 

Paper from the Euro IA Summit 2005 - "This paper will explore how IA projects can be constructed and undertaken to achieve coherence. It will review how elements such as metadata creation, document creation flows, permissions, version control, change and update management and usage patterns can be used to create a global picture of an organisation’s information creation, distribution and use, and thereby to derive the optimum patterns." (Barry Mahon and Alan Gilchrist - TFPL)

Posted on January 07, 2006 | Permalink

The End is Nigh

"IA is real, it's here and it has a history. Everything else is just hair-splitting. While deriving a definition might be really important to the academics among us, I no longer see it as essential to success of the field." (Andrew Dillon - ASIS&T Bulletin)

Posted on December 23, 2005 | Permalink

Applying information architecture to university web sites

Conference presentation - "(...) detailed IA issues such as specific - to vs. relevant - for audiences, org-chart-itis, faceted browsing and navigation frameworks." (Keith Instone)

Posted on December 15, 2005 | Permalink

Managing 'Glue' at the BBC

"(...) huge issue in organising this information in a way that the audience can actually find it, which, after all, should be the main goal. So I want to talk about 3 things that the BBC does centrally to try and make this easier for the end user - navigation, search, and classification." (Martin Belam - currybetdotnet)

Posted on December 09, 2005 | Permalink

Enterprise IA Seminar Slides

"I'm not sure why, but enough people have now asked me to make my Enterprise IA seminar slides available. All 251. Fine, it's here." - (Louis Rosenfeld - bloug)

Posted on November 17, 2005 | Permalink

Design Leads & Wireframes

"By popular request and with permission, Functioning Form is publishing some of Jim Leftwich's writings on design." - (Luke Wroblewski - Functioning Form)

Posted on November 11, 2005 | Permalink

Information Architecture 2.0

"The consequent explosion of content and functionality on the Web and the new ways in which we're making use of Web content has recast the role of the information architect. This article explores the information architect's evolving responsibilities in light of the changes we're experiencing on the Web." (Dan Brown - UXmatters Preview)

Posted on October 30, 2005 | Permalink

EuroIA mailinglist

One of the results of the first European IA Summit 2005 in Brussels of last weekend is available now. - "The EuroIA mailinglist is the online conversational platform for researchers and practitioners in the field of Information Architecture in an European context." (Peter J. Bogaards) - sponsored by Webtic - Paul Jongsma

Posted on October 19, 2005 | Permalink

New Challenges Retreat: Ideas, discussion, and a call to action

"This year's IA Retreat - 'New Challenges in Information Architecture' - took place at the Edith Macy Conference Center, just north of New York City, October 7-9, 2005. Of the many themes discussed at the retreat, those that stood out revolved around the challenges of enterprise information architecture (as in very large enterprises, such as government agencies, and Fortune 100's), cross-cultural IA issues, and designing user experiences for evermore complex, and increasingly less, web-centric systems." (Anders Ramsay - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on October 17, 2005 | Permalink

Information architecture in an European dimension: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

Presentation from Europe's first information architecture summit - "This talk will take an analytical but subjective approach to the current state-of-affairs of (continental) European IA. The local IA communities of practice, knowledge and interest seem still premature, fragmented and not well-connected. Even if there is such a thing as an European IA community, it lacks a solid identity and definitely a strategy." (Peter J. Bogaards - BogieLand)

Posted on October 17, 2005 | Permalink

Closing of the First Phase of the Fall European Tour 2005

"(...) the Europeans have been implementing mobile and trying to work through a means to access information in the environment and context where the information makes sense. Boy, was I right." (Thomas VanderWal - InfoCloud Solutions Inc.)

Posted on October 17, 2005 | Permalink

Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes

"Weblogs are often too internally focused and ignore key usability issues, making it hard for new readers to understand the site and trust the author." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted on October 16, 2005 | Permalink

Ambient Findability: Findability Hacks

"(...) excerpt from Mr. Morville's new book, Ambient Findability - Findability precedes usability in the alphabet and on the web you can't use what you can't find." (A List Apart)

Posted on October 13, 2005 | Permalink

Authority

"The real upheaval lies just ahead, as a generation of school kids (and their teachers and librarians) struggle to reconcile traditional notions of education and objectivity and authority with the constructivist web of social facts and collective intelligence where folksonomies flourish and the truth is a virus of many colors. I can hardly wait." (Peter Morville)

Posted on October 12, 2005 | Permalink

Leapin' Lemurs

First Chapter of Ambient Findability by Peter Morville - "Findability is the biggest story on the Web today, and its reach will only grow as the tidal waves of channel convergence and ubiquitous computing wash over our shores. We will use the Web to navigate a physical world that sparkles with embedded sensors and geospatial metadata, even as we diminish the need to move our bodies through space. Mobile devices will unite our data streams in an evolving dance of informed consumers seeking collective intelligence and inspiration. And in this ambient economy, findability will be a key source of competitive advantage. Finders, keepers; losers, weepers." (Peter Morville - findability.org) - congrats with the book and the blog

Posted on September 13, 2005 | Permalink

Mapping An Information Architecture's Scent

"Today many users of the Internet are using information-based web sites to try and satisfy their information needs. How well they satisfy these needs (finding relevant information) can often depend upon one common feature - the site's information architecture." (Mark Game - HOT! Topics Newsletter) - courtesy of lucdesk

Posted on September 04, 2005 | Permalink

What's Happening

Programme of the Europe's first information architecture summit - "'Building our community' is the theme of this inaugural European Summit. No, we are not talking about the EU. We are talking about our professional community - information architects and other people involved in structuring information for electronic media. And we want to see YOU!" (ASIS&T 2005 Euro IA)

Posted on September 01, 2005 | Permalink

Getting IA Done, Part II

"When you start a site map, even as a paper sketch, take that opportunity to immediately start putting ID numbers on pages. Don’t wait until later. Having the IDs then gives you a baseline vocabulary to use in any subsequent docs, and you’re free to decide on 'friendly" names later. It can help you avoid a lot of confusion later." (Joshua Kaufman - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on August 25, 2005 | Permalink

IA in Academia

"Who in the academic community is doing the leading research and inquiry into IA issues? Who are the big thinkers?" (IAwiki)

Posted on August 21, 2005 | Permalink

xSort

"(...) a card sorting application for Mac OS X. It allows you to easily define a new card sorting problem, perform several sessions with multiple participants, and finally analyze the results (using multiple criteria) and generate printable reports." (iPragma) - courtesy of theotherblog

Posted on August 19, 2005 | Permalink

IA in Germany: Chances and Perspectives

"Andrew Dillon declared in his closing keynote speech at the Montreal IA Summit (2005) that IA was entering its second phase. IAs are seeing more and more job opportunities as well as more professional recognition, and the field itself seems to be progressing. Not so in Germany. Here, IA is barely on the map." (James Kalbach - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on August 03, 2005 | Permalink

Infomania at Summit '05

"(...) the number of first-time attendees was staggeringly high. From a show of hands on the opening day it appeared as if they were in the majority. Nothing wrong with this situation you might say, but the number of new attendees was high last year too, so it would appear that repeat attendance is not the norm." (Andrew Dillon - ASIS&T Bulletin 31.5) - courtesy of peterboersma

Posted on June 16, 2005 | Permalink

Getting IA Done: Part 1

"Document, Document, Document: I try to document my work as much as possible in order to have a running record of my day. This includes to-do lists, dates and times of meetings with key outcomes, design sketches… everythings." (Joshua Kaufman - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on June 07, 2005 | Permalink

IA Summit 2006 Key Topics

The Survey Results: "This summary (based on data from 129 respondents) presents the key topics in ranked order from most important to least important.
1. Information Design (...) 34. Transformational Living" (ASIS&T 2006 Information Architecture Summit) - courtesy of eleganthack

Posted on May 26, 2005 | Permalink

Updated Enterprise IA Roadmap

"A diagram that helps information architects and other designers make their enterprise's content easier to find regardless of which department maintains it. The goal is to integrate content from across departmental 'silos' in ways that make sense to users." (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted on May 04, 2005 | Permalink

IA in Spain

"IA in Europe (and Germany) in general isn’t doing that well. People are frustrated with clients who don't know what IA is, and there doesn't seem to be much innovation. Imagine my surprise when I visited Spain and found a small but thriving IA community!" (Peter van Dijck)

Posted on May 03, 2005 | Permalink

What is information architecture?

