Information Architecture

Information Architecture: Information Architecture refers to the way content is designed, categorized, organized and structured to create a useful and meaningful informational environment. Successful information architecture therefore considers how both humans and search spiders access a website.

Information Architecture increasingly involves bringing principles of design and architecture and applying them to the digital landscape. However, a great deal of confusion often emerges due to the way this approach applies to multiple fields: for example, the tasks of organizing, labeling, searching and navigating easily and effectively apply to everything from websites and intranets to software. However, the process typically involves applying a model or concept of information to activities that require a high degree of detail and complex information systems.

Richard Saul Wurman, an American architect and graphic designer, is largely believed to be the father of information architecture. While much of Wurman's career focused on publishing books and organizing conferences, including the now-famous TED conventions, much of his work focused on presenting information in a systematic manner. In 1976, he suggested "information architects" as a proposed solution to the increasing amounts of information which are generated in contemporary society in an often disorganized manner. Almost 40 years after this statement, there is now a growing network of specialists who participate in a non-profit organization called the Information Architecture Institute to promote this concept.