Week Twelve | Part One

Why IA?

"Information architecture (also known as IA) is the foundation for great Web design. It is the blueprint upon which all components of a site are built.

"Initiating the IA process is the first thing you should do when designing a site. Clients sometimes view the development of an IA to be impractical, both in terms of the time it takes and the skill needed to do it effectively. But this mentality is slowly changing. A good IA is incredibly effective, and knowing the basics of the IA process can save both time and money in the long run. Also, you don't need to be an expert to use it to your advantage." - John Shiple

This PowerPoint show by Jesse Garret provides a nice introduction to Information Architecture.

Taxonomy

Taxonomy --- the science of classification --- is a term that refers to the relationship of units (known as taxa) in either parent-child hierarchies or network structures.

This scheme is the basis of Darwin's theory on the evolution of species, organizational charts used by governments and corporations to explain lines of reporting and business functions, flow charts that display the processes of a computer program, a cake baking recipe, a Web site directory, your family tree, and the Dewey Decimal System.

At the beginning of the structure is the root node. Nodes beyond the root are more specific classifications of the root node object.

One example familiar to most of you is the classification of living organisms:

Kingdom > Phylum > Class > Order > Family > Genus > Species

This system catagorizes life from a general (or global) group to a specific (or local) instance.

Another example is the Document Object Model used in Web coding. The DOM shows the parent-child or parent-child-sibling relationships that exist within the code that is used to create a Web page:

Looking at a properly coded Web page, you see that the parent object of all markup on a Web page is the Document Node. The HTML Node and Document Type Definition are child objects of the Document Node, and are the parent objects of all content presented on a Web page.

Taxonomy is the basis of all good Web design and usability ... and that is just the beginning!

Please go to Week Twelve Part 2 ».