Monday, April 2, 2001		Article

Making sites easy to navigate
By Sumesh Raizada

ARCHITECTURE holds an important place in the field of e-commerce where hundreds of Web sites are launched everyday by companies, institutions, universities and government organisations that try to reach the consumers in the most effective way. The success of any e-business depends upon the layout and design of its Web site. It is important for the promoter or the designer to know how the information is to be structured on the Web site. Since costs involved in designing, building and maintaining of a large Web sites are enormous, professionals are required for its planning and organisation. They are called Information Architect (IA) and hold important place in the organisational structure of any dot.com company. In a Web project they work as a communication link between the administrative and the operational staff. While administrative staff consists of producers, project managers and editors, the Web designers and programmers constitute the operational staff. Since these professionals have to perform a number of tasks, sometimes as a project leader, a programmer or as a graphic designer, experience is a must for each activity. Those who are already in the Web industry stand a fair chance to succeed as an IA or Information Architect.

Information Architecture as the name implies, involves how to structure contents on the Web site and to provide additional information links to user. Before constructing any Web site, whether it is for providing online education, conducting business or playing music and games, primary aim of any developer is to ensure that the site is simple, informative and easy to navigate. It is important to keep in mind the ultimate user and Web site audience so that the contents may be organised accordingly. The area of information architecture may be broadly classified in two parts. Firstly it deals with the ways to structure and organise the site on the basis of available information, target audience, products or services being provided. Secondly it involves the structuring of pages and contents in such a way that the information is provided to user in a most simple manner. In Web site or portal information architecture helps in organising site contents into different categories and preparing tools to access those categories.

Information Architect prepares the entire plan of the site and organises position of pages and different sections so that the user may go through the site contents quickly and easily. They play an important role in the brainstorming process and communication among team members to evolve and evaluate various ideas for developing an informative and well-designed site. These professionals interact with the clients to define the objective and scope of the project. They then work in close coordination with the designers in developing informative, attractive and engaging site to meet the client’s requirements. Thus the job of an IA becomes extremely vital, as he has to interpret and understand project requirement objectively. Otherwise Web project may deviate from the clients’ perspective and may lead to failure. They are required to work in close coordination with database and HTML professionals, visual designers, sound engineers, etc.

Information Architects are responsible to large extent for the success or failure of any Web project and have to ensure that objectives of all concerned are fulfilled. For clients, they plan the site in such a way that it may be updated or expanded with minimum efforts. For designers and programmers they ensure that enough contents and information resources are available for creating Web pages. IA also take care of user or Web surfer needs by identifying and designing most effective navigation system to enable him move through the Web pages with ease.

Information Architect has to submit and explain detailed plan of the project to the client. For this he needs to have design and communication skills. He must be able to visualise the site and corresponding Web pages and explain the structure to teammates as well as to client. The information architecture presentation usually consists of site maps, content maps, page schematics, etc. Site maps are in the form of flowcharts through which sequential steps for navigation are explained while content maps highlights the content on each Web page and its interaction with related pages. Page schematics are block diagrams explaining contents, information links, promotional space, and navigational schemes for each page. In some cases where Web sites to be developed are large and require heavy investment, prototype is prepared on power Point or related software.

Since complete plan of Web site is available beforehand, it helps both clients as well as development team immensely. This makes the position of Information Architect indispensable in the Web development and consulting firms. Almost all leading Internet firms such as Organic, Agency, USWeb, Razorfish, etc, have separate information architecture departments. Many big software and Internet companies that are developing or maintaining their own Web sites also employs Information Architect, considering their immense utility e.g. IBM, Cisco, etc. Some other areas where IA are in great demand are telecommunication, bio and medical technology, Online education. Argus and Scient are consulting companies where they are required to undertake information architecture projects for clients like AT&T, Chrysler, Encyclopaedia Britannica, etc. With few years of experience, professionals can start their consulting services independently also. As one can gather, IA are required in almost every business that has its presence on the Web, whether banks or financial institutions, insurance companies, advertising agencies or other e-business firms.

In India, with the growth of e-commerce, software and Internet service industry shall expand and simultaneously demand for Information Architect shall also grow. They may be referred by different designation but job profile will more or less remain the same. Keeping in view that in the USA and other Western countries, there is a shortage of trained and qualified IA, a person going in for this career has a lucrative and growth oriented future ahead. With a few years of experience in a reputed firm, these professionals can dictate their own terms in the job market.

In particular, specialised skill is not required for the job of Information Architect but a person going in for this career has to be flexible enough for performing various activities like programming, data collection, HTML coding, etc. Besides, they must be able to work on PowerPoint, Flash, Director, etc. Awareness and keen interest in software design, library science, traditional architecture and industrial design is essential. Though specific software has so far not been developed for information architecture, a prospective IA should be adept in Dreamweaver, Adobe, Visio. Strong logical and analytical skills are other qualities that they must possess. Besides they must be good in communicating with number of people related to project like client, designers, marketing people, etc. To conceptualise an abstract idea and then convert it into a detailed presentation in a consistent manner is another skill that an IA should have.

Several foreign universities and colleges, most of them in the US are now offering courses relevant to Information Architecture. The School of Information, Michigan, besides providing hand on training to students, also introduce them to the concept of information architecture. Course module includes computer science, human computer interaction (HCI), graphic design and library and information science (LIS). The LIS curriculum consists of information retrieval, organisation and classification of information. Other topics that are covered are usability engineering, knowledge management, and information economics. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Illinois and Stanford University provide advanced learning in the field of computer science, architectural design and communication. University of Washington conducts undergraduate program in Informatics that provides students exposure to information management and system design. In India, so far there is no degree program related to information architecture. However, MCA, software engineers, Web designers, programmers and even MBAs with proficiency in programming can opt for this challenging career.

Since the Internet and e-commerce have finally established themselves in almost all commercial activities around the globe, there shall be enormous growth of portal and Web sites in the coming years. Information Architecture, a specialised field shall get further recognition as competition among various portals and Web sites get increased.