Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition

Point-of-Production Architecture

Ideally, with the documentation complete, the production process would proceed smoothly in a paint-by-numbers manner and the architect could sit back and relax. In reality, you must be actively involved to make sure the architecture is implemented according to plan and to address any problems that arise. After all, no architect can anticipate everything.

Many decisions must be made during production. Are these content chunks small enough that we can group them together on one page, or should they remain on separate pages? Should we add local navigation to this section of the site? Can we shorten the label of this page? Be aware that at this stage, the answers to these questions may impact the burden on the production team as well as the usability of the web site. You need to balance the requests of your client against the sanity of the production team, the budget and timeline, and your vision for the information architecture of the web site.

You should not need to make major decisions about the architecture during production, as hopefully these have already been made. Discovery of a major flaw in the architecture at this point is an information architect’s nightmare. Fortunately, if you’ve followed the process of research, strategy, and design, this is unlikely. You have worked hard to define the mission, vision, audiences, and content for the web site. You have documented the decisions made along the way. You have resolved the top-down and bottom-up ...