"This article provides an introduction to information architecture, discusses the evolution of the discipline and provides a 9-step guide for how to create an effective information architecture." (Iain Barker - Step Two Designs)

Posted on May 02, 2005 | Permalink

Global-ia

Discussion list on the similarities and differences of information architectures in the context of global, regional and local cultures, languages, and value systems. (Global-ia Archives)

Posted on May 02, 2005 | Permalink

Card sorting: Analysis and reporting 3/3

"Card sorting won't always give you the answer - it may just give you more questions. This is where the analysis comes in." (Mark Boulton - Information Design) - courtesy of mark bernstein

Posted on April 28, 2005 | Permalink

Thin Slicing in Information Space

"Perhaps even more worrying, evidence of poor usability gained by interacting with the design did not initially change the beliefs of these users about the application's quality." (Andrew Dillon - ASIS&T Bulletin April/May 2005)

Posted on April 28, 2005 | Permalink

The (Poorbuthappy) State of European Information Architecture

"In France, IA will probably never take off, at least the current style of US-centered IA. In Belgium, there are a few companies doing interesting IA/UX work, mostly for large clients like J&J and such. But as a field it's pretty unknown. I blame Belgian's lack of self-promotion. In Holland, there is a bit more awareness (and historically more 'design' awareness) around IA, but also some confusion about what IA really is. There's another Dutch 'IA' organization with a very different take on what it means. I'll report back on Spain later, but I have noticed there is a bit of a UX scene there." (Peter van Dijck)

Posted on April 15, 2005 | Permalink

Put the 'card' back into card sorting: Computer-aided paper sorting (Caps)

"Card sorting is a powerful technique for assessing how users group related concepts together. In its simplest form, a researcher would write concepts - usually menu items for interaction design - on cards and ask users to group related items together. In a closed card sort, the number of groups and their names are fixed. In open card sorts, the number and names of groups are determined by the participants, although the researcher may specify limits (3 to 5 groups, for example)." (William Hudson - Syntagm) - courtesy of cityofbits

Posted on April 14, 2005 | Permalink

What is Information Architecture?

Search results on Information Architecture from Brainboost: Question everything. (Brainboost Answer Engine) - courtesy of iaslash

Posted on March 30, 2005 | Permalink

ASIS&T 2005 Information Architecture Summit Presentations

Select the session title to download a presentation. (IA Summit 2005) - courtesy of donnam

Posted on March 24, 2005 | Permalink

Happy times for IA?

"It's certainly good news for the field, but are we simply in for another boom and bust cycle? Surprise: I'm optimistic. The field seems healthier than it was four years ago for at least a couple reasons: (...)" (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted on March 22, 2005 | Permalink

Experience Cards

IA Summit 2005 Presentation in Montréal - "information architecture experience" (CD Evans - infostyling)

Posted on March 22, 2005 | Permalink

Seb's Open Research on the IA Summit 2005

"I am at the Information Architecture Summit, blogging the sessions I'm attending." (Sébastien Paquet)

Posted on March 20, 2005 | Permalink

The IA of Things: Twenty Years Of Lessons Learned

IA Summit 2005 Presentation - "It's the dawn of an age where interactive functionality and information is available and intertwined everywhere. The past two decades have been a pre-dawn period where products, software, environments, functionality, and interaction with information have gradually converged. What lessons have been learned within a single consulting design career during this period, pursuing from the beginning, convergence in these areas?" (James Leftwich) - courtesy of functioning form

Posted on March 17, 2005 | Permalink

The Information Architecture Institute

"(...) a non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to advancing and promoting information architecture. Founded in 2002, the Institute has over 600 members in 40 countries. Learn more or join now." - (previously The Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture)

Posted on March 03, 2005 | Permalink

Architecting Our Profession

"Design is a valued industry in many fields, with professional support systems to match. Without adequate support systems in IA we will be awkwardly bound to the current design process out of fear of improvement. The nature of software design should be integrated and brought into the design process in a much more sustainable way, and I see support systems as the only way to provide the stability needed to develop through specialization." (Clifton Evans - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on February 28, 2005 | Permalink

Web Analytics: The Voice of Users in Information Architecture Projects

"An information architecture project will uncover the very heart of internal politics in any organisation. In most cases, content owners, department heads and product managers all fight for prime 'real estate' and prominence within the website structure – resulting in a site design that looks like a 'truce' rather than an effective solution." (Hurol Inan) - courtesy of digital web magazine

Posted on February 24, 2005 | Permalink

Can we run the company? 

"The answer is Yes, we can. But you knew that already. How do we run the company? That answer has many, complex answers. My goal here is to offer a point of view and some new ideas and hopefully give you a new framework to think about the question more." (Victor Lombardi - Management Innovation Group)

Posted on February 18, 2005 | Permalink

Information Architecture as an Extension of Web Design

"(...) the line between Web design and information architecture doesn't have to be as clear as we may have imagined. There are many opportunities for Web designers to fill the role of information architect in every project. This is not to say that information architects are no longer needed. On the contrary, with Web sites becoming more dynamic and complex every day, information architects are needed more than ever. But as an information architect who transitioned from a Web design role, I can assure you that information architects aren't the only ones who can organize things." (Joshua Kaufman - Digital Web Magazine) - The recurring theme of structure and presentation, of cognition and perception, or of architecture and design.

