Information Architecture

Ever visited a website whose eyeball appeal was magnetic and made you go WOW? Whose hypnotic design invited you to 'enter' and stay a while - and while you stayed [hopefully not on Ceasar's time], you glided smoothly from page to page finding what you were looking for without much trouble? Though I have yet to spend a red cent on their products, one such website - in my opinion is - is The Swoosh Guys.

Effectively designed websites are in part a result of solid Information Architecture (IA). Below is a definition of Information Architecure as defined in Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville's book "Information Architecture for the World Wide Web":


in·for·ma·tion ar·chi·tec·ture

1. The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation schemes within an information system.
   
2. The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content.
   
3. The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and intranets to help people find and manage information.
   
4. An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.
   

IA can be broken down into four components:

1. Organization Systems
This refers to the technique/study/classification of a site's content. It is the way a site content is presented.
2. Labeling Systems
These help describe categories, options, links using descriptive and appropriate language. They help the user know where they are, what the page is about, where and how to search and get what they are looking for, leave feedback, e.t.c
3. Navigation Systems
Navigation systems aid users movie easily throughout the web site and the content therein.
4. Searching Systems
Search systems give users the ability to search content locally(search within website) or globally(search the internet) to find exactly what they are looking for.