The Lost Art of Information Architecture

It used to be that everybody was into information architecture. We used to quote the gospel of Nathan Shedroff, the teachings of Jakob Nielsen, and the books of Steve Krug. However, I have news for you: new web developers aren’t buying the IA gospel.

Websites that mimic applications, one-page responsive sites and super-simple apps have rendered the IA practice a second rate passenger in the tours of web development. This is such a shame. New developers are making simple sites that only do one task very well. Let me rephrase that: the portal is dead. Apps are in, one-page sites are in and you don’t need IA for that, right? Wrong. Absolutely wrong.

Information architecture is the backbone of experience design, and as Google is increasingly showing, the backbone of on-page SEO. New developers will learn the hard way that tiny apps and websites have very small leverage with SEs and partners. A small web presence is convenient but lacks a vision of traffic acquisition independence. Such products and services lie at the mercy of Google Play, the App Store, and mainstream search engines. By choosing extreme simplicity over depth and organization, such web properties become widgets instead or destinations and die as passing fads once the honeymoon expires. Beware. But what is Information Architecture anyway?

INFORMATION…