This bird’s-eye view of Longleat Hedge Maze in England can have a nausea-inducing effect. Can you imagine being dropped into the middle of the maze? Disoriented, directionless, and just a vastness of green. If you look at the picture above, there are 3 perspectives you can take when approaching this maze — from the top of the tower, the bridges, and within the maze itself. Which do you think would have the best perspective of how to navigate the maze? Quite obviously the top of the ivory tower. (Let me know if you have another opinion.)

For those of us who are well-versed in the internet and its various structures, even the most difficult sites to navigate can be figured out after a few wrong turns. Let’s consider the majority of users who aren’t “us.” For those of us building the products and sites or well-versed in site patterns by way of constant exposure, it’s easy to take the tower perspective and easily see the way out of the maze. However, what about the people stuck in the maze? Instead of seeing a wall of green hedges before them, they are stuck with an overload of data and options. Herein lies the importance of information architecture.

We help our users to understand where they are, what they’ve found, what to expect, and what’s around. — Peter Morville

What is Information Architecture (IA)?

Information architecture is the practice of deciding how to arrange the parts of something to be understandable. (IA Institute) In other words, information architects help users see from the perspective of the tower in the maze to understand where they are and where they aim to be.

If you’ve ever tried to use something and thought, “where am I supposed to go next?” or “this doesn’t make any sense,” you are encountering an issue with an information architecture. — IA Institute

Information architecture creates a blueprint for the structural design of information. IA aims to find the interdependency between the user, content, and context.

Information architecture dates back to the 70s, though the concept of information architecture can be dated back to 1964 to an IBM research paper ,“Architecture of the IBM System/360” (Amdahl et al 1964). In it, architecture is defined as “the conceptual structure and functional behavior, distinguishing the organization of data flows and controls, logical design, and physical implementation.” (Source) Information architecture was more clearly defined at XEROX where, in 1970, a group of people specializing in information science were gathered to develop technology that would support the “architecture of information.” Finally, in 1998, Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld’s book Information Architecture for the World Wide Web brought IA mainstream. (Source)

Information architecture is a practice that has many roots, including library science, cognitive psychology, and architecture, each field contributing specific pillars to information architecture. (Source)

Library science — cataloguing and archival science

Cognitive psychology — cognitive load, mental models, and decision making

Architecture — precise, intentional structure and solid foundation

Each of these fields brings a robustness to IA that is able to deliver on its goal of creating structure, providing guidance to the user, and delivering the right information.

Information architecture is an integral part of the user experience. Even more so as the network of systems and data continue to grow. We need to be vigilant in building solid foundations so we will not have to deal with future repercussions of unstable structures. Information architecture shouldn’t be an option, it should be standard practice. At the rate of growth we are experiencing now, a growing abundance of big data, growing personal data libraries, and the internet of things slowly become standard in homes, having clearly defined architecture is the solution to navigating every definable path. There is no longer a one path in, one path out linear progression to information. Rather, with more options of access than ever before, there are multiple doors and paths to reach one point. Information architecture assures that each unique path leads to the goal.