[Sigia-l] IA system components - add to the list!

[Arno Reichenauer]

"Boniface Lau" wrote:

> IA stands for Information Architecture. Shouldn't there be a component called 
> “architecture"?

Hm, I’m talking about what parts of a working interactive system an IA can contribute, i.e., very down-to-earch things like the navigation structure, or the content which will be part of the website. What would architecture include in that context? How does it describe what you deliver for a website or intranet project?

When I talk about IA system components, I have the following in mind: Imagine yourself talking to your to-be father-in-law in front of the computer, and you say, “See this website? I did the Information Architecture for it.” And he goes “Aha
 what’s that?” Then you start to point at the global navigation and you tell him “See this links? I decided which one there should be” and “I also decided which terms are used for them”. Then you open the HTML source code with the <meta name=”keywords”> tags and you say, “see this descriptions? I decided which terms to use for describing every page so that a search engine can find it”

That’s the level of detail I’m talking about. So, to restate my question, what would you show your to-be father-in-law what you have done for this website?

> Since your PhD thesis is about IA methodology, I suggest you ask
> yourself the following fundamental questions:
>
> - What is Information?
> - What is Architecture?
> - What is Methodology?
> - What is Information Architecture?
> - What is Information Architecture Methodology?
>
> Answering the above will head off the question, "Where is the beef?"

Yep, I ask myself these questions again and again for quite a long time now ;-). I mean, I have my personal definitions of it, but who has not? The post was intended to start something like an expert review of what I found is the highest common denominator of what we can deliver for a website/intranet, and also, for the community, as way to bridge gaps between different opinions held. 

There’s no use in fighting for what is inside IA and what not right at the start. Why can’t we first of all just collect what each one of us is contributing to a working website or intranet and then use the sum of it as a starting point not for defining IA but for defining IA methodology, i.e. the process you have to go through to obtain these contributions? The definition of IA itself would then be just a collateral result of this. And everybody could then just choose the components he feels fine with, i.e. could specialize on specific parts of the sum of IA components?
Arno
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