Posted on February 17, 2005 | Permalink

Pace, Timing and Rhythm in Information Architecture

"Scaling up the numerous devices and information architectures competing for my diminishing attentional resources makes me wish there were some way for us to talk at a more macro level when discussing information. But this is not just a matter of ubiquity or usability, this is really about the human rhythm of information use, the coupling of person and process." (Andrew Dillon - ASIS&T Bulletin Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005)

Posted on February 04, 2005 | Permalink

IA Summit Program

"Information architecture is more widely applied than ever. Decisionmakers now accept IA as critical to well-designed electronic information spaces. Practitioners use IA approaches and methodologies, and routinely include IAs on cross-disciplinary teams. There is a growing demand for IAs and greater pressure on managers and non-IA practitioners to understand IA principles. To support these needs, this year's Summit focuses on key topics, cutting-edge issues, and core competencies." - Pre-Conference Program, Main Conference Program and Poster Sessions (ASIS&T 2005 Information Architecture Summit)

Posted on January 26, 2005 | Permalink

Thinking Differently About Site Mapping and Navigation

"Thoughts about sitemaps, navigation, IA deliverables and the root problems with organization and content on the Web." (D. Keith Robinson)

Posted on January 18, 2005 | Permalink

Visio Stencils for Information Architects

"The Visio stencils on this page are free for downloading and using. They are designed to aid the work of Information Architects. In short, they are not for everyone, you may want to familiarize yourself with common IA practices before trying to use these stencils." (Nick Finck)

Posted on December 31, 2004 | Permalink

Translating taxonomies and categories

"What happens when you run a site in multiple languages/locales and need to manage the information architecture of that site? Can you just translate a taxonomy from one language to another? We are gathering a lot of material, and we'll start sharing that and opening up the conversation. Me, I plan to write a series of blog posts on international or global IA, of which this is the first." (Peter VanDijck - Guide to Ease)

Posted on November 29, 2004 | Permalink

Design patterns for information architecture with DITA map domains

"The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) provides maps for assembling topics into deliverables. By specializing the map elements, you can define a formal information architecture for your deliverables. This architecture provides guidance to authors on how to organize topics and lets processes recognize your organizing principles, resulting in a consistent, clear experience for your users." (Erik Hennum et al. - IBM developerWorks XML DITA)

Posted on November 25, 2004 | Permalink

The Best Sourcing of Information Architecture

"The greatest danger is waiting until we have the wrong skills for our particular market. If we actively seek out the future opportunity that exists, if we actively continue our educations, if we actively pursue research and development of new ideas, we can all thrive in the future world economy." (Victor Lombardi - Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture)

Posted on November 04, 2004 | Permalink

Scary Messages and Content Creep: It's All in a Daily Digest

"As a 'big-IA' advocate, I have always believed usability was part of IA anyhow. 'Little IA' is just too small to justify the use of the A-word in my world." (Andrew Dillon - ASIS&T Bulletin 31.1)

Posted on October 31, 2004 | Permalink

Eating Architecture

"The contributors to this highly original collection of essays explore the relationship between food and architecture, asking what can be learned by examining the (often metaphorical) intersection of the preparation of meals and the production of space." - Table of Content & Sample chapters (MIT Press)

Posted on October 22, 2004 | Permalink

IA Trends Survey Results and Analysis

"Future trend: The numbers of both in-house and agency IAs will decline; this drop will be partially countered by growth in self-employed consultants." (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted on October 17, 2004 | Permalink

Card sorting tools: A short summary

"(...) a summary of the current tools in no particuar order. I have put card details into those that work, but haven't put any results in yet." (DonnaM)

Posted on October 12, 2004 | Permalink

Contrasting Concepts of Harmony in Architecture: The 1982 Debate Between Christopher Alexander and Peter Eisenman

"Alexander is presenting his basis for the New Paradigm in Architecture at the same time as Eisenman presents his competing, diametrically opposed, deconstructivist claim for such a Paradigm. The importance of the debate has been widely recognised." (Katarxis 3) - courtesy of designobserver

Posted on September 16, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture Research

"It was hard work. When it comes to information architecture research, the knowledge environment is highly fragmented. But I was able to extract a few gems and gain some new insights. So, for all those information architects who didn't spend their summer in a research library, here's a brief summary." (Peter Morville - Semantic Studios)

Posted on September 07, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture Conference

Presentations by Peter Morville of Semantic Studios - "Information Architecture is an intensive 2-day conference about how to design and organise information systems that enable better search, navigation, and collaboration within organisations." (Information Today)

Posted on September 06, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

IA Heuristics for Search Systems

"(...) these search heuristics are really geared to semi-structured text, not data; looking for ideas and concepts is a different undertaking than hunting for facts and figures (more on why they're different)." (Louis Rosenfeld - Bloug)

Posted on September 02, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Site Diagrams: Mapping an Information Space

"To successfully communicate the characteristics of an information space, I needed an approach for creating easily understood diagrams. To be useful to my audience, the diagrams must communicate the 'big picture' of the website to stakeholders, while providing enough detail to be useful for the development team." (Jason Withrow - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on September 02, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Enterprise IA summary

A collection of references regarding Enterprise Information Architecture. (Gene Smith - Atomiq) - courtesy of iaslash

Posted on August 22, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture Heuristics

"Every information architect should always have a set of favorite questions in their back pocket; they really do come in handy." (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted on August 18, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

How to apply for IA jobs

"(...) I'm posting a bit of our conversation about applying and interviewing for IA jobs here. These ideas apply mainly to people who are sending a resumé out blindly. That is to say, without a word of mouth recommendation." (Michael Angeles - urlgreyhot)

Posted on August 17, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Planning for redesign, 1: Establishing the context

"So just as I recommend my clients do, I'm undertaking an exploration of how the site is currently failing to meet my goals for it, and all those ways in which it might reach, exceed, or outright demolish those goals in the next version." (Adam Greenfield - v-2.org)

Posted on August 03, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Yet More Thoughts on Global Information Architecture

"(...) the 80/20 Rule: we pick a small set of locales that require minimal translation, are reasonably easy to design, are owned by people who want to cooperate with our efforts, and provide the business with most bang for its buck." (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted on July 30, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Ambient Findability

"Intelligence is moving to the edges, flowing through networked computers, wireless devices, empowered users and distributed teams. Ideas spread like wildfire. Innovations emerge from uncharted borderlands. Information is in the air, literally. We’re exploring a new world called cyberspace, and we’re navigating without a map." (Peter Morville - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on July 22, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

First Things First: IA and CSS

"With apologies for the delay, here are links to the presentation Christina Wodtke and I delivered at the webvisions 2004 conference this past Friday in Portland, Oregon." (Nate Koechley - natek)

Posted on July 21, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

AIfIA: Annual Report 2003-2004

"As the second year of the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture comes to a close, we can look back to see an organization that has grown beyond our early expectations. Building on the accomplishments of our first year, our membership has grown 37% in the past year, to over 560 people from over 40 countries. We also continued to build more services and events to promote information architecture (IA) and educate practitioners." (Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture)

Posted on July 19, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Card Sorting: How Many Users to Test

"Testing ever-more users in card sorting has diminishing returns, but you should still use three times more participants than you would in traditional usability tests." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted on July 19, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Are Useful Requirements Just A Fairy Tale? (and why an IA should care)

"But why should an information architect care about requirements when it's not his or her job to collect or create them? It comes down to simple math: it’s been my experience that a blurry definition of what a project needs to accomplish leads to a lot of extra work for the IA. So much extra work, in fact, that revisions end up taking much more effort than helping the team nail down useful requirements earlier in the process." (Dan Willis - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on July 15, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Information Architecture of Email

"The paradigm shift, however, will be the least of Google's problems. With its search engine advertising practices under constant scrutiny, Google faces myriad new issues by attaching targeted advertisements to emails, potentially a gross invasion of privacy. At the same time, the advertisements for mandolin dealers and instructors that come attached to posts to the mandolin mailing list are almost as valuable as the posts themselves." (Dan Brown - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on July 15, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

CardSort: UCD Tool for Information Architecture

"CardSort is a software tool which helps Information Architects to conduct computer aided Card Sorting. It was created by Steffen Schilb in 2003." (Steffen Schilb) - courtesy of iawiki

Posted on July 11, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Why visual form matters for information architecture

