Lightning talk delivered at the UXDC Meetup on September 20, 2018

1. WHAT IS INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
AND WHY DOES IT STILL MATTER?
Lisa Goldberg
UXDC Meetup
September 20, 2018

2. INTRODUCTION
Associate Creative Director of Experience Design at
Publicis.Sapient
My goal: To make the world a more humane place and
inspire UX teams to do the same.
@lisagdc

3. WHAT IS INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE?
“Information architecture is the practice of deciding how
to arrange the parts of something to be
understandable.”
The Information Architecture Institute, “What is Information Architecture?”
www.iainstitute.org/what-is/ia
“I help people get from Point A to Point B without having
to think about it.”
Lisa’s elevator speech
https://amzn.to/2NP7bvK

4. HOW DOES IA RELATE TO UX?
Content
Strategy
Information
Architecture
Interaction
Design
Visual
Design
User Research
Development

5. ­ Content inventory
­ Content types, taxonomies and
other metadata
­ Site maps
­ Screen flow diagrams
­ Wireframes and prototypes of
display templates
­ UI libraries
­ Infographics
­ Personas, usability tests, surveys,
and other user research
­ Business requirements
­ Design facilitation
ebay.com
https://docs.balsamiq.com/desktop/sitemaps/
EXAMPLES OF IA DELIVERABLES AND TASKS
https://bit.ly/2xnDFDU
Freepik.com

6. OUR WORK MUST MEET THE NEEDS OF MANY
Users
Delivery
Teams
Stakeholders
­ First Questions:
­ What is the problem to solve?
­ Who are we solving it for?
­ Will the solution cause other problems?
­ Users: Does the design meet user
needs? Does it provide a good
user experience?
­ Stakeholders: Does it meet
business needs?
­ Delivery Teams: How difficult will
it be to build and maintain?

7. WHY DOES INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE STILL
MATTER?
­ We need trustworthy, findable content
­ Category shift
­ Automation has blinders

8. WE NEED TRUSTWORTHY, FINDABLE
CONTENT
Information Architecture provides
the structure to help you find
what you need.
https://bit.ly/2p9fNQa

9. CATEGORY SHIFT
Taxonomies are a snapshot in time.
http://t-o-o-g-o-o-d.com
https://pewrsr.ch/RhJVFT https://bit.ly/2tFkAhd
https://bit.ly/2xdrWIc
https://bit.ly/2AoUBOt

10. AUTOMATION HAS BLINDERS
https://amzn.to/2pajpRQ https://nyti.ms/2PlJqcK
https://bit.ly/2OkETHe
https://bit.ly/2MExd08

11. THE CHALLENGE
­ Findable information
­ Trustworthy and current information
­ Systems that build community and connection, rather than isolation

12. IF YOU WANT TO BE AN INFORMATION
ARCHITECT
Ask yourself:
­ What makes you excited about a design?
­ Do you like to solve problems for people?
­ Do you think about how items relate to one
another?
Learn more:
https://www.iainstitute.org/what-is-ia
Most relevant job titles:
­ Information Architect (not the tech lead)
­ UX/Experience Architect
­ Content Strategist (not copywriting)
https://www.zappos.com/e/adaptive

13. THANK YOU
Slides slideshare.net/lisagdc
Contact lisa at lisagoldberg.info
/in/lisagoldberg
@lisagdc
Icons: fontawesome.com