97 Things Every UX Practitioner Should Know

Chapter 17. Don’t Forget About Information Architecture

Joe Sokohl

A few years back, my wife and I wanted to clean up our utterly disarrayed basement. Our neighbor, a professional organizer, helped us organize 30 years of accumulation. Her succinct process of physical organization reminded me what information architecture truly is.

“Put like with like. Decide what to retain versus what to trash or donate. Then label and store items based on how you live,” she said.

That’s what information architecture (IA) does: it organizes and classifies digital stuff so people can find and use it. Though IA has existed as a field for well over 20 years, lately it has taken a back seat to other aspects of UX such as UI, content strategy, and interaction design. However, IA continues to be an important piece of the UX puzzle.

Like all other aspects of UX, IA starts with understanding the user and their context. User research resides at the core of IA. As we look at how people use information, we observe their behavior, both in seeking information and in storing it. How people engage with information is similar to how humans have engaged with their environment for eons. “Information berry picking” illustrates how a person goes from one information repository to another, finding information that helps them form a sense of meaning or place. “Information foraging” extends the metaphor, indicating ...