“What is an Information Architect?”
Over the years, this is the summary I’ve come up with:
I’m an information architect, which means I structure web pages and determine the way users travel through websites. This is in many ways similar to an architect designing a house; the architect talks to the client, then through many revisions develops a blueprint, a very technical map of how the house should come together. The architect then works with the builder, the other contractors, and sometimes an interior designer to help get that house built, all the while making sure it fits the client’s original specifications. This means a lot of revisions to the blueprint, and a lot of jigsawing different requirements together. The architect also has to keep an eye on very basic things like making sure doors have enough room to open, or ensuring there’s not a weird hollow space tucked in behind a bathroom — you know, stuff that the client isn’t necessarily thinking of when she requests floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room and a walk-out balcony off the main bedroom.
This combination of creativity, organization and nit-picking is exactly what an Information Architect does for websites.
The IA sits down with the client and discuss their goals for the site. Then you go away and start working on blueprints — which in the IA world are called “wireframes”. Here’s an example of a basic wireframe:
It’s an outline of a page, with notations made in the margins to define objects or indicate conditional operations. As you’re developing a wireframe, it’s best to not just talk with the client but also loop in someone on their tech team — that way you don’t spend ages designing an interaction, only to hear later that the system won’t support it.
Once the wireframe has been approved by the client, then you enter cycles of revision with tech. This is just like an architect meeting with the builder, and both blueprints and wireframes get revised heavily during this cycle. The final stage is meeting with a designer, who determines the look and feel of wireframes, turning them from plain black-and-white boxes into something that actually looks like the websites you visit every day.
That’s the core of Information Architecture, but other tasks include user testing, persona development, research, taxonomy, sometimes a spot of business analysis. But overall, our job is to make sure that the everyday visitor to a website has a stress-free, intuitive experience, and that everyone from client to developer to designer turn out a site we’re all happy to host.