We are an innovation and design studio for start-up and fast-growth companies that want to win in new markets.
Information Architecture, or “IA” as it is often referred is also very often misunderstood for a Web site “map” – depicting the hierarchical tree structure of a series of pages.
Instead, an IA is an organization of functionality or content at its highest meta-level in order to quickly organize the major elements of a product and identify shared elements and actions. Often, an IA is quite small – as the information blocks do no represent single pages, but instead groupings of similar functioning elements that will be ultimately defined later.
In the process we promote and follow at Zaudhaus, when we work on a Web site, application or WebApp, we begin to evaluate the overall organization of the application and propose an organizational schema for the structure of the functional areas of the application as well as the content-specific areas. The use of the diagram and it’s abstraction allows all members of the team to speak at a high-level, efficiently – while maintaining the same perspective.
From this point, Engineering can begin laying the foundation for the application architecture and coding approach necessary; while design continues to delve deeper into each section – beginning with the most complex, and working our way out.
IA also allows us to begin developing a plan for content development. We look at each of the sections of an application or Web site or client software – and consider the necessary content (and actions) for a given part of the product. We look at the whole component as a combined set of elements we’ll need to create that need to work together to deliver a message, provide functionality, and instructional messaging to the user, reader, or target audience.
Ultimately, Information Architecture provides a common foundation language that can be used to quickly assess a project and the underlying components that many different groups can understand – whether it be marketing, engineering, or design. That common language helps groups get organized, focused, and aligned around the common goal to build and innovate.