An Information Architecture Process

I found this process amongst a category of old files – it dates from about 2002 when I was working with librarians to rearchitect various corporate web systems at the time. I’m sure I must have written this outline as a way to communicate next steps – we loved the waterfall process back then.
  • Take all the content and features apart (analysis)
  • Then put it all back together again (synthesis)

Analysis

  1. Create a complete listing of all content: Forget how content is produced, Political structures
  2. From the content audit, identify broad types of content
  3. Create core content attributes
    • All content is intended:
      • For someone (an audience)
      • Who is trying to do something (a task)
    • Identify intrinsic attributes of each content type
    • Start with some simple questions:
      • What is it? (White paper? Product review?)
      • Who made it? (Author)
      • When was it made? (Date Published)
      • Where was it made? (Location/Company Published)
      • What is it about?
      • What type of media?
  4. Subject Attributes
    • All content has a subject
    • Subjects exist independent of content
    • Subject attributes are highly specific to that subject
  5. Attribute Relevance
    • Prioritization based on persona(s)

Synthesis

  1. Taxonomy
    • Look for commonalities among attributes
    • Group like attributes into categories
    • Organize categories into hierarchies
  2. Primary and Secondary Structures
    • Multiple overlapping taxonomies are very common
    • Prioritize taxonomies by relevance
    • Make less relevant taxonomies secondary
  3. Final Relevance (to target) and labeling
  4. Verify with testing