Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond

Description

About the Book

Who do we hope to reach with this fourth edition of the polar bear book? Because we assume that any interactive product contains information, this book is for anyone who’s responsible for defining how interactive products and services work: user experience designers, product managers, developers, and more. The job titles don’t really matter; what matters is that your work results in products and services that are interactive, information dense, and used by at least one person besides yourself. Previous editions of the book delved into the subject of information architecture as a career path. We have eschewed these discussions in the fourth edition in favor of treating information architecture as an area of practice. You do not need to have the words “information architect” on your business card in order to benefit from the ideas in this book.

About the Author

Lou Rosenfeld is an independent information architecture consultant. He has been instrumental in helping establish the field of information architecture, and in articulating the role and value of librarianship within the field. Lou played a leading role in organizing and programming the first three information architecture conferences (both ASIS&T Summits and IA 2000). He also presents and moderates at such venues as CHI, COMDEX, Intranets, and the web design conferences produced by Miller Freeman, C|net and Thunder Lizard. He teaches tutorials as part of the Nielsen Norman Group User Experience Conference.

Peter Morville is president of Semantic Studios, an information architecture, user experience, and findability consultancy. Since 1994, he has advised such clients as AT&T, Harvard, IBM, the Library of Congress, Microsoft, the National Cancer Institute, Vodafone, and the Weather Channel. Peter is best known as a founding father of information architecture, having co-authored the field’s best-selling book, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. Peter has served on the faculty at the University of Michigan’s School of Information and on the advisory board of the Information Architecture Institute. He delivers keynotes and seminars at international events, and his work has been featured in major publications including Business Week, The Economist, Fortune, and The Wall Street Journal. You can contact Peter Morville by email (morville@semanticstudios.com). You can also find him online at semanticstudios.com, findability.org, and searchpatterns.org.

Jorge is an information architect with 20 years of experience designing digital products and services. He is a partner in Futuredraft, a digital design consultancy based in Oakland, CA, and has served the global UX community as president and director of the Information Architecture Institute and as managing editor of Boxes and Arrows magazine.