What is Information Architecture?

Information Architecture (IA) is a combination of organizing a site's content into categories, or identifying a task sequence or process, and then creating an interface to support those categories, sequence, or process. It stems from traditional architecture, which is made up of architectural programming and architectural planning.

What does an Information Architect do?

In Web design, a person who drives the information design of websites and/or applications is an Information Architect. The Information Architect maps the entire structure of the site and organizes the positioning of pages and screens within sections, developing a functional and intuitive plan to get the user from point A to point B on the path of least resistance. An Information Architect will also identify tasks and the sequence of events and determines the page sequencing when designing online business applications.

Architecture can and should be an extremely collaborative and iterative process, which evolves somewhat organically in as much structure that can be defined up-front as possible. Anything an Information Architect can do to ask as many questions and get as many answers up-front will ultimately help the process. Information Architects also focus on who uses the site, strategic and business goals, key usability principals, technical constraints, and future needs.

How Does An Information Architect Fit Into a Web Team?

An Information Architect (IA) meets with the client to help define a project's scope, as well as plot the path to meet the objective and work with user interface designers and technologists to develop engaging and intuitive visual interfaces.

Information Architects also work closely with visual designers, helping to maintain the balance between form and function. Design effects architecture as much as architecture effects design. IAs also bridge architecture and look and feel with development by troubleshooting problems with technologists, database engineers, and HTML coders to resolve issues that arise affecting the architecture or the look and feel of the project.

On most projects the Information Architect essentially becomes the nucleolus of the design and development team as they have, through their numerous roles throughout the project, acquired the global understanding of how all components of the project fit together to meet the project's goals and objectives.