"(...) the full version was recognized more than the content only version, recognized more than the form only version. The interesting finding is that when the form version was recognized, it happened twice as fast as for the other versions. (...) this is because the cognitive processing of visual information happens faster than that for verbal information. While there is some truth to that, let's play detective and identify what cognitive mechanism is the culprit here." (Rashmi Sinh) - courtesy of victor lombardi

Posted on June 28, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Out with the New! The IA Summit at Five Years

"It's been five years, the Summit is pretty much a regular event now and writing a column about it has become a normal assignment for me too. Can we stop calling ourselves a new field now?" (Andrew Dillon - ASTS&T Bulletin 30.5)

Posted on June 25, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

An Introduction to Information Architecture

"Information architecture (or IA) is the science -- some would insist art -- of defining the structure, organization, navigation, labeling and indexing of a Website. It is the role of the information architect to decide how a site should be structured, what kind of content it should host, and how to accommodate future growth. In short, information architecture defines the backbone of a Website." (Subha Subramanian - sitepoint) - courtesy of xblog

Posted on June 21, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Findability.Org

"Ambient findability describes a world in which we can find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime." (Peter Morville - FAQ Findability)

Posted on May 22, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Focus on the Student: How to Use Learning Objectives to Improve Learning

"If information architecture is a fairly new field, then the practice of teaching information architecture is even newer. Often instructors are experienced information architects who have little to no teacher training, and they must teach students with a wide range of experience and learning goals. Learning objectives are one tool that can make information architecture courses easier for teachers and more rewarding for students." (Wendy Cown - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on May 07, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Enterprise Information Architecture: Don't Do ECM Without It

"Two questions resound throughout the content industry: Why do Enterprise Content Management (ECM) projects take so long to implement? And why do they fail with such alarming frequency? While all enterprise-level IT projects prove to be difficult and risky undertakings, a deeper examination of the ECM challenge in particular will reveal an endemic inattention to - or at best belated appreciation of - its critical corollary: the need for Enterprise Information Architecture (EIA)." (Tony Byrne - EContentMag) - courtesy of stig andersen

Posted on May 06, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

IA in the WSJ

"The article starts off by citing Greg Storey's work to redesign the infamous Bin Laden President's Daily Brief. It then moves on to describe what Information Architecture/Design is and how it can make a difference in understanding information and in the bottom-line for a business. IA/ID also is mentioned in the decision-making process for the Columbia disaster, and Tufte gets to rail a bit against Powerpoint. Tufte also dismisses Mr. Storey's redesign of the PDB (way to exhibit solidarity, Ed). The article then moves onto another favorite pundit, Nielsen, and he gets to quote his $71B in lost productvity sound-bite." (every breath death defying) - courtesy of victor lombardi

Posted on May 05, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

An Information Architecture Perspective on Personalization 

Chapter from 'Designing Personalized User Experiences in eCommerce'
"The framework laid out here for understanding the design implications of personalization does not answer any questions, however - it just raises awareness of how little we already know about users' expectations from personalization. In fact, the web and its early navigation metaphor are still young and we do not understand it well enough yet." (Keith Instone)

Posted on May 04, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture Library

"The IA Library is a selection of resources related to the field of information architecture. The collection includes articles, books, blogs, and more." (Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture) - courtesy of peter morville

Posted on April 21, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

KM Reinventing IA Reinventing KM

"Maybe my error is in assuming that KM is a field like IA, when perhaps it's really more an industry, dominated by vendors, where practice is almost a dirty word. Kind of like content management (although the CM professionals are getting uppity and organized). Perhaps there is more synergy between fields (e.g. IA and usability) than between a field of practice and an industry." (Louis Rosenfeld et al.)

Posted on April 15, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture: A Rose by Any Other Name…

"As more web practitioners have assumed the title of Information Architect to describe the work they do, and as more information architects (and user experience designers and user interface designers and information designers) are multitasking on reduced staffs, information architects have uncovered a wide range of ways to view both the practice and ourselves practicing." (Lynn Stott - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on April 08, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Card sorting: A definitive guide

"Card sorting is a great, reliable, inexpensive method for finding patterns in how users would expect to find content or functionality." (Donna Maurer and Todd Warfel - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on April 08, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Day 2: IA Summit 2004 Wrapup

Trip Report

Posted on March 19, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Day 1: IA Summit 2004 Wrapup

"Is there an information architect who doesn’t love facets?" (Boxes and Arrows Staff)

Posted on March 19, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Content Management for Information Architecture

Video of presentations at the Fifth IA Summit 2004 - including Poster Sessions and the presentation of Jared Spool (CMSReview) - courtesy of columntwo

Posted on March 09, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

IA Summit 2004 Presentation Handouts

Materials from the Fifth Annual ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit: Breaking New Ground / 27-29 February, 2004 - Austin, Texas (IA Summit 2004)

Posted on March 06, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Pix from the Fifth Information Architecture Summit

"Feel free to leave your comments on my blog!" (Javier Velasco - mantruc)

Posted on March 05, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Notes from the 2004 IA Summit

"I realized this is the first conference I've ever attended that actually has something to do with what I do." (Dan Saffer) - courtesy of ia summit blog

Posted on March 02, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

J-Flow @ IA Summit 2004

"This is where you can download a version of the presentation (5.5 Mb) that we did during the IA Summit. We have also included the HTML deliverable that we created during the demonstration." (Peter Boersma and Jacco Nieuwland)

Posted on March 01, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

XIAatUT: An Extreme Makeover

"This presentation will discuss the process of designing the research portal of the web site, with emphasis on the lessons learned by the XIA development team." (Jill Burkart et al.) - courtesy of ia summit blog

Posted on February 28, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Education for IA: Talking Heads and That D-Word Again!

"If you consider the subject only to be concerned with organizing websites, then it is pretty clear that a master's degree in the topic may be overkill, and a course or two within a more general program will probably suffice to get you on the path. But if, like me, you think of IA as a more encompassing effort aimed at understanding how information can be organized and presented for human and organizational use, both within and beyond websites, and addressing issues of performance effectiveness and efficiency, user satisfaction, sustainability and indeed aesthetic response to a resource, then a degree program looks to be more like a minimum requirement to get started." (Andrew Dillon - ASIS&T Bulletin Feb. 2004)

Posted on February 15, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture: Creating Order Out of Chaos

"(...) a quick and dirty presentation." (Tracy Reith)

Posted on February 09, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

PeopleSoft Case Study: Acquisition-driven Information Architecture

"In July 2003, PeopleSoft acquired mid-tier enterprise software company JD Edwards. Perhaps the most important business move in PeopleSoft's history, this acquisition required quick action from the PeopleSoft.com team, which wanted to demonstrate the very real integration of the two companies. PeopleSoft brought in Adaptive Path to ensure a smooth process, and the integrity of the new Web site." (Adaptive Path)

Posted on February 07, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Educational curriculum survey 2003

"This survey was conducted in November and December 2003. Instructors listed on our list of IA programs were invited to participate. A total of 19 responses were collected." (Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture) - courtesy of victor lombardi

Posted on January 01, 2004 | Permalink

IA Summit 2004 program at a glance 

"As always, the IA Summit focuses on connecting with peers. You can take advantage of frequent opportunities to catch up with colleagues and meet others in the field. And if you are new to IA, the Summit is the best way to begin your involvement in the exciting discipline of Information Architecture." (IA Summit 2004) - courtesy of victor lombardi

