Chapter 1. Defining Information Architecture

We shape our buildings: thereafter they shape us.

Winston Churchill

What we'll cover:

What is (and isn't) information architecture

Why information architecture is important

The value of explaining and illustrating IA concepts

What is it about buildings that stirs us? Whether we're architectural connoisseurs or just plain folks, we are all emotionally engaged by the physical structures we experience throughout our lives.

Each building serves a different purpose. A bustling café with hardwood floors and large windows facing Main Street provides the ideal place for a quick breakfast meeting. A steel-and-glass high-rise with its mix of cubes and offices envelops inhabitants in a collaborative, high-energy work environment. A dark, smoky bar with tin ceilings and exposed brick walls becomes a sanctuary from the whirl of modern life. And a medieval Gothic cathedral adorned with granite sculptures, stained-glass windows, and towers that reach for the heavens provides an experience both humbling and inspirational.

Each building serves its purpose uniquely. Architecture, design, construction, furnishings, inhabitants, and location all play major roles in shaping the overall experience. All elements must work together. In successful buildings, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Why begin a book about web sites by writing about buildings? Because the architectural analogy is a powerful tool for introducing the complex, multidimensional nature of information spaces. Like buildings, web sites have architectures that cause us to react.

Some web sites provide logical structures that help us find answers and complete tasks. Others lack any intelligible organization and frustrate our attempts to navigate through them. We can't find the product we need; we can't locate the report we found last week; we're lost inside an online shopping cart. These web sites may remind us of buildings that fail: houses with flat roofs that leak, kitchens with no counter space, office towers with windows you can't open, and mazelike airports with misleading signs.

Bad buildings and bad web sites share similar architectural roots. First, many architects don't inhabit the structures they design. They don't fully understand the needs of their customers, and they're not around to suffer the long-term consequences of poor decisions. Second, creating structures to stand the test of time is really difficult. Needs change. Surprises are the rule. The desire for stability must be balanced against the value of flexibility and scalability. Architects are often faced with complex requirements, competing goals, and high levels of ambiguity. Transforming this chaos into order is extremely hard work that requires rare vision and perspective.

However, as designers of web sites, we should not become trapped by the metaphor of building architecture. Throughout this book, we'll also talk about information ecologies, knowledge economies, digital libraries, and virtual communities. We learn what we can from each analogy, and we leave the baggage behind.