Chapter 12
Design and Documentation
Crossing the bridge from research and strategy into design, the landscape shifts quite dramatically. The emphasis moves
from process to deliverables, as your clients and colleagues expect you to move from thinking and talking to actually
producing a clear, well-defined information architecture.
Guidelines for Diagramming an information Architecture
Architectures as we’ve mentioned many times, are abstract conceptual things. Sites themselves are not finite, often you can’t
tell where one ends and the other begins. Subsites and the ‘invisible web’ of databases further muddy the picture of what
should and shouldn’t be included in a specific architecture.
Communicating Visually-diagrams are useful communicating the two basic aspects of an information system’s structural elements.
Content components-how those components should be grouped and sequenced.
Connections between content components-components are linked to enable navigating between them.
Blueprints-show the relationships between pages and other content components and can be used to portray
organization, navigation, and labeling systems.
Wireframes-forces the architect to consider such issues as where the navigation systems might be located on a page.
Content Models-are micro information architectures made up of small chunks of interconnected content.
Content models support the critical missing piece in so many sites.
Controlled vocabularies-there are two primary types of work products associated with the development of controlled
vocabularies. First, you’ll need metadata matrixes that facilitate discussion about the prioritization of vocabularies.
Chapter 13
Education
Transition in Education-a variety of education programs has been tested by the evolutionary pressures of the
market. Only those programs that add value have survived. The independent forces of supply and demand have moved toward equilibrium.
A Word of Choice-freedom of consumers to choose what they want.
1. Experience
2. Apprenticeship
3. Formal education
4. Conference and seminars
5. Literature
6. Communities
7. News and opinion
But Do I Need a Degree
You don’t need a specialized degree to become an information architect, but it helps. As our field matures and become
more competitive, the emphasis on formal educational credentials grows more pronounced.
The State of the Field-Architecture educators and practitioners to get a clear shapshot of this fast-changing environment.
Websites
http://www.net.vg/media7/index.html
This site provided a high-level strategy of metadata schema used by graphic designer and
tagging documents.
http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000030.php
This site provided a strong content of identification and management that was used for labeling and
and navigation.