Chapter 2

BASIC PRINCIPLES
OF INFORMATION
ARCHITECTURE

Dr Irni Eliana Khairuddin

2
Introduction
Information Architecture is not just for websites and intranets,
and is relevant to;

■ Anything with menu: Software, web applications and mobile

applications
■ Applications that collect or process a lot of data
■ Any system that involves classification of information
■ Mobile applications

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Menus
■ Many applications, both on and off the web, use menus to
provide access to functions and tools. Menus are a perfect
example of IA – each grouping together similar functions.

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Data-heavy applications
■ The data fields of internal business applications are grouped
in sensible ways so people know what each set of fields is
about and what to do with them.

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Classifying
■ Many applications are about classifying data so people can
find and use it. For example, a document management
system usually needs you to classify each document
according to a number of criteria.

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Mobile
■ If you are designing a mobile app, you’ll need to do some IA
work. A lot of mobile apps work as a hierarchy, with menus
providing access to different parts of the application.

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A principle to guide to design
information architecture
■ The information architect’s primary focus is the structure
itself and secondarily the user interface representing the
structure on screen (I make site maps and flow charts)
■ The information architect has a good understanding of how
people want to relate to the content and functionality
contained in the structure (I’ve done my research)
■ The information architect has a good understanding of the
range of content and functionality to be supported by the
structure (I’ve inventoried the content)

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8 Principles of Information
Architecture
■ The principle of objects
– Treat content as a living, breathing thing, with a lifecycle,
behaviors and attributes.
■ The principle of choices
– Create pages that offer meaningful choices to users,
keeping the range of choices available focused on a
particular task.
■ The principle of disclosure
– Show only enough information to help people
understand what kinds of information they’ll find as they
dig deeper.

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 (cont.) 8 Principles of
Information Architecture
■ The principle of exemplars
– Describe the contents of categories by showing
examples of the contents.
■ The principle of front doors
– Assume at least half of the website’s visitors will come
through some page other than the home page.
■ The principle of multiple classification
– Offer users several different classification schemes to
browse the site’s content.

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(cont.) 8 Principles of
Information Architecture
■ The principle of focused navigation
– Don’t mix apples and oranges in your navigation
scheme.
■ The principle of growth
– Assume the content you have today is a small fraction of
the content you will have tomorrow.

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Why is it important to be
able to visualize information
architecture?
■ Many people don't believe that things exist until they can
see them.
■ The field is abstract, and many who might conceptually
understand the basic premise of information architecture
won't really "get it" until they see it and experience it.
■ A well-designed information architecture is invisible to
users (which, paradoxically, is quite an unfair reward for IA
success).

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Look at these websites:
■ https://gustavus.edu/
■ https://uitm.edu.my/index.php/en/

What can you see?

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Can you find these elements
in those websites?
■ site's visual design
– site's colors
– typeface choices
– Images
– the number of columnsand their widths changes
throughout the page
■ site's interaction design
– Mouseovers
– pull-down menus for "Go Quickly To" and search
options.

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Approaches to visualize
information architecture
■ Top-down Information Architecture
■ Bottom-up Information Architecture

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Top-down Information Architecture

■ Top-down IA uses categories to group pages and applications

throughout the site.
■ Additionally, a systematic set of labels is designed and used to
represent the site’s content.
■ In order to facilitate movement throughout the site, strategic
navigation and a search systems are tailored to the
predetermined goals and implemented.
■ Word (labels, sections, nav, etc.) choices, images, graphics,
layout, grids, placement, and other IA components are created
and arranged in methods that best anticipate users’s major
needs.
■ Site designers work hard with research to determine the most
common questions, and have designed the site to meet those
needs. 16
Top-down Information Architecture
■ Examples of top-down questions:
1. Where am I?
2. I know what I’m looking for; how do I search for it?
3. How do I get around this site?
4. What’s important and unique about this organization?
5. What’s available on this site?
6. What’s happening there?
7. Do they want my opinion about their site?
8. How can I contact a human?
9. What’s their address?

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Top-down Information Architecture

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Bottom-up Information Architecture
■ Content itself can have information architecture embedded within it.
■ By looking closely to the content, it is possible to see information
architecture even when it’s embedded in the core of the content.
■ And by supporting searching and browsing, the structure inherent in
content enables the answers to users’ questions to “rise” to the
surface.
■ Content structure, sequencing, and tagging help users answer
questions like:
– Where am I?
– What’s here?
– Where can I go from here?”

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Bottom-up Information Architecture

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Information Architecture
Components
■ Organization systems
– How we categorize information
■ Labelling systems
– How we represent information
■ Navigation systems
– How we browse or move through information
■ Searching systems
– How we search information

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Organizing System

■ Organization systems are composed of organization schemes

and organization structures (IA patterns). An organization
scheme defines the shared characteristics of content items
and influences the logical grouping of those items. An
organization structure defines the types of relationships
between content items and groups

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Organizing System
1. organization schemes
✓ An organization scheme defines the shared characteristics of
content items and influences the logical grouping of those items
1.1 Exact organization scheme
✓ alphabetical
✓ chronological
✓ geographical

1.2 Ambiguous organization scheme

✓ topical
✓ task-oriented
✓ audience specific
✓ metaphor-driven

1.3 Hybrid scheme

Organizing System
1. organization schemes
✓ An organization scheme defines the shared characteristics of
content items and influences the logical grouping of those items
1.1 Exact organization scheme
✓ alphabetical
✓ chronological
✓ geographical

