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InformationArchiTECH Archives - 8/2005

Richard Wurman once described information as an impending tsunami advancing upon our shores. And yet a tsunami is nothing but a re-ordered sea. What really concerns us is not only the frightfulness of the storm, but the size of the ocean from which it's power is drawn. We are not so much drowing in information as we are gazing upon its vastness with slack-jawed wonder, our eyes searching the horizon in the distance for where, if anywhere, another shore can be found.

The ultimate problem of information cannot be confined to a single area, a particular industry or body of company data. More and more, the problem of information has become an issue of mapping, with the ultimate goal of instant and infinite mobility. Here, on this shore, you have a person in need of information. There, just beyond the horizon, you have the information. In between these two shores is an angry sea of restless, and growing irrelevance. But just how wide is this sea?

All too many information architects have found themselves caught in a narrow chute of understanding about their role. Their informational design begins with the dangerously misinformed assumption that the user has already found his/her website or system. Information architecture is considered in terms of internal structure, very little in terms of external positioning. Where does the typical user go, after all, upon opening a browser?

A search engine. And here is where the challenge begins. No information architectural design is complete unless the findability of the structure itself is taken into consideration. We live in a world of 2 billion websites. Correspondingly, the search engine catalogues (though they describe only a slice of the total available information) are growing at an exponential rate. The real challenge of an informational architect is not simply to attractively or cleverly organize information on a website or system, but to facilitate and expedite the user's journey from oblivion (represented by the empty field of a search engine's search box) to the ultimate goal: your relevant information.

An information architect, then, is an SEO with honor. The information architect does not want swim against the tide of Google's noble mission, forcing his/her client's websites to the top rankings for any term, however irrelevant. This, after all, would be a disservice to the client, the search engine user, and the entire vision of “findability.” The philosophy of an information architect is not to drive massive amounts of traffic to a website by any means necessary, but to attract the specific target audience for which the particular product, service or information was originally intended.

The information architect's mission goes beyond that of an “honorable SEO,” however. Findability is a commitment, as has been stated, that runs the full gamut between the user and the information he/she seeks. Ideally, the IA wants the user to find the exact page on a website that relates to his/her search (the “landing page.”) Where they miss, however, an information architect should design the site in such a way that the information is easily findable, wherever the user lands.

It is here that the more commonly understood and discussed aspects of information architecture come into play—i.e. the “user experience.” Specifically, information architects should be familiar with search technology, category management, metadata, graphic design/layout and link structure. These and other tools should be visibly available to the user and allow for quick access to any information contained within the boundaries of the website.

How wide is the sea? As wide as the distance between you and the information you seek. And if you haven't guessed it by now, the sea is getting wider every day. As this natural process continues to unfold, information architects will become in greater demand by those who wish to part this sea, create an easy and obvious pathway, or to use Wurman's phrase, “making the complicated clear,” from this shore to the next...