We are overloaded with bits and pieces of information. More than ten-thousand pieces a day by one estimate. 10,000!
Information architecture is an effort to take many pieces of information and figure out the relationships between them.
First, we put them into categories and prioritize them so that people can make sense of this giant info overload.
Then we cut out all the unnecessary junk and try to fill in what seems to be missing.
Good information architecture helps people find what they are looking for (and then some). It brings some order to separate things.
An example would be the arrangement of the books in a library. If the thousands of books in the library were all put on shelves at random, it would take forever to find the books or subjects you were looking for. It would make the library a frustrating, somewhat useless place... unless you had tons of time.
The organization of articles and pictures in your daily newspaper is another example. Without the sorting of material into categories like news, sports, business, lifestyles features, etc, finding out what's going on would be even more difficult than it already is. Prioritizing the material is crucial as well. The most urgent and important stories should be most prominent.
Even a simple task like going to the grocery store involves many of the principles of information architecture. By sorting the foods into categories like fruit, vegetables, canned goods, meat, baked goods, frozen foods and so on, the store enables us to find what we want ... and buy it from them.
Your website needs to utilize these principles. If you want people to utilize your services and interact with you, make it easy (or easier, at least) for them to find what they are looking for and to make sense of it.
What's the cost of not making sense?
Call Workable Web Solutions at 410-268-2204 or by e-mail. Let's see what we can do together to start making sense.
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