Information Architecture Book Review

A lot of people think they know exactly Information Architecture is, but the truth is that a lot of people don’t know and they are not even aware that they don’t know (aka second level incompetence).

To make sure I wasn’t a member of the later group, I recently read Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web (2nd Edition) by Christina Wodtke and Austin Govella.

Wodkte and Govella do a good job in outlining their definition of the basic principles of IA:
- Design for Wayfinding
- Set expectations and provide feedback
- Design ergonomically
- Be consistent / consider standards
- Provide error support (Prevent, Protect, and Inform)
- Rely on Recognition rather than on recall
- Provide for people of varying skill levels
- Provide contextual help and documentation

While the illustrations that drive home the subject matter can be a little clipart-ish at times, the concepts are presented in a non-technical and non-jargon based way. Each topic is explained clearly using an outline / numbered bullet format to ensure that each section can be clearly understood independently and collectively. Items such as ‘Who are the users?’ may seem trivial at first, but imagine how many interpretations of ‘The users are...’ exists within an organization and the problems that arise when the user begins to morph throughout the product lifecycle to satisfy everyone's argument. Wodtke and Govella decompose several non-obvious items such as persona creation and navigational types (structural, associative, and utility) into chunks that are comprehensible (Hrair Limit). I was genuinely surprised to find a section for Social Architecture which exposed me to topics such as Kurt Lewin’s formula for understanding human behavior and the elements of social architecture: identity + elements, relationships + elements, and activity + elements.

The book can be read from cover to cover, if time permits. However, most of the world will probably use this book as a reference guide for completing IA related tasks as they arise. I would strongly recommend that all aspiring and current IAs give the book a once over to spawn new thoughts about the discipline or to renew the interest in keeping things usable and findable.