Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition

Exposing Gaps in Business Strategy

Information architectures should solve problems and answer questions. Consequently, information architects must find problems and ask questions. In our quest to understand how context, users, and content all fit together, we often expose serious inconsistencies and gaps within business strategy, particularly in how it relates to the web environment.

In many cases, the problems are fixable. A company known for excellent customer service has neglected to integrate customer support into its web site. Or a widely respected online bookstore risks violating its customers’ trust by secretly featuring search results for publishers who pay a fee. In a healthy organization, the architect can raise these issues and get them resolved.

In other cases, the problems are symptoms of an organization in real trouble. Consider the following examples, with names omitted to protect the guilty.

• A Global 500 company has recently been through a large merger. The U.S. division has a formal, centrally managed, top-down corporate intranet. The European division has several decentralized, informal, bottom-up departmental intranets. Stakeholders on opposite sides of the Atlantic have very different goals and ideas for their intranets. The plan? Design a single integrated intranet to foster the sense of a single, unified company. The reality? Two disparate cultures clashing on a global scale. The tail of information architecture can’t wag this dog.

• A Fortune 100 company decides ...