Yesterday I started a long post on the IA deathwatch, but as I wrote it my thoughts kept winding around to why information architecture is so difficult to sell to site owners. I regularly talk to Web designers and agencies that exclaim, "Nobody wants to pay for IA!"
That's not surprising, when you consider that at the not-so-bleeding edge of Web design (where most companies live) a lot of what is presented as IA hasn't changed in 10 years:
Designers have shown site owners a linear, hierarchical arrangement of information, instead of illustrating relationships between users and the information they own and access. In one case, I ran across a firm that assigned creating site maps to the administrative assistant. That's not to say that some sites can't be adequately defined in this way, particularly if it's a micro site with limited content and interactivity, but too often this approach is applied to much more complex sites. It's part of the "start designing the home page and work our way down" mentality.
A more sophisticated approach to modeling processing and information pays off. It makes the user experience better. Happier users (people) are more likely to use the site, complete transactions -- if that's the goal -- and tell others. Those are the kinds of benefits that have to be explained, or better yet, demonstrated.
I've recently finished a couple of projects where IA has been an integral part of site development. One of the more satisfying aspects of both projects was the way our IA work drew site owners into the process and gave them, well, a sense of ownership. Rather than seeing a hierarchy followed by a homepage, they were drawn into a discussion about how people think about themselves, others, and the information they use. It turned an abstract process into something really tangible, and informed other discussions -- about functionality, look and feel -- in some valuable ways.
IA might change identities (per Bokardo), but if it does I hope that part of the change is making its function and outcome more obvious to the people who pay for it.
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