9780596000356

Want to design distinctive, cohesive web sites that ""work""? This updated bestseller teaches you how to blend aesthetics and mechanics for web sites and intranets that are easy to navigate and appealing to your users, scalable and simple to maintain. Most books on web development concentrate on either the graphics or the technical issues of a site. This book focuses on the framework that holds the two together.

Louis Rosenfeld
Lou Rosenfeld is an independent information architecture consultant. He has been instrumental in helping establish the field of information architecture, and in articulating the role and value of librarianship within the field. Lou played a leading role in organizing and programming the first three information architecture conferences (both ASIS&T Summits and IA 2000). He also presents and moderates at such venues as CHI, COMDEX, Intranets, and the web design conferences produced by Miller Freeman, C|net and Thunder Lizard. He teaches tutorials as part of the Nielsen Norman Group User Experience Conference.
Peter Morville
Peter Morville is President and Founder of Semantic Studios, a leading information architecture and knowledge management consulting firm. From 1994 to 2001, Peter was Chief Executive Officer and a co-owner of Argus Associates, a pioneering information architecture design firm with world-class clients including 3Com, AT&T, Compaq, Ernst & Young, Ford, IBM, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, and the Weather Channel. He also served as Executive Director of the ACIA. Over the past 8 years, Peter has written and spoken extensively about information architecture, business strategy, and knowledge management. He has been interviewed by Business Week, Knowledge Management magazine, MSNBC, and the Wall Street Journal.

Foreword

xiii

Preface

xv

Part I. Introducing Information Architecture

Defining Information Architecture

3

(13)

A Definition

4

(2)

Tablets, Scrolls, Books, and Libraries

6

(2)

Explaining IA to Others

8

(1)

What Isn't Information Architecture?

9

(2)

Why Information Architecture Matters

11

(1)

Bringing Our Work to Life

12

(4)

Practicing Information Architecture

16

(12)

Do We Need Information Architects?

17

(1)

Who's Qualified to Practice Information Architecture?

18

(4)

Information Architecture Specialists

22

(1)

Practicing Information Architecture in the Real World

23

(1)

Information Ecologies

24

(3)

What Lies Ahead

27

(1)

User Needs and Behaviors

28

(11)

The ``Too-Simple'' Information Model

29

(1)

Information Needs

30

(2)

Information Seeking Behaviors

32

(7)

Part II. Basic Principles of Information Architecture

The Anatomy of an Information Architecture

39

(11)

Visualizing Information Architecture

39

(7)

Information Architecture Components

46

(4)

Organization Systems

50

(26)

Challenges of Organizing Information

50

(5)

Organizing Web Sites and Intranets

55

(1)

Organization Schemes

55

(9)

Organization Structures

64

(10)

Creating Cohesive Organization Systems

74

(2)

Labeling Systems

76

(30)

Why You Should Care About Labeling

77

(3)

Varieties of Labels

80

(12)

Designing Labels

92

(14)

Navigation Systems

106

(26)

Types of Navigation Systems

107

(1)

Gray Matters

108

(1)

Browser Navigation Features

108

(2)

Building Context

110

(1)

Improving Flexibility

111

(1)

Embedded Navigation Systems

112

(9)

Supplemental Navigation Systems

121

(6)

Advanced Navigation Approaches

127

(5)

Search Systems

132

(44)

Does Your Site Need Search?

132

(3)

Basic Search System Anatomy

135

(2)

Choosing What to Search

137

(7)

Search Algorithms

144

(5)

Presenting Results

149

(14)

Designing the Search Interface

163

(11)

Where to Learn More

174

(2)

Thesauri, Controlled Vocabularies, and Metadata

176

(35)

Metadata

176

(1)

Controlled Vocabularies

177

(10)

Technical Lingo

187

(1)

A Thesaurus in Action

188

(5)

Types of Thesauri

193

(3)

Thesaurus Standards

196

(2)

Semantic Relationships

198

(2)

Preferred Terms

200

(2)

Polyhierarchy

202

(2)

Faceted Classification

204

(7)

Part III. Process and Methodology

Research

211

(32)

Process Overview

211

(2)

A Research Framework

213

(1)

Context

213

(6)

Content

219

(7)

Users

226

(4)

Participant Definition and Recruiting

230

(3)

User Research Sessions

233

(7)

In Defense of Research

240

(3)

Strategy

243

(27)

What Is an Information Architecture Strategy?

