Information Architecture of a Website

In its essence, information architecture focuses on the organization, structure, and tagging of all web content in a productive way. Think of it as a way to figure out the most efficient, organized, and streamlined way to label and sort every component of a website or web application.

Understanding information architecture requires an understanding of the different components it is responsible for sorting, as well as how all of these components relate to one another and serve as part of the bigger whole.

Purpose of Information Architecture

Think of the information architecture of a website just as you would think of the architecture of a building. Understanding a building’s architecture can help you understand where you are in the building, what is around you, and what you can and can’t expect to find in other parts of the building.

The information architecture of a website is much the same thing. It is an organized blueprint of where a user has been, where they can go, and what they can expect to see on other parts of the website.

All the Details

Information Architecture has the ability to create, store, organize, label, and easily find any kind of information. There are four key factors to information architecture on websites that should be remembered:

• Labeling Systems
• Navigation Systems
• Search Systems
• Organization Structures

Understanding the importance of those components can help you remember the main philosophy of information architecture, which can be labeled as C.C.U.: Context, Content, and Users. Context involves the meat of the website or application – what are the goals, messages, culture standards, and resources of the site? Content relates to the types of data, who owns the data, who governs the data, and what volume the data has reached. Users relate to anything involving the end user – what is their behavior? What is their experience? What are their needs?

Subcategories

There are a few sub-specialties of information architectures that can be accessed if need be. There are niches that contain a certain discipline or area of focus that an information architecture system can use to sort and prioritize that information as needed.

Things to Consider

There are a variety of components that make up the information architecture of a website. By keeping two major factors of this system in mind, it can be easy to further understand and implement information architecture for your specific website or web application:

• Information architecture of a website deals with all of the site’s content as well as its functionality – this means that it will handle everything from data storage and retrieval to system settings and browser compatibility.
• Information architecture of a website revolves around the creation of an organization and nomenclature structure that defines all of the relationships between the functions and content of the site or web application.

Content pieces are easily organized, labeled, and defined by their relationships to other types of content through information architectures. This essential system is like the skeleton of any website, helping to navigate and learn about its internal structures.