Book Buzz

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville; O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1998
Reviewed by Edward Piou, 1/28/1999

In their book Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville make a compelling case for the importance of information architects, web team members who are primarily concerned with "what [a] site will actually be, and how it will work." At first, their description of an information architect's job seems close to that of a project manager. For example, they say that the information architect's job includes:

• defining a web site's mission, and
• determining what information and services will be on the site

• determining how users will find information on the site, and
• planning for future change and growth in the site

The first part of the book examines the components that make up a sound information architecture: the organization, navigation, labeling, and searching systems. The authors are very thorough in conveying the importance of each component. Through both theory and practical examples, they show how the choices you make in these areas can help or hinder your users' attempts to get the information they need.

From this part of the book, readers will learn how to think about web sites as collections of useful "things" - information and services - that are interrelated, and whose relationships need to be made clear to users. The message here is that the technical and aesthetic aspects of a site are subservient to the primary purpose, making these "things" easy to find and use. Leaving aside entertainment and experimental sites, the authors are correct: it's not the elegance of the programming code, or the perfect color schemes of a set of graphics, that are ultimately important. It's the information these things help to convey. And seeing how these librarians-turned-web experts think will help you convey your information effectively.

The second part of the book deals with the process of building an information architecture - gathering information, coming up with preliminary designs for a site's structure, and finally implementing the architecture. While tight deadlines and limited budgets can make it hard to use all of the authors' suggestions - brainstorming meetings, user testing, document mapping, etc. - not using them can lead to wasted time and money later in the game. Without a solid foundation informed by extensive research and planning, a large site can become very difficult to maintain and expand.

It was in this second part of the book, especially, that the principles of information architecture started sounding like the principles of object-oriented design. Rather than a "poor man's version" of application design, though, I would call this book a good mapping of programming principles to the realm of web sites. Because of this, non-technical developers who read this book may find themselves understanding their programmer teammates a little better. And programmers may find themselves better able to communicate the way they think about data and structure to their teammates, given the non-technical jargon the authors use here.

This book, as thin as it is (less than 200 pages), provides much food for thought concerning information delivery. It may not convince you to hire or designate an information architect on your next project. But if you take the lessons here seriously, you should be able to build a more effective web site. As far as I can tell, this is the first book that everyone who does hands-on web work should have on their reference shelf, whatever their specialty may be.

Have you read this book? Do you think it's really that good?

(Full disclosure: the reviewer worked briefly on a web project with the authors in 1997. But it's not like they're drinking buddies or anything...)