Imagine your company decides it needs a website, imagine that you draw the short straw, and imagine you have no clue whatsoever where to start or how you are going to make it through this. People in this position (as well countless similar ones) and many others who simply do not know where to start or simply want to know more about effective web-site design will benefit greatly from Christina Wodtke’s Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web. While this a very much book for beginners, some more experienced people will find good advice here too as it lays out a framework of good practices rather than a step-by-step “for dummies” guide.
The first thing the book does is draw a distinction between a myriad of “proper web design laws” written by web “gurus” and real world. There are no cut and dry design laws, if it were that simple she wouldn’t have the need to write the book and the job would be so much easier. But we all know it is not, what worked for one company and that “guru” made into a “law” will not necessarily work for you. Therefore do not just blindly accept any such laws you may run across.
Perhaps the most important point that is made in Information Architecture is regarding user-centered design. The author of the book conveyed one message very clear – do not guess on what your users may or may not like and build a website based on that. Bottom line is that you have to talk to the potential end users to get the answers you need. Not following this particular guideline can cost you both many hours of work and tons of money. Simply put it is a gamble you cannot afford. If you guess right, you will save yourself time you would spend on research. However, if you guess wrong, you will likely have to re-design almost the entire site. In addition, history shows that the latter is a more likely outcome, thus making the choice very easy – do your research!
Perhaps the most important point that is made in Information Architecture is regarding user-centered design. The author of the book conveyed one message very clear – do not guess on what your users may or may not like and build a website based on that. Bottom line is that you have to talk to the potential end users to get the answers you need. Not following this particular guideline can cost you both many hours of work and tons of money. Simply put it is a gamble you cannot afford. If you guess right, you will save yourself time you would spend on research. However, if you guess wrong, you will likely have to re-design almost the entire site. In addition, history shows that the latter is a more likely outcome, thus making the choice very easy – do your research!
Here is the link to the full review:
And here is the link to the presentation:
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