Information Architecture, 4th Edition

Preface

The town may be changed,
But the well cannot be changed.
It neither decreases nor increases.
They come and go and draw from the well.

I Ching

The first edition of this book—then titled Information Architecture for the World Wide Web—was published in 1998. This was a full 9 years before the iPhone changed the way we share pictures of our kids with our family and friends, 6 years before Facebook reintroduced long-forgotten high school friends into our lives, 6 years before the term “folksonomy” was coined (and 10 years before its currency devalued), and 12 or so years before many of us first heard the term “Internet of Things.” There was no “Web 2.0” back then; we were still trying to figure out Web 1.0!

Those of us who have been structuring and designing websites since the “early days” have experienced astonishing changes in our industry. We’ve seen the underlying technologies of the medium—including HTML itself, along with JavaScript—evolve from what were at first primitive content-delivery mechanisms into full-featured interactive application stacks. We’ve seen device form factors evolve from indirect experiences where we controlled an abstract pointer with a mouse, to the direct, intimate experience of manipulating information by touching elegant slabs of glass with our fingers. We’ve seen Internet access go from being a slow, discreet activity that we engaged in by sitting at a desk, in front of a bulky computer tethered to a copper wire, to something we do everywhere at any time by pulling out a blazing fast, sensor- and camera-laden minicomputer/telephone from our pocket. And now we’ve started to see that power permeate into everyday objects and environments, fundamentally transforming everyday experiences we’ve long taken for granted. Change is relentless, ubiquitous, exhilarating—and a little scary.

One constant amidst all this change is that every year humanity produces and consumes more information than before. This information glut can make it increasingly challenging for people to find the stuff they’re looking for, and make sense of it once they do—especially now that users can interact with information using a wide range of devices and services. Information architecture is the area of practice that helps alleviate this problem. The concepts, methodologies, and techniques that have been so effective in structuring websites can also be applied to broader, more heterogeneous information ecosystems such as those we have today.

Earlier editions of this book were focused on one type of such information ecosystems: websites (in their various manifestations, including intranets and corporate portals.) This fourth edition has a new subtitle: For the Web and Beyond. This is an acknowledgment that the information ecosystem landscape is richer and more complex today. Many people’s experience of interacting with information increasingly occurs via smartphone apps and other channels that do not involve a traditional web browser. Additionally, as system components and sensors keep getting smaller and cheaper, two-way access to information is becoming a key part of everyday objects like thermostats and doorknobs, which aren’t perceived as traditional computing devices at all. While many of these experiences will not require the same types of semantic structures that traditional websites did, they are still key components in information ecosystems and thus subject to many of the same design principles presented in previous editions of the book. When considering the subject of our designs in the abstract—as information environments instead of websites—we can see that the design principles that inform these semantic structures have broad applicability beyond design for the Web.

The I Ching is an ancient Chinese oracle, and arguably the oldest interactive information environment in the world. Its text presents 64 patterns that describe—and teach us how to deal with—different aspects of change. One of these patterns, “The Well,” represents those things in life that are constant and which steadfastly replenish and refresh us, even as the chaos of impermanence alters the world around us. We have approached this fourth edition of the “polar bear book” with the recognition that information architecture is one such “well”: as long as we are dealing with the design of information environments for use by human beings, we will have a need for tools and techniques that allow us to structure that information to make it easier to find and understand. We have gone back to first principles to identify those that can be used in any situation to help bring consistency, coherence, and understandability to digital products and services, regardless of their manifestations in space and time. Our hope is that even as technologies and techniques come and go, you will be able to continue drawing from the well of information architecture for many years to come.

What’s New in the Fourth Edition

Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond focuses on information architecture as a set of tools and techniques for dealing with tough information organization problems—by anyone involved in any aspect of design, regardless of their job title. We have gone through the first three editions and brought forward those principles of information organization that are universal and timeless. We’ve cast these in the context of current practice by updating the examples and illustrations. We’ve avoided discussions of particular software packages; it’s all changing too quickly for this information to have much value in the long term. Instead, we’ve focused on tools and techniques that have stood the test of time and which are not dependent on particular technologies or vendors. Finally, we’ve updated Appendix A to include the most useful information architecture resources available today.

Organization of This Book

This book is divided into 3 parts and 13 chapters, progressing from abstract fundamental concepts to processes, tools, and techniques you can use to put them into practice. It breaks down as follows.

Part I, “Introducing Information Architecture,” provides an overview of information architecture for those new to the field and experienced practitioners alike, and comprises the following chapters:

Chapter 1, The Problems That Information Architecture Addresses

This chapter sets the stage by describing the main challenges we face today when dealing with complex information environments.

Chapter 2, Defining Information Architecture

This chapter offers definitions and analogies, and explains why information architecture is not easy to identify in everyday life.

