VIA Interaction

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Information Architecture: What it takes to make stuff easy to find

Building Web sites is new and does not benefit from the centuries of experience we have with other methods of storing and finding large amounts of information, such as libraries or encyclopedia.

When VIA creates an information architecture, we spend a lot of time worrying about the way content links to other content. It is hard to overestimate the value of this work, but it may be harder for clients to perceive the value of this work.

Site maps, which show the high level organization of the site, are somewhat easier to grasp. It shows the "drill down." Vannevar Bush, the influential science advisor to presidents and computing pioneer, pointed it out in 1945:

"When data of any sort are placed in storage, they are filed alphabetically or numerically, and information is found (when it is) by tracing it down from subclass to subclass. It can be in only one place, unless duplicates are used; one has to have rules as to which path will locate it, and the rules are cumbersome. Having found one item, moreover, one has to emerge from the system and re-enter on a new path.

"The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature."

posted by Tim Beidel at 8/30/2008 02:56:00 PM

---