Part I. Introducing Information Architecture
1. The Problems That Information Architecture Addresses. . . . . . . . . . . 3
Hello, iTunes 6
The Problems Information Architecture Addresses 10
Enter Information Architecture 16
Recap 22
2. Defining Information Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Definitions 24
Just Because You Can’t See It, Doesn’t Mean It Isn’t There 26
Toward a Damned Good Information Architecture 31
Recap 38
3. Design for Finding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The “Too-Simple” Information Model 40
Information Needs 42
Information-Seeking Behaviors 46
Learning About Information Needs and Information-
Seeking Behaviors 49
Recap 50
4. Design for Understanding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
A Sense of Place 54
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The Architecture of (Real-World) Places 55
Places Made of Information 56
Organizing Principles 59
Structure and Order 60
Typologies 63
Modularity and Extensibility 67
The Happiest Place(s) on Earth 69
Recap 75
Part II. Basic Principles of Information Architecture
5. The Anatomy of an Information Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Visualizing Information Architecture 80
Top-Down Information Architecture 83
Bottom-Up Information Architecture 85
Invisible Information Architecture 88
Information Architecture Components 90
Recap 95
6. Organization Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Challenges of Organizing Information 98
Organizing Information Environments 103
Organization Schemes 104
Organization Structures 116
Social Classification 127
Creating Cohesive Organization Systems 129
Recap 130
7. Labeling Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Why You Should Care About Labeling 134
Varieties of Labels 140
Labels as Headings 144
Designing Labels 153
Recap 173
8. Navigation Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Types of Navigation Systems 176
Gray Matters 177
Browser Navigation Features 178
Placemaking 179
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Improving Flexibility 182
Embedded Navigation Systems 183
Supplemental Navigation Systems 193
Advanced Navigation Approaches 202
Recap 208
9. Search Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Does Your Product Need Search? 212
Search System Anatomy 216
Choosing What to Index 218
Search Algorithms 227
Query Builders 232
Presenting Results 233
Designing the Search Interface 252
Where to Learn More 266
Recap 267
10. Thesauri, Controlled Vocabularies, and Metadata. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Metadata 270
Controlled Vocabularies 271
Technical Lingo 283
A Thesaurus in Action 285
Types of Thesauri 290
Thesaurus Standards 293
Semantic Relationships 295
Preferred Terms 298
Polyhierarchy 301
Faceted Classification 303
Recap 308
Part III. Getting Information Architecture Done
11. Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
A Research Framework 315
Context 316
Content 323
Users 333
Participant Definition and Recruiting 338
User Research Sessions 341
In Defense of Research 349
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Recap 353
12. Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
What Is an Information Architecture Strategy? 356
Strategies Under Attack 358
From Research to Strategy 360
Developing the Strategy 361
Work Products and Deliverables 367
The Strategy Report 373
The Project Plan 385
Presentations 386
Recap 388
13. Design and Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Guidelines for Diagramming an Information Architecture 391
Communicating Visually 393
Sitemaps 394
Wireframes 407
Content Mapping and Inventory 414
Content Models 421
Controlled Vocabularies 428
Design Collaboration 431
Putting It All Together: Information Architecture Style
Guides 435
Recap 438
Coda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
A. References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
