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Garrett, Jesse James. “The Elements of User Experience.” Jesse James Garrett’s Hidden Agenda. 2000.
http://jjg.net/ia/elements.pdf.

In this elegant diagram, Garrett addresses the differences between the web as “hypertext information space” and “remote software interface”. His diagram attempts to reconcile the information-oriented focus of the former with the task-oriented HCI/software engineering focus of the latter.

This diagram dates from early 2000, and the lines between these two aspects of the web have only further blurred in the past six years. In particular, interface design, navigation design and interaction design are now one and the same as sites achieve a degree of interactivity unimagined at the turn of the millennium. Sites like Google’s Writely and Gmail thoroughly replicate functionality heretofore relegated to desktop software, in this case word processing and e-mail, respectively. Likewise, renewed emphasis on web standards such as CSS, and the integration of data formats like RSS and OPML require rigorous information architecture and content management.

Rosenfeld, Louis, and Peter Morville. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 2nd ed.. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly, 2002. 3-35.

The first two chapters of Rosenfeld and Morville’s book are devoted to defining and defending information architecture. Rather than attempt a single definition of the practice of information architecture, the authors offer several different definitions each of what IA is and is not. I particularly like one of their definitions: “The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and intranets to help people find and manage information.”

I also found interesting their assertions about the boundaries of information architecture. In particular, they take pains to say that graphic design, software development and usability engineering are not IA. While Rosenfeld and Morville are eager to draw bright lines in order to define IA, it’s important not to confuse these tasks with job titles. A graphic designer may also from time to time act as an information architect, for example. Each of these areas of expertise inform and reinforce the other, but they should not be confused for one another.

The impression I get from these first two chapters is that the authors presuppose a degree of suspicion on the part of decision-makers about the value of information architecture, largely because it is not visible to site users. One of the more effective illustrations is a diagram credited to Myra Messing Klarman depicting a web site as an iceberg, with the user-accessible interface represented by the small fraction of the ice floating above the surface while information architecture, the bulk of the iceberg, lurks beneath the murky waters. This is a metaphor that can only be taken so far, as web sites are intended to be simple, inviting and pleasing to users, not dangerous icy obstacles.

The invisibility of information architecture is addressed in the foreword, by usability guru Jakob Nielsen, who writes, “Allow users to focus on their tasks, and let information architects be the ones to spend time worrying about the structure of the web site or intranet…The more that answers are located in the places you look for them, the easier the design will feel to users, and the more successful the project.”

Rosenfeld and Morville define project success in IA as harmony between three factors, Users, Content and Context. Roughly speaking, this means providing users with fulfillment of their information needs through intuitive means, creating a site structure that accounts for the variety and volume of content necessary, and balancing both of these with business goals, politics, and budgets. Chapter three begins to get in to the meat of this by examining the needs of users.

The information needs of users, the authors say, vary greatly, as do their information seeking behaviors. Some users on some sites will know precisely what they want, where to find it and that the information does, in fact, exist on the site. Others will have a broader need, one that more closely resembles “learning about” than it does “learning that”. And still others will be interested in exhaustive, indiscriminate information gathering. Most often users will exhibit information seeking behavior that is iterative, which combines a number of techniques (i.e., searching, browsing), and which has a goal that changes throughout the process. Rosefeld and Morville cite Bates’s berry-picking model, which is one of my readings for next week.

This chapter serves mainly to introduce the concept of information needs and models of information seeking behavior. In Part III, Ch. 10 of the book it appears that the process of systematically identifying the needs and behaviors of users is addressed more specifically. I’m looking forward to it.