Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition

Trouble Spots for Online Communities

Of course, this isn’t to say that evolt.org’s information architecture couldn’t be improved. Like any information architecture organically developed by a geographically disparate community, evolt.org’s silos could be better integrated from the bottom up. And certain areas of the site haven’t yet found an “economic model” to ensure their survival.

Cracking the Nut of Integration

evolt.org’s information architecture features some major silos:

• Discussion lists and their respective archives

• Tips and their archive

• Articles

• The member directory

• The web development resource directory

• The Browser Archive

• The developmental area (m.e.o.)

These are reasonably well integrated. For example, articles and tips link to their author’s entries in the member directory; additionally, articles embed biographical content directly in the page. Tips are ingenious in that they are created specifically to be used again and again, either by being read on the fly or accessed from the tips archive.

On the other hand, there are additional opportunities for further bottom-up integration. For example, the discussion list postings don’t link to their authors’ entries in the member directory, and vice versa. The discussion postings are an incredibly rich resource, but it’s a bit of a hassle to find out who’s responsible for them; you’d need to go to the evolt.org site, log in, and search the member directory to find out the source of that brilliant posting. Threads aren’t treated as ...