Posted on January 01, 2004 | Permalink

Building a vision of design success

"A redesign has some built-in advantages over everyday maintenance; the most useful being focus. And focus is the loam that allows a shared vision to grow." (Christina Wodtke - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on December 12, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

ODLIS: Online dictionary of library and information science

"(...) designed to be a hypertext reference resource for library and information science professionals, university students and faculty, and users of all types of libraries. The primary criterion for including a new term is whether a librarian or other information professional might reasonably be expected to encounter it at some point in his (or her) career, or be required to know its meaning in the course of executing his or her responsibilities as a librarian. The vocabulary of publishing, printing, book history, literature, and computer science has been included when, in the author's judgment, a definition might prove helpful, not only to library and information professionals, but also to laypersons." (Joan M. Reitz - Western Connecticut State University)

Posted on December 01, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

The CAA: A wicked good design technique

"Card sorting, which involves writing the content on index cards and asking users to sort them into logical piles, with the piles becoming the architecture of the site, tells us how to organize content. CAA is similar, except there aren't any cards." (Jared Spool - UIE Roadshow)

Posted on November 25, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information architecture references

"Overviews, tutorials, methods, affinity diagrams, card sorting, free listing, prototyping, wireframes, comprehensive sites, articles, and related links." (University of Minnesota Duluth)

Posted on November 11, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

We are all connected: The path from architecture to information architecture

"The physical world is a network where everything touches everything else and everyone touches everyone else. The connection can be physical, financial, emotional or spiritual, but itís there. This is even more the case in the virtual world. As its name suggests, the web is a system of connected networks. In our quest for information, we are linked from one site to another and another; there is no beginning or end." (Fu-Tien Chiou - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on November 11, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture Made As Simple As Possible - And No Simpler

"Web design has been through the evolutionary period - the period of experimentation. There was a time when nobody really understood how to design a website. It was new for all of us. But the Web is not so new anymore. So much has been learned and figured out about what works and what doesn't work. Your job can be so much easier by adapting best practices." (Gerry McGovern - UIE Roadshow)

Posted on November 04, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Good Information Architecture Increases Online Sales

"Information Architecture can be applied to resolve breakdowns in site design and navigation structure. The role of good Information Architecture is to make the Website work not in the technical sense, but from a functional, organized, conceptual perspective." (Ivan Walsh - Sitepoint) - courtesy of lucdesk

Posted on October 26, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Presentations on Enterprise IA

"I've put up a couple of fresh presentations on my site for your enjoyment/perplexment." (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted on October 16, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

A Brief History of Information Architecture 

"I have experienced first-hand the tumultuous childhood and adolescence of the profession. It was fun. It was painful. It was exciting. It was a lot of work. And, it's over. For better or worse, information architecture has entered a new stage of maturity." (Peter Morville)

Posted on October 14, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Schools Teaching IA

"Many colleges, universities, and companies offer courses in information architecture. (...) listings of schools that offer courses and full degree programs dedicated to IA. In compiling the above lists, we included courses and programs that explicitly used 'information architecture' or 'information design' in the title. For courses not explicitly using these terms, a course was judged to be IA-related if it encompassed a digital information design/organization theme and used one of four IA books as the text." (Victor Lombardi - AIfIA Educational Curriculum Initiative)

Posted on October 14, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Devil's in the Wireframes

"There seems to be a parallel relationship between level of detail and accepted-ness. As information architecture grows to be a defined step in my company's process, my wireframes have grown more detailed; more departments must participate in and comment on them." (Liz Danzico - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on October 14, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture: Webpage mental maps emerge

"When people come to your website they have a mental map of how their 'ideal' webpage should be. They expect to see certain things in certain places. They expect to read certain killer words in your classification and content. The more you meet their mental map, the more successful your website will be." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted on October 13, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Escaping The Organisation Chart On Your Intranet

"This article outlines practical ways to move from an intranet based on the organisation chart to one that is more intuitive and allows people to complete their tasks more easily. It does not describe a full intranet redesign process, but focuses on those issues that are most likely to occur if you wish to break your organisation chart." (Donna Maurer - Step Two Designs)

Posted on October 10, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Architecture of Unusual Things

"Strap on your mental protective gear and join IBM Fellow Grady Booch on a high-energy tour of things unusual, curious, and just plain weird. Of course there are lessons to be learned along the way, as we discover how common design principals inform even the most uncommon of entities. We'll also explore the evolution of different genres of architecture, the forces that have shaped them, and their practical manifestation in today's Web- and services-oriented architectures." (IBM Rational Events)

Posted on October 06, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Setting The Stage For Success: Information architecture earns performance kudos from customers

"Information architecture is the process of organizing and structuring information so that it is logical in design and presentation. It establishes categories and relationships among different pieces of information. It defines metadata schemes, navigation and search interfaces. Good architecture not only helps users find information, but also facilitates updating content by having clear rules for adding new information. And its effects show up on the bottom line with surprising speed when users can get what they need in just a few clicks." (Judith Lamont - KMWorld) - courtesy of elegant hack

Posted on October 03, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Soft Skills for Information Architecture

"While much of oneís success or failure depends on the skills specific to information architecture - like diagramming, documenting, organizing - an even greater indicator is soft skills: dealing with conflict, negotiating, and communicating. These soft skills are important in any profession or job role, but are of high importance in information architecture, which requires applying them in sometimes unconventional ways." (Jeff Lash - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on September 29, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Enterprise IA Roadmap

"(...) that describes which aspects of the enterprise's architecture should be developed and when. My goal is to show that there are certain aspects of a site's architecture that are worth tackling right away for quick wins, others that you'll get around to later, and others that you might never reach in a distributed, highly politicized enterprise environment." (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted on September 26, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Shape of Information

Spatial Semantics: How Users Derive Shape from Information Space (iawiki)

Posted on September 23, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

IA Tools

"(...) document templates, process map posters and other tools to help you in your practice. The documents, which have been donated by various people in the organization, have been found to be useful at one time or another. Items can be used in combination or alone as needed." (AIfIA) - courtesy of victor lombardi

Posted on September 23, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Origin of the Phrase 'Information Architecture'

"The phrase 'information architecture' appears to have been coined, or at least brought to wide attention, by Richard Saul Wurman, a man trained as an architect but who has become also a skilled graphic designer and the author, editor, and/or publisher of numerous books that employ fine graphics in the presentation of information in a variety of fields." (R.E. Wyllys - Univ. of Texas: Grad. School of Library & Information Science)

Posted on September 15, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Sitemaps and Site Indexes: What They Are and Why You Should Have Them

"Sitemaps and site indexes are forms of supplemental navigation. They give users a way to navigate a site without having to use the global navigation. By providing a way to visualize and understand the layout and structure of the site, a sitemap can help a lost or confused user find her way. Sitemaps are more widely implemented than site indexes, but both have their place and fulfill a unique information need." (Chiara Fox - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on September 09, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Synonym Rings and Authority Files

"Synonym rings and authority files are simple, common-sense ways to help users connect the various semantic concepts that are inherently intertwined with the term they choose. They are particularly good for large decentralized sites that are search dominant and have little centralized control over content." (Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on August 27, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

