Starting a blog post with a definition of the topic to be discussed makes me feel rather like the captain of a school debating society. However, I've struggled to find a better introduction to the question of "What is information architecture?" than the definition provided by the Information Architecture Institute.
We define information architecture as the art and science of organizing and labeling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability.
Or as someone once put it to me: "You just draw boxes, don't you?".
Information architecture isn't just about drawing boxes. However, making wireframes, the blueprints of a digital design, are a large part of it. An IA might also produce a taxonomy of how content and products on a site should be classified, or a prototype illustrating how the information should change on screen as a user progresses through a task.
These solutions will be arrived at by research. This can take the form of competitor analysis, reading academic papers on human/computer interaction, or testing ideas on real users. At The Guardian, for example, we invited some users into our office to try out our iPhone app at an early stage of development. We filmed them using the application for the first time, and tested whether they could understand and make use of the functionality that was on offer.
A classic way to sum up information architecture is an image that appeared in 'the polar bear book' - "Information Architecture for the World Wide Web" by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville. Their Venn diagram placed IA at the intersection of content, users and context of use.
In the end, however you try and define it, information architecture boils down to consciously organising the content and flow of a website, based on some principles that can be articulated, that have been derived through evidence gathering.
At a micro level this can mean deciding that products on a search page should be ordered by price rather than by name. On a larger scale it could be reorganising the content on a site to support some clear tasks that users want to perform. On a strategic level, an information architect might get involved in determining the way that articles and metadata are placed into a content management system.
Information architecture is just one component in an emerging field known as user experience design. This recognises that a good digital service isn't just about functionality. It is about how people feel as they use a digital service, and about the way it does things, not just what it does.
Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting a look at what information architecture means specifically in the context of a news website like guardian.co.uk, and giving a more detailed view of the wireframes and research process that went into the design of the World Government Data section of the Data Store.
If you'd like to read more about IA, you can find a regular stream of excellent articles at Boxes and Arrows or in the 'user science' section of A List Apart. You can also watch a selection of videos on the topic on the IATV blog.