[Sigia-l] The 3 Factors of I/A

[Andrew McNaughton]

On Wed, 5 Mar 2003 Richard_Dalton at Vanguard.com wrote:

>
> Andrew McNaughton wrote:
> > On Wed, 5 Mar 2003 Richard_Dalton at Vanguard.com wrote:
> >
> > > I'd like to suggest (and discuss) that an Information Architecture is
> > > made up of 3 factors:
> > >
> > >    - Similarity of Content (group things based on their attributes,
> > >        "put apples with apples")
> > >    - User Tasks (group things based on how they're used, "put dip &
> > >        salsa with the chips")
> > >    - Business Goals (group things to influence a user, "put candy &
> > >        magazines near the checkouts")
> > >
> > > It's the blend of these 3 factors (some having more weight than
> > > others) that comprises an effective architecture.
> >
> > Personally I see the Information Architeture as being a model of the
> > structure of the site's content.
> >
> > The factors you give are things that I would think of as informing and
> > perhaps driving the selection of an appropriate architectural model, but
> > not as being part of the architecture itself.
>
> I'm not quite understanding your distinction between 'an appropriate
> architectural model' and 'the architecture itself' - could you expand on
> that a little?

The only distinction that I'm making there is between possible
architectures and a particular architecture.  That's not the important
distinction I'm making.

What I'm saying is that the 'factors' you identify are not things I see as
being part of the architecture, but rather kinds of goals that lead to the
selection of the architecture.

What you've written is analogous to saying that a house's architecture
consists of things like putting two doors between the kitchen and
bathroom, providing entrances and light to each room, and keeping the
budget reasonable.  Those things certainly shape the design, but the
architecture is rather closer to the plans provided for the builder.

Curiously I don't find it much easier to express what 'the architecture'
is in building terms than I do with Information Architecture.

Andrew


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Andrew McNaughton                   In Sydney and looking for work
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