Practice makes...Chicken soup.

August 16, 2002 | 0 Comments

I just got done reading this - The Importance of Information Architecture - and the author starts off explaining the differences between the field of IA, the practice of IA and IA experts. I perticulary like the description of the practice of Information Archetcture:

The practice of information architecture considers information relationships, structures, and processes. In interactive systems, information architecture deals with the navigational pathyways, the content hierarchy or classification, labeling and the content priorities.

Pretty much sums it up. For those of us who wear many hats, and practice information architecture, but aren’t considered to be “in the field or experts”, this is what we do. Our goals are to make our sites easy to use, our content easy to find, users task easy to complete, and on and on. I guess practice makes perfect - in many different ways.

On a related, but side note, the author goes on to talk about how a Web site can be a “battleground, a place for companies to air their dirty laundry.” This can be a major barrier to building a good web site with a tight information architecture. Often times territorialism and politics take precedence over what is most important - the goals, objectives and wants of a site’s users and readers. I’ve often dealt with this and find that keeping at it, and doing my best to educate the organization or client, without getting frustrated, often times ends up in a breakthrough.

Maybe I should write a self help book. One of those Chicken Soup things?

Nah, Office Space works just fine.

Filed under: IA and Usability