This week I read the first two chapters of the book titled Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by authors Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld. The first chapter of the book deals with defining Information Architecture and its purpose in the world as well as explaining the basic concepts behind it. The authors of the book explain that there is no single definition for Information Architecture. They do list four definitions that have been applied to the subject. According to Moreville and Rosenfeld (2007) they are “1.The structual design of shared information invironments, 2. The combination of organization, labeling, search and navigation systems within web sites and intranet, 3. The art and science of shaping information products and experiences to support usabillity and findability, 4. An emerging disapline and community of pratice focused on bringing principals of design and architecture to the digital landscape” (p. 4). They also discuss the history of Information Architecture and its importance in terms of structure and organization of information as well as accessability to users.
In chapter 2, the authors stress the nescessity of information architects and their many different job titles such as knowledge managers and findability engineers. They can serve both big and small businesses and while there is not currently an official certification process, people with backgrounds in careers as graphic design, information & library science, journalism, marketing, computer science and architecture would do very well in the field of information architecture. They also discuss how it can be practiced in the real world, the three circles on content, context and users that make up information technology and what those in the field will haqve to face in the future. On the whole I found both of these chapters to be very illuminating and came away from the readings with a clearer picture of what exactly information architecture is and its function in the world. The authors explained it all very succiently and made the concepts and processes very easy to understand. I am very excited to learn more about this subject and being applying it in real life.
References
Morville, Peter & Rosenfeld, Louis. (2007). Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.