You might not have noticed, but designers and analysts who arrange other people's data have recently started calling themselves 'Information Architects'. Of course it's quite common for occupations to try enhancing their status by linguistic means [one thinks of 'refuse disposal operatives'] so maybe this new generation has come into being because of the influence of the Internet. Data manipulation in print form is a fairly traditional skill, but designing for the Web is a recent necromancy. We know that sites are being constructed at the rate of thousands a day, many without a second thought to the organisation of their content - and if they are big sites, it's all the more important that they are given clear structure and useful navigation systems.
As evangelists for this new branch of information technology, Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville argue in Information Architecture that the modern condition of information overload needs shape and organisation. The sub-title gives their subject in old-style English: 'Designing large scale web sites'. The basic arrangement of their study reflects the stages of web site construction.
They begin by explaining information architecture as a concept, then describe the process of working out appropriate labelling, searching, and navigational systems.
Their early chapters seem to be an attempt to convert readers from what they see as old-fashioned hierarchical systems towards the exploitation of hypertext. Then the second part of the book explores what they identify as the three major phases of site development:
- gathering and synthesising information
- conceptualising and defining the site
- building, testing, and launching the site
Their important starting point is a recommendation that large scale web sites should use all three types of information organisation, which they identify as hierarchical, database, and hypertext. Visitors to a site should have more than one possible route to the same piece of information. They ask some quite fundamental and interesting questions in the section on navigation, where they discuss site maps, guided tours, and the 'level of granularity' in indexes [which means 'importance and scope' to you and me].
It's worth noting the distinction they make between SEARCH and FIND [which I hadn't spotted until reading it here - and when I raised it in a web design newsgroup, neither had many others]. The meaning might vary between one piece of software and another, but basically SEARCH means 'browse the Internet looking for this item', whereas FIND means 'scan the current page'. They also offer interesting reflections on the distinction between searching and browsing:
"sometimes users won't browse for the wrong reasons; that is, they search when they don't necessarily know what to search for. Even though they would be better served by browsing, they search anyway"
They go into considerable detail on indexing and the variety of result-presentation methods on search engines, which for large scale sites is particularly important. Individual items can be arranged for different audiences, languages, products; and they can be presented by content, date, or subject:
"it's important to understand how user's information needs can vary so much, and to plan and implement your searching system's interface and search zones accordingly"
They suggest face-to-face meetings between designers and clients as an important part in the first phase of this process. At this point the discussion strays into issues of company policy and decision-making procedures, but they are right to point out that successful sites will not be based on management whims.
They even suggest web site critique sessions where the information is printed out on paper - so that attention is focussed on communication rather than connectivity. These critiques can become, on their own admission, a little touchy-feely - but the theory is that open and honest criticism will produce the best results. The rationality of all this is indisputable. What remains in question is the ideology of the commercial world. Their approach does not take into account power politics in the office. If businesses worked in such a rational manner, there would be no such thing as bankruptcy, would there?
However, there is one important advantage in their reports of professional site designing (and increasingly, as they point out, re-designing). This is that they pass on the experience of many projects, rather than just one - which offers an overview drawing on what is typical in terms of both problems and design solutions.
In the second stage of site design they take an enthusiastic line on the use of navigational metaphors (the shop, the office, the library) about which other commentators such as Barbara Fleming and Jakob Nielsen are more cautious. The argument against this approach is that the metaphor of an office or a library will not mean much to people who are not familiar with them. (The same is said for icons and symbols.) However, we might of course wonder if the sort of people navigating web sites would ever be unaccustomed with such things.
They end on the important issue (for large scale sites) of 'content chunking' - that is, the subtle skill of deciding the optimum size for any given piece of information which is to be presented as a web page:
"A content chunk is not a sentence or a paragraph or a page. Rather, it is the most finely grained portion of content that merits or requires individual treatment...One page from a print brochure does not necessarily map onto one page on the Web"
Their writing is generally clear and persuasive, though there are occasional slack patches ['pushing the envelope' and 'rise to the occasion'] and even some politically dubious thinking ['We live in the first world. They live in the third world.'] The book is well illustrated with screen shots, and has a very good bibliography which painlessly blends print and web-based information.
This is not a book for someone who has throw together a few pages and needs advice on coding and how to FTP the results to a server. It's for professional site designers and the managers of networks. It is also a contribution to design theory which, en passant, makes librarians into the heroes of the information age. Nevertheless, the valuable experience embedded within it will make useful reading for anybody organising information or designing a site which carries more than a few pictures of the wife and kids.
