Son of Eggert

This glossary was published by Argus Centre for Information Architecture, sponsored by a now-defunct consulting firm run by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld, authors of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.

This isn't required reading, but might help explain some of the terms used in the book and in the class.

Hershey's has a separate Facebook page for each of its major (and sometime minor) brands. A team works to engage with folks who "Like" the brands.

Their three pillars: Awareness, content and speed/agility.

Their rule for social media engagement: don't be clueless.

As consumers increasingly spend time on Facebook and similar social sites, and spend less time watching TV ads, companies are adapting with sometimes innovative (and sometimes clueless) attempts to get consumers to pay attention to their products (my opinion, not Ragan.com's).

One of the authors of the book Information Architecture for the World Wide Web talks about the evolving role of the information architect in an online world that has many channels, platforms and interconnections.

What used to be a fairly straightforward task -- designing the underlying structure of a website -- is now much more complicated:

The dance between Google and search engine optimization (SEO) has shifted attention from "home pages" to the design of findable, social objects that serve as both destination and gateway. The rise of user-generated content has invited the marriage of architectures and algorithms in support of conversation and collaboration. And, the growth of mobile has us thinking hard about Responsive Web Design and Ubiquitous Service Design in a world of cross-channel user experience.

If you don't let the layers of web design jargon phase you, he describes something akin to what users are experiencing. Our online experiences used to be less complicated. Nowadays bloggers aren't even sure if their blog is their main publishing platform, or if it has shifted to the status update realms of Twitter, Facebook and similar services. Imagine how people running a large company with multiple brands feel, as they see their brands represented on multiple platforms in a variety of ways.

Morville again: 

Increasingly, I'm asked by my clients to formulate a "web strategy" that explains relationships between their sites and social media channels, and these conversations naturally lead towards development of full-blown strategies for mobile and multi-channel user experience as well.

A humourous take on the way clients cause problems when they get too hands-on instead of saying what impact they want the website to have.

Don't Make Me Think: a common sense approach to web usability (Second Edition), by Steve Krug, New Riders, 2005.

While there are more detailed sources of information on electronic information design, or information architecture, it's hard to find a more insightful entry point than this 216-page trade paperback.  It's available in Saskatchewan libraries, through online bookstores, like Indigo-Chapters, as a PDF e-book, or as an e-book from the publisher.

You can also read Chapter 2 for free on Krug's website.  (The Table of Contents.)

This book will show some refreshingly simple approaches for organizing information online in a way that make it easier for the users.

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Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 3rd Edition, by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld, O'Reilly Media, 2006.

A detailed, dense book that takes you through the theory and practice of planning the structure of websites. This thorough textbook has practical advice for conducting analysis and deciding on categories and other organizing principles for digital content.

Available at libraries and online bookstores, as well as in digitial E-Pub format.

Watch here for info the University of Regina Continuing Education course on Electronic Information Design. Classes start in January 2012. Questions? Contact me at [email protected]