Chapter 3: Information Architecture

Organizing Your Information
Organizing information logically and solidly will allow a website to function well, and the five steps can be taken to ensure this outcome. 1) Inventory your content 2) establish a hierarchical outline of content with controlled vocab so the main content, site structure, and navigation elements can be identified consistently; 3) chunking, divide your content into logical units with a consistent modular structure;4) draw diagrams to show the site structure and rough outlines of pages with a list of core navigation links; and 5) analyze your system by testing the organization interactively with real users; revise when necessary.

Site Structure
This section focuses on the importance of browser functionality and web search options. Additionally, it outlines three essential structure themes that manage the navigational interface and shape users’ mental models of organizing information: sequences, hierarchies, and webs.

Presenting Information Architecture
This section emphasizes the importance of having a site diagram available for the team to work with and how these diagrams could look.

My Response
I found the chapter on site diagrams interesting as it is something unfamiliar and how it aligns with the concept of architecture. How a team can use this as a visual for their information hierarchy and how it acts as a communication point for the team. It was interesting how it is not something set in stone, but that evolves with the project and helps keep the team in the know and on track.