Readings on IA.

October 16, 2002 | 0 Comments

A few interesting reads on information architecture:

First - Interested in taxonomy? I point you to - A nice breakdown of taxonomies and related terms in relation to Web information architecture by Amy J. Warner. Clear, well written and easy enough to follow.

From her Web site:

What’s the difference between a taxonomy and a thesaurus? What are the various types of controlled vocabularies, and how do they fit into a Web site’s Information Architecture? How do you use the various schemes to greatest advantage? Learn how to “take control” of these dynamic and effective tools for creating navigation schemes and search systems.

Second - An article over at Boxes and Arrows that discusses the princicples developed by S.R. Ranganathan, who was the greatest librarian of the 20th Century. It’s a very interesting read, and the concept of using facet anaysis for IA is intreguing. The Five Laws of Library Science are also worth noting. You can find a bit more about Ranganathan over at iaslash.

Finally, for today anyway - I found a little post about using storytelling as a basis for Information Architecture. Very interesting - I’ve taken a similar approach to a site I’m working on right now, although not to this extent. Sometimes the easy way to do a simple site (About Us, Contact Info, etc.) just doesn’t get the message across. The key is to balance creativity with usability.

Filed under: IA and Usability