244

(1)

Strategies Under Attack

245

(2)

From Research to Strategy

247

(1)

Developing the Strategy

248

(4)

Work Products and Deliverables

252

(5)

The Strategy Report

257

(10)

The Project Plan

267

(1)

Presentations

267

(3)

Design and Documentation

270

(37)

Guidelines for Diagramming an Information Architecture

271

(1)

Blueprints

272

(11)

Wireframes

283

(6)

Content Mapping and Inventory

289

(4)

Content Modeling

293

(5)

Controlled Vocabularies

298

(2)

Design Sketches

300

(1)

Web-Based Prototypes

301

(1)

Architecture Style Guides

302

(1)

Point-of-Production Architecture

303

(1)

Administration

304

(3)

Part IV. Information Architecture in Practice

Education

307

(4)

Chaos in Education

307

(1)

A World of Choice

308

(1)

But Do I Need a Degree?

309

(2)

Ethics

311

(4)

Ethical Considerations

311

(3)

Shaping the Future

314

(1)

Building an Information Architecture Team

315

(8)

Destructive Acts of Creation

316

(1)

Fast and Slow Layers

316

(2)

Project Versus Program

318

(1)

Buy or Rent

319

(1)

Do We Really Need to Hire Professionals?

320

(1)

The Dream Team

321

(2)

Tools and Software

323

(10)

A Time of Change

323

(1)

Categories in Chaos

324

(6)

Questions to Ask

330

(3)

Part V. Information Architecture in the Organization

Making the Case for Information Architecture

333

(13)

You Must Sell

333

(1)

The Two Kinds of People in the World

334

(1)

Running the Numbers

334

(5)

Talking to the Reactionaries

339

(2)

Other Case-Making Techniques

341

(3)

The Information Architecture Value Checklist

344

(1)

A Final Note

345

(1)

Business Strategy

346

(14)

The Origins of Strategy

347

(1)

Defining Business Strategy

348

(2)

Strategic Fit

350

(2)

Exposing Gaps in Business Strategy

352

(1)

One Best Way

353

(1)

Many Good Ways

353

(2)

Understanding Our Elephant

355

(2)

Competitive Advantage

357

(1)

The End of the Beginning

358

(2)

Information Architecture for the Enterprise

360

(23)

Economies Don't Always Scale

361

(1)

``Think Different''

362

(1)

The Ultimate Goal

363

(3)

A Framework for Centralization

366

(5)

Timing Is Everything: A Phased Rollout

371

(5)

Strategy Versus Tactics: Who Does What

376

(3)

A Framework for Moving Forward

379

(4)

Part VI. Case Studies

MSWeb: An Enterprise Intranet

383

(30)

Challenges for the User

383

(2)

Challenges for the Information Architect

385

(1)

We Like Taxonomies, Whatever They Are

386

(21)

Benefits to Users

407

(4)

What's Next

411

(1)

MSWeb's Achievement

412

(1)

evolt.org: An Online Community

413

(16)

evolt.org in a Nutshell

414

(1)

Architecting an Online Community

414

(1)

The Participation Economy

415

(10)

How Information Architecture Fits In

425

(1)

Trouble Spots for Online Communities

425

(3)

The ``Un-Information Architecture''

428

(1)

Appendix: Essential Resources

429

(12)

Index

441

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web : Designing Large-Scale Web Sites

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web : Designing Large-Scale Web Sites

0596000359

Summary

Author Biography

Louis Rosenfeld

Peter Morville

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials