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

[Richard_Dalton at Vanguard.com]

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?

 - Richard Dalton