“1. Build brand integrity: One of the things I love to hate about traditional agencies is the degree to which they misunderstand brand. Landor defines brand as, ‘The sum of all the characteristics, tangible and intangible, that make the offer unique.’ Itís a definition so broad as to be nearly meaningless, which leaves room for agencies to overlook the most important component, a customerís interaction with the offering…”

“The Visio stencils on this page are free for downloading and using. They are designed to aid the work of Information Architects. In short, they are not for everyone, you may want to familiarize yourself with common IA practices before trying to use these stencils.”

“Many jobs that before were only performed in established economies ñ including white collar jobs ñ are moving to transitional economies: from Western Europe to Eastern Europe, from North America to Asia. Alternately called ‘outsourcing’ or ‘offshoring’ this trend is accelerating faster than most of us realize.”

“For information, there are 7. For interfaces, there are at least 4, identified on a mailing list: Things, Tasks, Tools, and Time. Can you think of others?”

“What do we really know about information architecture? Do we know what works? Can we defend our designs? Are we improving? In preparing for my upcoming seminars, I revisited the role of research in the design process, and surveyed the literature most relevant to the practice of information architecture. It was hard work. When it comes to information architecture research, the knowledge environment is highly fragmented. But I was able to extract a few gems and gain some new insights.”

“Victor works as an advisor to organization leaders, as well as being an active designer and writer. He has designed over 30 digital products working within companies and as a consultant. He has managed both technical and design teams.”

“Just finished a brief heuristic evaluation of a client site, basing part of my feedback on a set of questions that I find quite useful for just about every IA-related project. Every information architect should always have a set of favorite questions in their back pocket; they really do come in handy.”

“This weekend retreat is an opportunity for IAs from around the globe to come together in an informal and beautiful setting to discuss and share ideas about the future of Information Architecture. Where are we heading? What is the career path for an IA? What is on the horizon for the next 5 years and how do we plan to approach it?”

“A colleague recently told me that one of the biggest challenges that she and other in-house information architects face is earning management’s trust. Initially this shocked me, but when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. There are the standard reasons–staff may be the legacy of a previous manager, there may be personality issues, whatever. But information architects also face some unique challenges: we are a newish and oddly-named profession, lacking in certification or other associated academic pedigrees, assigned to the wrong departments and working on highly abstract tasks that don’t translate into clear return on investment. What can we do about it?”

“Designers are now working on the same site for months or even years. Over time, new needs will be identified and new features will need to be added; a site needs to be flexible to change so these post-launch updates can be made quickly and easily. On the one hand, there is the need to create a design that will function effectively for the present, without regard for how and when the site may change in the future. On the other hand, there is the need to allow for change and expansion by creating an architecture that will support transformation without requiring a complete overhaul. So where can we find this balance?”

“Information architecture (or IA) is the science ó some would insist art ó of defining the structure, organization, navigation, labeling and indexing of a Website. It is the role of the information architect to decide how a site should be structured, what kind of content it should host, and how to accommodate future growth. In short, information architecture defines the backbone of a Website.”

“Peter Morville is President and Founder of Semantic Studios, a leading information architecture and user experience consulting firm. He is widely recognized as a founding father of the emerging field of information architecture, and he serves as a passionate advocate for the critical role that findability plays in defining the user experience. Peter is co-author (with Louis Rosenfeld) of the best-selling book on the subject: ‘Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.’”

“The ways of organizing information are finite. It can only be organized by location, alphabet, time, category, or hierarchy. These modes are applicable to almost any endeavorófrom your personal file cabinets to multinational corporations. They are the framework upon which annual reports, books, conversations, exhibitions, directories, conventions, and even warehouses are arranged.” (Thanks Elegant Hack

“Welcome to the IA Library. The IA Library is a selection of resources related to the field of information architecture. The collection includes articles, books, blogs, and more.”

“Card sorting is a technique that many information architects (and related professionals.) use as an input to the structure of a site or product. With so many of us using the technique, why would we need to write an article on it? While card sorting is described in a few texts and a number of sites, most descriptions are brief. There is not a definitive article that describes the technique and its variants and explains the issues to watch out for. Given the number of questions posted to discussion groups, and discussions we have had at conferences, we thought it was time to get all of the issues in one place.”