Information Architecture

Creating web sites is like constructing a building.  It encompasses everything from the core materials to the eye-catching design and all the detailed work that's done in between to accomplish the goals of the structure and the needs of those who will use it.

I have friends who work in this profession.  I will admit there are times I thought "oh yeah, such hard work - right. You make sure the we page looks like a web page and you make sure the colors match the company stationary and the right buzzwords are peppered throughout the site."  Well, I am wrong.  There's much more to it than that.  In fact, it take to the extreme, one might say designing a web page takes a village.  Planning, committees and standards are at play here.

IA is defined as:  "...the categorization of information into a coherent structure, preferably one that the most people can understand quickly, if not inherently. It's usually hierarchical, but can have other structures, such as concentric or even chaotic."  (Thanks, Wikipedia)

And, surprisingly, this field has some grounding in Library Science.  Librarians are adept at categorizing and organizing information.  Before I decided to enter the world or librarianship and get my MLIS I would never have thought librarians were masters as designing the structure and strategy of web pages.  Amazing!

That's all I have for this week... back I go to planning and plotting a web site...