AIfIA Annual Report 2002-2003

"In March of 2002, Louis Rosenfeld and Christina Wodtke invited a group of people to discuss how to advance the field of information architecture (IA). One previous effort, ACIA, provided valuable information but was too closely paired to a commercial company to be sustainable. Another, Info-Arch.org, generated many grass-roots ideas but few concrete results. The new group was large enough to represent diverse opinions yet small enough to stay focused on the task. After eight months of online discussions, phone calls, and a meeting at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in California, the idea of the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture (AIfIA) was born." (Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture)

Posted on August 22, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Emergent Architecture

"This document itself has an emergent nature. There is no essay plan, there is no marking guide, there is no expectation of word count or of completion deadline. This process is already instructive: I noticed that I've planted a thousand seeds, which I already know not all will flower." (Eric Scheid - IAwiki)

Posted on August 22, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture for Designers: Structuring Websites for Business Success

"(...) low on theory, high on practice. It contains practical examples, how-toís, doís and doníts and ready-to-use templates, illustrating concepts, tools and deliverables that can be used immediately in real life by anyone responsible for designing web sites. Practical explanations and tips are illustrated with case studies from industry leaders like IBM and Microsoft, and clear explanations of the latest cutting-edge research from the academic world." (Peter van Dijck)

Posted on August 18, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Lou Rosenfeld uses Entreprise to employ the Best of Librarianship

"Returning to the challenges of managing data, he singles out two problems common to many IA situations: a failure to keep up with information explosion (...); and the other side of the coin, stuff that is good at present but won't be within six months. 'We now use a term a client gave us: rot ñ redundant, outdated and trivial ñ and if you leave content alone it turns to rot. Itís a great acronym.'" (Ann Light - Usability News)

Posted on August 14, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Cognitive Psychology & IA: From Theory to Practice

"(...) having a background in cognitive psychology supports the practice of information architecture, and it is precisely those interconnections and support that will be explored." (Jason Withrow - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on August 12, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

(Not) Defining The Damn Thing

"Labels and definitions inevitably vary from context to context. But is it unethical to consciously provide different answers to the same questions? No, but it is a bit two-faced and can sometimes make one feel a bit uncomfortable. Just remember: we're always speaking different languages in different contexts. Itís simply a requirement for effective communication." (Louis Rosenfeld - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on August 12, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Basic IA Articles

"Simple, well written articles suitable for someone structuring their first site" (Donna Maurer - IAwiki)

Posted on August 06, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Guarding the Borders or Blocking the Way? IAs to be Banned!

"(...) the Board of Certification for architectural qualifications has a problem with the use of the term 'architecture' in the IT sector since it might cause people to have erroneous expectations of the services IAs offer." (Andrew Dillon - Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology - Vol. 9, No. 6)

Posted on July 25, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

International IA Comments

"The issue of internationalization of Information Architecture as a discipline and a profession is not the same in all parts of the world. In some countries they need a translation of articles and websites - in other countries they don't." (Gunnar Langemark Café) - courtesy of logos

Posted on July 19, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Power of Process, The Perils of Process

"(...) creating and documenting process has been a good exercise to help institutionalize ways of working, to help educate new team members as well as to unveil the mysteries of what we do for executives, product folks, and development teams." (Erin Malone - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on July 16, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

International Information Architecture

"Connecting people from diverse disciplines, countries and cultures is a strategic imperative, not only for AIfIA but for the information architecture community as a whole. Our competitive advantage derives from our very ability to build bridges and span networks." (Peter Morville - Semantic Studios)

Posted on July 14, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

AIfIA Translation Initiative: Official Launch

"We translate Information Architecture articles to and from a number of languages." (Peter van Dijck - AIfIA)

Posted on July 01, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Google Glossary on InfoArch

Definitions for 'Information Architecture' from the Web (Google Labs)

Posted on June 25, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Solving Mobile Challenges with Psychology-driven IA

"As the field of information architecture matures, we are beginning to understand the new challenges it raises for wireless media. This article suggests that some of these challenges can be best addressed through an approach called 'psychology-driven information architecture' (PDIA), which bases design decisions and solutions on the psychological profile of the end user." (Oded Napchi - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on June 24, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Ubiquity PR and the Search for the Final IA Tool

"I interviewed Victor Hsu at Axure software, who are developing a tool that provides a central modelling and documentation environment for information architects called Ubiquity RP." (Peter van Dijck)

Posted on June 23, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

AIfIA Job Board

"The AIfIA Job Board serves as a clearinghouse for position postings relating to information architecture and more broadly to information design, interaction design, and HCI." (Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture)

Posted on June 23, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Digital from Birth

Information Architecture for Building a Digital Library (Lillian Woon Gassie) - courtesy of iaslash

Posted on June 19, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Foraging

"Just collecting a bunch of links on the topic..." (Victor Lombardi)

Posted on June 16, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture: Theory & Practice

"(...) creating consistent and functional systems for navigation, graphics, page layout and title languages so that the user knows where to go, what to do, and encourages them to return." (Kelly Goto - GotoMedia)

Posted on June 12, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Inside the PARC: The 'Information Architects'

"When the center opened in 1970, it was unlike other major industrial research laboratories; its work wasn't tied, even loosely, to its corporate parent's current product lines. And unlike university research laboratories, PARC had one unifying vision: it would develop 'the architecture of information.'" (Stanford and Silicon Valley Archives Project) - courtesy of jack johnson

Posted on June 12, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

AIfIA-Metrics Mailinglist

"Towards standard methods and metrics for evaluating IA" (AIfIA) - courtesy of column two

Posted on June 10, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Pace-Layering Meaning and Whatever Comes First: The IAs Are Back in Town

- "With IA Summit #5 now in view, IA may be mainstream or mature - and I have suspicions which of these comes first. " (Andrew Dillon - ASIS&T Bulletin June/July 2003)

Posted on June 10, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Deliverables and Methods: Special Deliverable #8

"(...) I would like to explore the relationship between deliverables and methodology. Unfortunately, this calls for a definition of IA methodology, which may challenge the definition of IA as the hardest question in our field." (Dan Brown - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on June 10, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Structure of Content and Metadata

"(...) I've been thinking about structured content a lot lately. Here are some thoughts (some extremely basic)." (Peter van Dijck)

Posted on June 09, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Trouble with Scenarios

"Scenarios and personas are hot tools for software design and information architecture. (...) in the world of design scenarios, laptops are never forgotten on the roofs of Audi station wagons. A well-loved scenario thrives on deception." (Cathy Marshall - TEKKA)

Posted on June 06, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Sociobiology of Information Architecture

"(...) the practice of information architecture remains primarily an institutional endeavor, driven by the needs of corporations, governments, and educational institutions. Today's information architects are the heirs of yesterday's scribes, clerks, and clerics: laboring to acquire, store, and disseminate knowledge for the sake of humanity, but ultimately in the service of institutions." - (Alex Wright - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on May 27, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Sharing Knowledge is Better than Having It

Presentation on "The Structure, Content, and Form in the Information Design and Architecture of Information Artifacts" - (Peter J. Bogaards - STC Belgium)

Posted on May 23, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Linking vs. Searching: Guidelines for Use

"(...) a quick survey of the available literature on linking and searching. We organized our findings into a series of observations and guidelines that may be helpful to designers dealing with similar issues." - (Bob Bailey - Web Usability) - courtesy of guuui

