What does an information architect do?

Would it amaze you to find out that this is a question I’ve asked myself almost daily for the last four years?  Slightly worrying when it’s what I do for a living.

More worrying when you start searching for jobs with that as the job title. Search today on LinkedIn, and the Information Architect (IA) jobs listed are not IA jobs1.

As it’s something I’ve obviously thought a lot about I’m going to give my definition of what I see information architects doing.

Not all IAs are made equal

I’m going to start by saying that there are going to be subtle differences between one information architect and the next.

There are also overlaps with other roles in the industry, notably content design, content strategy and user experience2 (UX).

So when reading this, please take it from the perspective of the things that information architects do and can do.

What are the things you do?

If we take this back to the architecture side of things.  The way I’ve always seen what I do is creating the underlying structures of websites, apps and digital products.

In days of old it also used to include the work that most pure-breed user experience designers now do.  That is to create the structures of pages that content sits on, otherwise known as wireframing.

Wireframing, like personas, are the marmite of design.  There are people who love them and see the value, and then those who would rather see them yeeted into the sun.

So here goes…

Site mapping aka taxonomies

A taxonomy is a hierarchical structure of grouped and categorised information.

It’s also the backbone of any digital product or service.  If you don’t have a taxonomy you have a pile of things that nobody can navigate.

I totally get it’s a scary word.  Thing is you’re a taxonomist.  Everyone is.

Go look in your bedroom.  Look at your wardrobe and chest of drawers.

If you have your shirts hung together you’ve got a basic taxonomy.  If you’ve got all your socks bundled together and put in a drawer, you’ve got a slightly more detailed taxonomy.

Someone who creates a taxonomy understands how to group information and how to label it so humans can understand and find things.

We make digital spaces navigable.

Navigation

Which leads me nicely into navigation, obvs.

A good information architect understands the different ways people navigate a digital space.  We know the secret to keeping people engaged is the freedom to flow through information, products and pages.

If we’re really good, we also know how utterly sh*te burger menus are and why they need to be binned.

We know that navigation isn’t just the bar across the top of the site that represents the taxonomy. It’s pagination, it’s calls to action, it’s the order information is structured on a product page, and it’s search.

Search

Search is the flip side of the navigability coin. There are people who browse3 and people who search.

Google is largely to blame for people relying heavily on site search. It’s so good, the assumption is that your site search will be as good.

Search design is a key element of information architecture, because to make it really powerful you leverage metadata4. Metadata can be defined and added to the taxonomy when you create it.

We know what filters to create and when to create them.  We know the power of a well written meta description in search results. And we know all the lingo around site search engines.

Testing

Testing search and navigation is a skill.  A skill that not all researchers know how to do.

There are specific methodologies we use to help create and group information aka card sorting, then there are ones to test if the taxonomy we’ve created is logical one aka tree testing, and then there’s testing the navigation itself.

The goal (in my opinion anyway) of testing navigation is to make sure it’s invisible.

If people notice your navigation, it probably means there’s something wrong with it.

The 20s IA

I’m going to pause for a second and say there is a role that an IA can play in the (roaring?!?) twenties.

That’s a systems thinking information strategist.  If one of the things and IA does is look at the structure of a website, then we’re also probably looking at more than one website.

Data is cheap to store (we’ll overlook how very un-carbon neutral that is right now), which means websites, apps and digital spaces are HUGE.

If we behave like librarians or custodians of the information, then we should take it as our responsibility to know what information exists globally that end users see, within an organisation.

Which is probably why I love systems thinking a smidge more than I love design thinking.