IA practical guide book - free chapter

I was sad to read via Twitter this week that information architect and UX'er Donna Spencer has had so much trouble with her book - A Practical Guide To Information Architecture. On the plus side, it's prompted me to share a great chapter from it and encourage you to dig deeper.

Card sorting resources & alternatives

I've never had a tremendous amount of success integrating the findings of card sorts into ongoing developments, but have come across one or two services that have been great to use.

Organising content - classification schemes

Donna Spencer considers a range of ways to approach the organisation of your website's content.

Content strategy resources

Too many websites get built without a clear focus. Or once they're handed over for ongoing management, whatever focus there was gets lost in the day-to-day grind. Content strategy isn't necessarily easy, but it's a key contributor to an effective, lean and focused website.

Information seeking behaviour

A collection of theories and opinions on how people look for information online, and what we should be doing to cater for these behaviours.

Donna Spencer highlights four modes of information seeking behaviour. This is a great article and has informed my approach to structuring websites and organising content.

The 4 modes of information seeking behaviour:

• Known-item information seeking
• Exploratory seeking
• Don’t know what you need to know
• Re-finding information

Donna outlines each and goes on to discuss the implications for web design.

Four Modes of Seeking Information and How to Design for Them - article by Donna Spencer for Boxes and Arrows


Jakob Nielsen's article is pretty old now (2003), but he references some interesting earlier academic research and his observations on the rise of Google and the expansion of broadband access certainly ring true for me.

Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster - article by Jakob Nielsen

Jared Spool talks about the value of getting the right words on the page to help the user on his way. I've previously blogged this one...

The right trigger words - Jared Spool on labelling and links

Information Architecture essentials

If you don't know anything much about information architecture - or even if you think you do - this 30 minute podcast is well worth a listen.

Donna Spencer is an experienced IA consultant with lots of experience of information-driven, government websites, which translates well into the university sector.

In this podcast, she speaks with Jared Spool about how she goes about structuring a website, liaising with managers and content owners, and working towards a user-centred structure.

Unsurprisingly, it all boils down to clear business objectives, user goals and an iterative approach. Even the experts don't get it right first time...


Information Architecture Essentials - Donna Spencer in conversation with Jared Spool (listen online or download mp3 podcast)
The download page also includes a text summary of the interview.

Four essential skills for information architects

Sounds a bit dull, a bit specialist, desn't it?

But the thing is, as web publishing becomes less techie and more about communication and structure we all need to be able to play the role of information architect. Or at least have enough awareness of the discipline to manage our websites effectively.

This short interview with Donna Spencer provides a good lead in and, as with most things related to usability of websites, it's all pretty obvious once someone actually points it out.

I like this quote which is actually feedback from someone who read the article:

I’ve found that one of the strongest, but often overlooked, skills is editorial. A good IA will only work if the content is rationalized in the very beginning. Architecture hangs from a single premise: the information is worth finding.

Four essential skills for information architects: An interview with Donna Spencer - a uie.com article