Posted on May 19, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture Meets Usability

"We spoke with both Lou and Steve about the advantages of their joint seminars, the common pitfalls of web usability and information architecture, and the state of the web industry today." - (Bruce Stewart - O'Reilly Network)

Posted on May 15, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Translation of Information Architecture Project

"The IA translation project (aka Tia) aims to provide tools and support for translation of materials related to information architecture." (Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture)

Posted on April 29, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Main Themes from the 2003 IA Summit

"This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all topics of conversation, merely a peek into some important topics of discussion for those who did not attend." (Jeff Lash - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on April 22, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Towards a General Relation Browser: A GUI for Information Architects

"The paper presents the case of ongoing efforts to develop and test generalizable user interfaces that provide interactive overviews for large-scale Web sites, portals, and other partitions of Web space. The interfaces are called Relation Browsers (RB) because they help people explore the relationships across different attribute sets, thus enabling understanding the scope and extent of the corpus through active exploration of different 'slices' defined by different attribute value juxtapositions. The RB concept is illustrated through discussion of six iterations over a five year period that included laboratory usability studies, a field test, and implementations with a variety of data management problems. The current application to design concepts in a digital government setting is discussed, and the concept of the RB as the basis for an interface server is presented." (Gary Marchionini and Ben Brunk - Journal of Digital Information 4.1)

Posted on April 11, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture: You Do It, You Just Don't Know It

"Technical communicators stand to gain a great deal from understanding the work of the information architect. Even if you don't build Web sites, by thinking like an information architect, you'll greatly enhance the products you do develop. Whether you build online help systems, develop Web-based training, create or maintain knowledge bases, conduct usability testing, or help maintain your corporate intranet, you'll find it worth your while to get in touch with your inner information architect. Doing so will make your products easier for users to use and for owners/developers to maintain." (Mir G. Haynes - STC Intercom) - courtesy of beth mazur

Posted on April 09, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

ASIS&T IA Summit 2003

Various Acrobat and PowerPoint presentations available.
(ASIS&T)

Posted on April 07, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

IA Tools and Technology

From IA Summit 2003: "This session will focus on the kinds of technology you ought to be aware of to do IA." (Nick Finck) - courtesy of webword

Posted on April 07, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

IA Summit 2003 Wrapup Part 1 & Part 2

"Spring is in the air and 400 +/- IAs are gathered together for networking, knowledge sharing, drinking, schmoozing, eating and drinking. It must be the annual ASIST IA Summit. Held in Portland, Oregon this year, the summit was well attended and seemed to be just what the doctor ordered." (Boxes and Arrows Staff)

Posted on April 02, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Programming for Information Architects

"You might have more in common with programmers than you think. Both programming and IA are mindsets oriented towards abstraction." (Andrew Otwell - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on April 02, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture Leadership Seminar: Additional Resources

"This seminar was a real success, generating great discussion and sparking quite a bit of networking. Thanks to everyone who participated!" (Peter Morville - AIfIA)

Posted on April 01, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

AIfIA Education Mailing List

"AIfIA-Education is an open, unmoderated list for discussing topics related to information architecture education. Educators, students, and other interested individuals are welcome to join." (Victor Lombardi - AIfIA)

Posted on April 01, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Amy Lee's IA Summit 2003 Notes

"Hierarchy isn't the answer and search is even worse. Search is the last resort of a reader. Context is all that matters." (Amy Lee - curiousLee)

Posted on March 27, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Wrapping Up Portland

"Portland was interesting. (...) there was a palpable lack of international attendance, participation, and perspective." (Anne Galloway - Purse Lip Square Jaw) - courtesy of iaslash

Posted on March 27, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Navigation and Hypertext

"Navigation as design driver - it's the wrong driver." (Peter Merholz)

Posted on March 27, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Panel on Wayfinding and Navigation in Digital Spaces at the IA Summit 2003

Mark Bernstein's, Andrew Dillon's, and Susan Campbell's position statements (Rashmi Sinha - courtesy of vanderwal

Posted on March 27, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Model of Attraction Presentation

"This presentation of the Model of Attraction was given at the ASIS IA Summit in Portland, Oregon (...) The HTML outline version will be available shortly." (Thomas vanderWal)

Posted on March 26, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

IA Summit 2003

"(...) again it was a wonderful affair filled with friends, interesting presentations, and a bit of the ol' controversy." (Victor Lombardi - noise between stations)

Posted on March 26, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Wee Report on the IA Summit

"Spirits were definitely higher than the past two years." (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted on March 26, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Managing the Implementation of an Enterprise-Wide Information Architecture

"In 1994, a team of faculty and staff at the University of Pittsburgh completed the design of an enterprise-wide information architecture and framework for engaging the University in business process reengineering. The architecture provides the blueprint for developing an integrated set of information services, processes, and technologies. It enables significant efficiencies in business and service processes, and facilitates informed decisions concerning information technology expenditures and acquisitions." (Nicholas C. Laudato and Dennis J. DeSantis - University of Pittsburg) courtesy of heyblog

Posted on March 26, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Hippie Period of the Web is Over

"Information architecture is all about the definition and organization of content. The fact that there isn't a commonly agreed definition is because the discipline is immature. If information architecture is to solve problems cost-effectively, it will have to become rigorously defined. Just like most other professionals, information architects will require accreditation." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted on March 17, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

How To Get the Most Out of Conferences

"This essay gives one perspective on conferences, and how to make them more valuable and engaging experiences." (Scott Berkun)

Posted on March 17, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Three Approaches To Intranet Strategy

"Every Intranet is different, and every section of a company's Intranet can be used differently." (Jeff Lash - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on March 13, 2003 | Permalink

Happy Birthday B&A

"Boxes and Arrows was formed to break that code of silence, dedicated to discussing, improving and promoting the work of this community, through the sharing of exemplary technique, innovation and informed opinion. I think we're making some progress." (Christina Wodtke - Boxes and Arrows) - Congrats

Posted on March 12, 2003 | Permalink

Aifia-Translation -- International Information Architecture

"This list discusses information architecture in an international context." (AIfIA)

Posted on March 07, 2003 | Permalink

Beyond Cardsorting: Free-Listing Methods to Explore User Categorizations

"Free-listing is a technique that can help you determine the scope of the domain while providing some insight into how the domain is structured." (Rashmi Sinha - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on February 25, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

A User-Centered Approach to Selling Information Architecture

"The most common approach to selling IA involves introducing the basic concepts, along with explanations and examples of what deliverables are produced, and some discussion of the benefits." (Jeff Lash - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on February 21, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Designing Information Architecture

The Flamenco Project, Methods for Information Architecture, and Human Cognition and Information Architecture (Rashi Sinha)

Posted on February 20, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Centralize Your Information Architecture

"Save money and win friends by standardizing your information architecture." (Gerry McGovern - User Interface 7 West Conference)

Posted on February 17, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture: the v-2 interview

"(...) the message that an organisation calling itself the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture had decloaked and announced its existence to the world came as nothing short of a grenade in the Inbox." (Adam Greenfield - v-2)

Posted on February 13, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology February/March 2003

"IA, Therefore I Am - James Kalbach" (ASIS&T)

Posted on February 11, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

IA Summit 2003 'Making Connections'

Conference Schedule Update (ASIS&T)

Posted on February 06, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Future of Information Architecture: Part II

