Information Architecture

Assignment NO:1
Khwaja Umair Subhani
Definitions of information architecture
1. A websites (or intranets) information architecture has two main components:

identification and definition of site content/functionality

the underlying organization, structure and nomenclature that define the

relationships between a sites content/functionality

Reference: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ia-vs-navigation/

2. Organising functionality and content into a structure that people are able to
navigate intuitively doesnt happen by chance. Organisations must recognise the
importance of information architecture or else they run the risk of creating great
content and functionality that no one can ever find.
Reference: http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_whatisinfoarch/
3. An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design
and architecture to the digital landscape.
a. The structural design of shared information environments.
b. The art and science of organizing and labelling web sites, intranets, online
communities and software to support usability and findability.
c. An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design
and architecture to the digital landscape.
Reference: www.webopedia.com

4. I dont think in terms of wireframes I dont think in terms of Information

Architecture, I think in terms of understanding. Im interested in understanding
things that interest me and I am interested in the systemic rigger of being able
to explain. Im interested in communicating with another human being ...and I
am doing it with rigor and responsibility, and that is what information
architecture is. Its not the modality, not the particular technology its just
making yourself understandable.
Richard Saul Wurman, IA Summit 2010
5. An information architect is an individual who works to make information
attractive and accessible to an audience. This type of role can include elements
of technical writing or written format creation, as well as graphic design and Web
development. Generally, information architecture means developing a better
presentation for given data through attention to a digital landscape.
Reference: Information architecture Institute

In first two definitions there are two main things are discussed while creating a
website. First one is related to content of the website .It means it should define
clearly the main purpose of the site and its contents. Either it is fulfilling the
purpose of creating it completely or not. One should gather and put all required
information in the website which makes or creates the sense of completeness to its
user and the 2nd most important thing is that the contents of this website should
be well organized and structured that makes a very clear relationship among them.

Third definition states that Information architecture is a mixture of science and arts
in which we use the principles of design in creating websites to make it informative
and attractive to its users while in def 4 Richard Saul Wurman say that IA means to

make websites or applications should be self-explanatory and interactive which

creates interest and faith with its contents to its users and make the contents easier
to understand and definition 5 also define it in the same way but enhancing the
feature of graphical designing and better presentation of data in the website.

Good Example of IA
1. W3schools
www.w3schools.com
W3schools is a very popular website among the IT students. The website show its
purpose at first look. Navigation bar guide user what he/she has to do or where
he/she has to go for learning. Each tutorial has bullet instead of lesson no 1, 2.
W3school is really interesting for new IT students. 1.5 Billion Pages Displayed Last
Year and 40 Million Monthly Visitors. W3school is the Largest Web Developers Site
on the Internet.[1]

2. Momondo
http://www.momondo.co.uk/
momondo.co.uk is a free, autonomous global travel site and it compares billions of
cheap flights, hotels and car on rent. momondo is a search engine for travellers. It is
not a travel agency. In Momondo user can see the graphical representation of prices
for the whole one month. So user can change by viewing the chart. Users inbound
and outbound to get the cheapest fare. It shows three categories cheapest, quickest
and best. It is awarded the best search engine with the greatest coverage and speed
by CNN. At first look user can know what he/she has to do.

3. Lynda
http://www.lynda.com/default.aspx
Lynda is provide online premium tutorial of different level of their users which helps
IT students, business and architecture students. Lynda is also providing language
courses. lynda has a well Information architecture in itself. Design of Lynda is

intuitive and usable for their premium users. User can search courses by category
and can select level. Before paying the course fee they can view small information
about course and every lecture.

Bad Examples
1. Gatesnfence
http://www.gatesnfences.com/
gatesnfence is in Miami Florida. This site is about the industry and provide
information about their client and product they are making in it. Website does not
have any IA. Its really hard to read something from the website :(. No alignment of
text. Colour and size of text is unreadable of user. There is no logo on left side, and
navigation is on left of the main body which is also unreadable and ugly.

2. Mrbottles
http://www.mrbottles.com/
mrbottles is AHHHHH .. Websites style is looks like 1990, s. during my IT
experience I never have been seen this kind of website. There is no information
Architecture in this website. They use different bottles as a menu buttons. Actually
idea is cool but it looks unprofessional website. Website is about bottles that they
have or producing. They also provide information about events to their client.
mrbottles has a gallery of bottles and provide information about bottles and their
design.

3. Petersbuss
http://www.petersbuss.se/
What? I dont believe this site is belongs from Tallinn. Because this site is in Estonian
language so I could not able to know the purpose of this site. But the website is so
ugly and you can see there is no IA in this site, no navigation bar and pictures are
not in grid and even not in table form. The information or contents from this sites

is uncomfortable to read. From Images i can imagine the site is provide information
of hotels, busses, SPA in Tallinn.

Company
I chose a travelling agency which name is 7skytravel. The company books ticket for
their client, and provide cheaper rate than other online booking websites. 7skytravel
support their clients through calls and helps and facilitate their clients. I will make
booking mobile app, well-structured website for them.