Information Architecture: What is it?

Information Architect Lesson 1: Just what is IA?
"Jay, what is it exactly that you do, anyway?" My dad asked me one morning while I was stuffing bread in my mouth for breakfast, zombie-like so early in the morning.

"Mmmuh?" I inquire through a full mouth, his question still qued up in my brain, lost between keeping my heart beating and breathing and chewing.

"What's your job?" he repeated, "I know you're some sort of IT guy, but what do you do? Do you program stuff?"

I swallow, sip my coffee, and smile.

"I'm an Information Architect."

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Just what is an Information Architect, anyway? I get the same reaction no matter where I go and people ask me what I do. I tell them my job title, they smile, nod, then get this confused look on their face.

Trust me, it's hilarious.

Seriously though, not a lot of people know about Information Architecture, and of us Information Architects. This really isn't meant to be the most extensive of reports on the matter, but this is how I define my work.

Before that, and in the interests of academics, let's take a look at the definition of both words:

in·for·ma·tion (ĭn'fər-mā'shən) pronunciation
n.

1. Knowledge derived from study, experience, or instruction.
2. Knowledge of specific events or situations that has been gathered or received by communication; intelligence or news. See synonyms at knowledge.
3. A collection of facts or data: statistical information.

and

ar·chi·tect (är'kĭ-tĕkt') pronunciation
n.

1. One who designs and supervises the construction of buildings or other large structures.
2. One that plans or devises: a country considered to be the chief architect of war in the Middle East.

Okay, for the purposes of our discussion, I'll concern my self with Information as defined in #1,2,3 and Architect definition 2.

Anyway, to make things easy to understand, my job as an Information Architect entails planning how information should be arranged in such a way that people who need that information can find it easily, and with the least amount of pain possible. This is, of course, usually restricted to website design and projects, but occasionally bleeds over to other uses.

At first glance, my work might seem a little too simple to qualify as being a full fledged job. After all, many people would read the previous paragraph and say, "Psh! I can do that!" How hard could it possibly be?

Well... I wouldn't say that it's too difficult. But I will say that it's tricky.

I think the best way for me to illustrate my point is to give an example.

For your first example for a website challenge, click HERE. (Opens in a new window) Once that page has loaded up, try looking for their customer support hotline.

I'll give you 2 minutes, the average time a person will spend on a website to look for information.

...

...

...

...

...

Done?

If you found it, then good for you! If you didn't that's okay too, because that only means that you've been subjected to a result of bad Information Architecture.

(to those who have been wondering, the way to get there from the page is: Click on the MyGlobe link on the horizontal "websites" bar, then when the MyGlobe page loads, scroll all the way down to where the copyright line is, and click on the tiny "contact us" link)

The problem I ran into when I had to look for their hotline number. I ended up frustrated and angry over it, as the site as it wasn't anywhere, and the most visible "Customer Support" link led to nowhere.

The problem with that experience is that it makes me, the intended audience of the website, feel that I'm not welcome. My calls are not important or unwanted, hence they're hiding their number from me.

You can imagine how this sort of impression will sour your users to your company, all because of a phone number.

To be fair, a good (and common sense) implementation of putting up contact information is done by the same company on a different website HERE (again, opens in a new window)

As you can see, the contact us section is located at the very top, along with FAQs and Search, and clicking on it doesn't lead me to a dead end of links that won't help me. Instead, I get the hotline right there, followed with an email address and even a directory of their service centers.

In the end, Information Architects deal with getting the right kind of data to the right kind of user in the right way. We play around with various widgets and templates and wrack our brains to put "common sense" down onto the screen so that when people sit in front of their computers and go to a website because they need something, they'll find it without having to let loose with a barrage of swearing.