Well, like many things in the tech world, that depends on who you ask. However, various definitions have emerged since Richard Saul Wurman coined the term.
In the early 1990’s, Wurman defined an information architect as:
- An individual who organizes the patterns inherent in data, making the complex clear
- The person who creates the structure or map of information that allows others to find their personal paths to knowledge
- The emerging 21st-century professional addressing the needs of the age focused on clarity, human understanding, and the science of the organization of information
Wurman’s definition clearly references his background as an architect and graphic designer. However, the definition of IA gradually shifted to one more focused on website development. In the first edition of their definitive book, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (1998), Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville clarified the role of the information architect as someone who:
- Interprets the mission and vision for the site, balancing the needs of its sponsoring organization and the needs of its audience
- Determines what content and functionality the site will contain
- Specifies how users will find information in the site by defining its organization, navigation, labeling, and searching systems
- Maps out how the site will accommodate change and growth over time
As a field, IA requires a rather specific lexicon. To facilitate understanding, I have developed a glossary of terms specific to IA.
