Information architecture: a new discipline for organizing hypertext

Abstract

Hypertext has always been about allowing us to connect information in creative and useful ways. Anything can be linked to anything. This is the promise and problem of hypertext. It is possible to link things well but far easier to link things badly. The result is spaghetti writing to go with our spaghetti code, masses of senseless trails and tunnels where the reader loses all sense of attention and purpose. The computer science community responded to this diet of pasta with new practices, promoting interoperable, repeatable, reusable, object-oriented programming tools.