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Information Architecture (IA)

"Users don't notice the information architecture of a site unless it isn't working." (Rosenfeld/Morville, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web)

Information Architects bring structure, design and content together. Their job consists of...

  • defining the goal of the website,
  • researching the target audience,
  • gathering and organizing the information,
  • conceptual design,
  • design of navigation systems,
  • sitemap construction.

An information architect must understand the purpose and mission of the organization or company whose website it is, as well as how an outsider approaches the site. IA is as much about the structuring of information as about how it is presented and how users can get to this information. The end result should be a website with a navigatable infrastructure, where users find what they are looking for and accomplish their task.

Information Architects must work closely with all members of a web development team, especially graphics designers and usability experts.

Learn more :

More useful links can be found in the Resource section.

Related Issues

[ Browsers ]
[ Usability ]
[ Writing for the web ]
[ Information Architecture ]
[ Submitting documents for web publication ]
[ XHTML ]

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