"(...) the results of a survey conducted by the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture in January 2003 in preparation for the Leadership Seminar at the ASIS&T IA Summit." (Peter Morville - AIfIA)

Posted on February 05, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Making Cents from Information Architecture

"One of the most costly short cuts is skipping the development of a sound and highly functional information architecture." (Alan K'necht - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on January 23, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Understanding Information Architecture

"(...) a discipline that has a reputation for being a preserve of the hipper-than-thou." (Rusty Foster - Online Journalism Review)

Posted on January 22, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

ASIS&T IA Summit 2003 'Making Connections'

March 21-23, 2003 (Portland Oregon, USA) - Full programme available (American Institute of Information Science and Technology)

Posted on January 20, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Future of Information Architecture

"This survey is part of an effort to identify important trends and possible futures for information architecture." (Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture)

Posted on January 16, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web

First edition (Feb. 1998) - full online version (Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville) - courtesy of elegant hack

Posted on January 13, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Scientific Visualization and Information Architecture

"Design of line graphs, contour and pseudocolor plots, and a wide variety of other user-generated graphics." (John P. Boyd - University of Michigan) - courtesy of tremendo

Posted on January 10, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Questions Information Architects Ask

"These might be helpful if you're preparing an IA seminar yourself, or, if nothing else, they're an interesting snapshot of what folks were interested in during late 2002." (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted on January 10, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Book Review of 'Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web'

"(...) it is a non-intimidating introduction to a field that has become an integral part of effective Web design." (James McNally - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on January 09, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Prognostication Digitalis

"2002 was the year the rubber hit the road." (Chris tina Wodtke - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on January 07, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Predictions for 2003

"Information architecture will grow in importance. More organizations will recognize that organizing information efficiently is one of the key challenges they face." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted on January 06, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Mapping Web Sites

Chapter 4: Web Site Planning Diagrams (Paul Kahn - Kahn & Associates)

Posted on January 06, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

IA: Educating Information Architecture

Chapter from 'Information Architecture: an Emerging 21nd Century Profession' (Earl Morrogh) - courtesy of iaslash

Posted on January 03, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Bottoms Up: Designing Complex, Adaptive Systems

"(...) the complexity of our sites overwhelmed us." (Peter Morville - New Architect)

Posted on December 17, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Proposal for an IA Curriculum

"The AIfIA Education Curriculum Initiative will create a framework which instructors will use to create information architecture programs, courses, and syllabi for courses." (Victor Lombardi - Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture)

Posted on December 13, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Eat Me, Drink Me, Push Me (...)

An excerpt from 'Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web' (Christina Wodtke - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on December 11, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Best IA Tool You Never Heard Of

"A good IA tool should work like your brain. Is there one? Yes. It's called Tinderbox." (Sean Carton - ClickZ)

Posted on December 04, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Needs Analysis

"Each user has a different type of information need depending on what he's trying to find and why he's trying to find it." (Louis Rosenfeld - Bloug)

Posted on December 04, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Our Favorite Books: Recommendations from the staff of Boxes and Arrows

"These are the books we can't live without or have learned great lessons from over the years." (Boxes and Arrows Staff)

Posted on December 04, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

What's Your Problem?

"Trying to establish a profession on the foundation of a myth is, I think, a tactical error." (Mark Bernstein)

Posted on November 27, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

ASIST 2002 Annual Meeting: Notes

"Just spurious notes from what I saw, in general a very good conference." (Victor Lombardi)

Posted on November 26, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Information Architect: A Missing Link?

"(...) our (information) architect is a high level designer that uses information as building material." (Ricardo Baea-Yates and Miguel Nussbaum)

Posted on November 25, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Rosenfeld Explains Enterprise Information Architecture

"Rosenfeld addressed himself to the issue of practising information architecture in an unfriendly enterprise environment." (Ann Light - Usability News)

Posted on November 21, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

What Lies Beneath?

"Engaging your services as a designer or an information architect has an associated cost, and ideally anyway, also produces a tangible benefit." (Adam Greenfield - V-2)

Posted on November 21, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Importance of Information Architecture

"Very glossy, but pretty much right on the money. The reasoning stresses business concepts like ROI, so it speaks to the business person pretty well." (James Melzer)

Posted on November 20, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture is not Usability

"The distinction between information architecture and usability may seem like semantics, but there are significant differences between the two disciplines." (Jeff Lash - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on November 20, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture for Everyone

"Information Architecture is the process of creating as structure for a body of information or content. In our case, this structure is specific to the production of a web site." (D. Keith Robinson - Evolt)

Posted on November 18, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Thoughts on AIfIA and Information Architecture

"The launch of the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture, has proven a wellspring for discussions on the emerging profession and discipline of information architecture." (Peter Merholz)

Posted on November 18, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Bottoms Up: Designing Complex, Adaptive Systems

"Web design is under attack. Our enemy is a dangerous meme known as reductionism." (Peter Morville - New Architect)

Posted on November 15, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Definition of Information Architecture

"(...) a few thousand professional information architects prove their value every day in the trenches by contributing to the design of more useful, usable, and desirable systems and products." (Peter Morville - Semantic Studios)

Posted on November 15, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture Overload

"I was stunned at the number of new books in these fields. There were over 20 new titles on the book shelf about information architecture, usability, interface design, web usability, flash usability, and accessibility." (David Crow)

Posted on November 08, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Comments on the Asilomar Institute

"(...) are there any links out there today that you can recommend that explain exactly what IA is?" (Metafilter)

Posted on November 06, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture: From Craft to Profession

"(...) most of my students are truly children of the Information Age." (Earl Morrogh - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on November 05, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Coming of Age

"As the information glut moves more and more online, our skills and expertise are fundamental to the success of an audience intent on finding the information they seek." (Erin Malone - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on November 05, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Research Network for the New Economy

DRAFT Case Study Proposal for IA Summit 2003 (Anne Galloway)

Posted on November 04, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture

"(...) serves to advance the design of shared information environments. We support a global community infrastructure that connects people, ideas, content, and tools. Through research, education, advocacy and community service, we promote excellence within our field and build bridges to related disciplines and organizations." (About AIfIA)

Posted on November 01, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web

"Wodtke argues that good site design is complex, nuanced, and context-specific." (Ryan Olshavsky - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on October 29, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

PhotoSemantic Information Architecture

"As an Information Architect with quite a bit of large scale website IA experience, I wanted to include a section on IA for both discussion and resource purposes." (Miguel Graça)

Posted on October 28, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Myth of User-Centered Information Architecture

"One of the first things you learn about information architecture is that your Web site needs to be organized the way users think it should be organized. Unfortunately, this never happens. In fact, it should never happen." (Jeff Lash - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on October 24, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

Metadata and Taxonomies for a More Flexible Information Architecture

"The presentation (...) illustrates how an information architecture based on taxonomies and metadata can be used to make a number of basic Web site and Intranet functions more flexible and dynamic." (Amy J. Warner - Lexonomy)

Posted on October 24, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

It's Everywhere and Nowhere, Baby!

"(...) 2002 seems to have been a good year for IA." (Andrew Dillon - ASIS&T Bulletin 9.1)

Posted on October 24, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack

First Principles: Some Rules of Thumb, and Some Thumbing of Rules 

Sample chapter from 'Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web' (Christina Wodtke)

Posted on October 18, 2002 | Permalink | TrackBack