1.2 Ambiguous organization scheme

✓ topical
✓ task-oriented
✓ audience specific
✓ metaphor-driven

1.3 Hybrid scheme

Organizing System
Exact organization scheme
✓ require the user to know the specific name of the resource they are looking for.
o Alphabetical
An alphabetical organization scheme is the primary organization scheme
for encyclopedias and dictionaries. Almost all nonfiction books, including
this one, provide an alphabetical index.
Organizing System
o Chronological
Certain types of information lend themselves to chronological organization.
For example, an archive of press releases might be organized by the date of
release
Organizing System
o Geographical
Place is often an important characteristic of information.
Organizing System
Ambiguous organization scheme
✓ Ambiguous organization schemes divide information into categories that
defy exact definition.
o Topical
Organizing information by subject or topic is one of the most challenging
yet useful approaches
Organizing System
o Task-oriented
Task-oriented schemes organize content and applications into a collection of
processes, functions, or tasks.
 Organizing System
o Audience-specific
In cases where there are two or more clearly definable audiences for a web site or
intranet, an audience- specific organization scheme may make sense.
 Organizing System
o Metaphor-driven
Metaphors are commonly used to help users understand the new by relating
it to the familiar.
 Organizing System
Hybrid schemes
This hybrid scheme includes elements of audience-specific, topical, metaphor-
based, and task-oriented organization schemes.
Organizing System
1. organization schemes
✓ An organization scheme defines the shared characteristics of
content items and influences the logical grouping of those items
1.1 Exact organization scheme
✓ alphabetical
✓ chronological
✓ geographical

1.2 Ambiguous organization scheme

✓ topical
✓ task-oriented
✓ audience specific
✓ metaphor-driven

1.3 Hybrid scheme

Organizing System
Exact organization scheme
✓ require the user to know the specific name of the resource they are looking for.
o Alphabetical
An alphabetical organization scheme is the primary organization scheme
for encyclopedias and dictionaries. Almost all nonfiction books, including
this one, provide an alphabetical index.
Organizing System
o Chronological
Certain types of information lend themselves to chronological organization.
For example, an archive of press releases might be organized by the date of
release
Organizing System
o Geographical
Place is often an important characteristic of information.
Organizing System
Ambiguous organization scheme
✓ Ambiguous organization schemes divide information into categories that
defy exact definition.
o Topical
Organizing information by subject or topic is one of the most challenging
yet useful approaches
Organizing System
o Task-oriented
Task-oriented schemes organize content and applications into a collection of
processes, functions, or tasks.
 Organizing System
o Audience-specific
In cases where there are two or more clearly definable audiences for a web site or
intranet, an audience- specific organization scheme may make sense.
 Organizing System
o Metaphor-driven
Metaphors are commonly used to help users understand the new by relating
it to the familiar.
 Organizing System
Hybrid schemes
This hybrid scheme includes elements of audience-specific, topical, metaphor-
based, and task-oriented organization schemes.
Labels and language
■ In all IA work, everything comes down to the words. No matter how well you
group content together or how easy it is to see on a page, the success comes
down to what you call things.
■ The words you use (labeling) and how you put it all in front of people (usually
navigation) are all deeply connected.
Characteristics of good labels

■ call things by their correct name

■ are consistent
■ use terms that your audience uses
■ are as clear as possible

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Call things by their correct name
■ One of the hardest issues you’ll come across in labelling is whether to use
‘correct’ terms or those your audience understands. Sometimes these two
things align with each other naturally.

Yoga journal shows the Sanskrit and English name side by side (yogajournal.com)
Consistent
■ When it comes to terminology, consistency is very important. You need to be
absolutely consistent within your own set of content.
■ If there’s a term everyone in your industry uses, and your audience is likely to
know it, just use it. Let people use the knowledge they’ve learned outside your
site to make life easier on your site. You can’t go wrong with simple things like
Contact us, About us and Our services.
Use terms that your audience
uses
■ You should make sure your labels are accurate for the content
they’re describing, you’ll often have plenty of room to work
within this, and many ways to describe something. When
making this decision, think about the terms your audience
knows and understands, and use these.
■ Be careful with jargon as well

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Clear as possible
■ Clear labels are obviously better than unclear labels. Here are a few
easy ways to make sure your labels are clear. Use as long a term as you
need to describe the content or idea.
■ Use words that are as concrete as possible. For example, don’t use
Small, Medium and Large if you can better describe what these labels
actually mean.
Where to get ideas for labels

■ You can get ideas for your labels from a number of places:

– Content: look at the words used in your content and the labels they
suggest.
– User research: your research will contain hundreds of words that
describe how your audience phrase ideas and concepts. Make
sure you look at your search logs – you’ll see exactly what people
are looking for.
– Card sorting: in a card sort, the last step is often for people to
provide a label describing what the group of cards is about. I often
find these labels a bit long or informal to use, but they can give you
some ideas.
– What everyone else does: look around at competitors or other
content like yours and see what other people do. If there’s a
consistent approach, you can do your users a favour and
use that.
Expect Changes
■ Finally, expect labels to change over time. As you add more content to
a site, or move things around, labels will need to change as well.
Language is subtle and slight changes in words may be needed over
time.
■ For intranet work, as organizations change the labels in common use
also change. Older employees remember and use the old labels, but
new employees will have no idea what to use. Keep on top of the
terms being used and adapt over time.
■ Keep an eye on how people are using your site – in particular, watch
search terms and see if there’s any change in the terms people are
using over time.