Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web

All web sites have an architecture, whether you design one or not-just as every building has an architecture, from the lowly shanty by the railroad track to Chicago¿s tallest skyscraper. Unfortunately, most web sites are shanties, not skyscrapers. Companies that hastily threw up a web site in the dot-com boom days were visited by building inspector Jakob Neilsen, who told them their site should be condemned. But now we are entering a time of rebuilding, and we¿ve got a chance to get it right.

Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web introduces the core concepts of information architecture: organizing web site content so that it can be found, designing web site interaction so that it's pleasant to use, and creating an interface that is easy to understand. This book will help designers, project managers, programmers, and other information architecture practitioners avoid the costly mistakes of the past by teaching the skills of information architecture swiftly and clearly. Use this book and you will pass the usability inspection with flying colors!

Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, Second Edition introduces the core concepts of information architecture: organizing web site content so that it can be found, designing website interaction so that it's pleasant to use, and creating an interface that is easy to understand. This book helps designers, project managers, programmers, and other information architecture practitioners avoid costly mistakes by teaching the skills of information architecture swiftly and clearly.

Christina Wodtke has been an information architect for four years and is a leader in the growing field of information architecture. She founded Boxes and Arrows, an online magazine of information architecture; chaired the fourth annual ASIS&T summit on information architecture; and has spoken on the topic of information architecture at conferences ranging from Seybold to Web World.

Christina is a partner at Carbon IQ, a user-experience agency in San Francisco, where she designs information architectures and conducts user research in the quest to create more usable, effective, and profitable products. Clients have included Shockwave.com, Wells Fargo, Sprite, and Houghton Mifflin, as well as nonprofits such as BraveKids.org and UrbanSchool.org.

1. First Principles

2. Balancing Acts–Users, Technology,  and Business

3. Sock Drawers and CD Racks–Everything Must Be Organized

4. A Bricklayer's View of Information Architecture

5. Search and Ye Shall Find

6. From A to C by Way of B

7.  From Box to Page

8. The Tao of Navigation

9. Architecting Social Spaces

10.  All Together Now

11. And in the End

Index