Chapter 3, Design for Finding

This chapter helps us better understand people’s information-seeking needs and behaviors.

Chapter 4, Design for Understanding

This chapter explains how information architecture can create the right contexts for people to understand information.

Part II, “Basic Principles of Information Architecture,” presents the fundamental components of an architecture, illustrating the interconnected nature of these systems. It comprises the following chapters:

Chapter 5, The Anatomy of an Information Architecture

This chapter helps you visualize the nuts and bolts of an architecture and introduces the systems covered in subsequent chapters.

Chapter 6, Organization Systems

This chapter describes ways to structure and organize sites to meet business goals and user needs.

Chapter 7, Labeling Systems

This chapter presents approaches for creating consistent, effective, and descriptive labels for a site.

Chapter 8, Navigation Systems

This chapter explores the design of browsing systems that help users understand where they are and where they can go within a site.

Chapter 9, Search Systems

This chapter covers the nuts and bolts of searching systems, and describes approaches to indexing and the design of search result interfaces that can improve overall performance.

Chapter 10, Thesauri, Controlled Vocabularies, and Metadata

This chapter shows how vocabulary control can connect these systems and improve the user experience.

Part III, “Getting Information Architecture Done,” covers the conceptual tools, techniques, and methods to take you from research to strategy and design to implementation of an information architecture. It comprises the following chapters:

Chapter 11, Research

This chapter explains the discovery process necessary to create a foundation of understanding for your information architecture.

Chapter 12, Strategy

This chapter presents a framework and methodology for defining the direction and scope of your information architecture.

Chapter 13, Design and Documentation

This chapter introduces the deliverables and processes required to bring your information architecture to life.

We end with the Coda, which wraps things up.

Appendix A presents a selective list of pointers to the most useful information architecture resources available today.

Audience for This Book

Who do we hope to reach with this fourth edition of the polar bear book? Because we assume that any interactive product contains information, this book is for anyone who’s responsible for defining how interactive products and services work: user experience designers, product managers, developers, and more. The job titles don’t really matter; what matters is that your work results in products and services that are interactive, information dense, and used by at least one person besides yourself.

Previous editions of the book delved into the subject of information architecture as a career path. We have eschewed these discussions in the fourth edition in favor of treating information architecture as an area of practice. You do not need to have the words “information architect” on your business card in order to benefit from the ideas in this book.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions.

Constant width

Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords.

Note

This element signifies a general note.

Contacting the Authors

Please direct all suggestions, kudos, flames, and other assorted comments to us via email:

• Peter Morville, Semantic Studios ([e-mail])

• Lou Rosenfeld, Louis Rosenfeld LLC ([e-mail])

• Jorge Arango, Futuredraft ([e-mail])

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Acknowledgments

This book exists because of the generosity and intelligence of the many teachers, colleagues, clients, friends, and family members who helped us form and nurture these ideas, and gave us the wherewithal to share them with you. We can’t thank all of them here, but we will briefly acknowledge those who have been most influential in bringing this fourth edition to life.

We have been very lucky to work with an amazing team of technical reviewers whose generosity is a true mark of the information architecture community: Abby Covert, Andrea Resmini, Andrew Hinton, Andy Fitzgerald, Carl Collins, Danielle Malik, Dan Klyn, Dan Ramsden, John Simpkins, Jonathan Shariat, Jonathon Coleman, and Kat King. Their input has made this book better in many ways; we are very grateful for their contributions.

As always, the team at O’Reilly Media has been a pleasure to work with. Our editors Angela Rufino and Mary Treseler helped keep us on track, and were supportive and energizing throughout the writing process. We owe many, many thanks to Angela, Mary, and the entire production crew at O’Reilly.

We are grateful to Chris Farnum and ProQuest for providing sample wireframes for Chapter 13.

Finally, some personal thanks from each of us.

Lou thanks his teachers from the University of Michigan’s School of Information—especially Joe Janes, Amy Warner, Vic Rosenberg, Karen Drabenstott, and the late Miranda Pao—and Mary Jean, Iris, and Nate for sharing the apartment with an occasionally very cranky author.

Peter thanks Susan, Claudia, Claire, and a dog named Knowsy.

Jorge thanks his partners at Futuredraft—Brian O’Kelley, Chris Baum, and Hans Krueger—for giving him the opportunity to hone his craft among giants, the fine folks at KDFC (“The Bay Area’s listener-supported classical radio station”) for keeping him company at ungodly hours, and his family—Jimena, Julia, Ada, and Elias—for allowing him the time and space to work on the book…and the reason to do so.

Louis Rosenfeld

Brooklyn, NY

Peter Morville

Ann Arbor, MI

Jorge Arango

San Leandro, CA