Review of: Practical Information Architecture

Abstract

A Hands-On Approach to Structuring Successful Websites by Eric Reiss Review by Joe Sokohl Reiss, E. (2000). Practical Information Architecture : A Hands-On Approach to Structuring Succeasful Websites (Hatlow, England: Addison-Wesley). ISBN: 0201725908 $27.96 The information architect comes to the Web and software worlds as a bit of an outsider not really as a soK'ware developer, but also not as a marketing t ack or designer. Where human-computer interaction specialists have found a place in this niche, the information architect is olden misunderstood, ignored, or reviled. One of the problems of informatioo architecture (IA) is that no one can agree on exactly what it is. Since the publication of Rosenfeld & Morville's 1998 book Information Architecture _for the World Wide Web, attempts have been made to defme web-based IA. To Rosenfeld and Morville, IA is the art and science of "designing the organization, indexing, labeling, and navigation systems to support browsing and searching". Certainly this has pushed web-based IA into the forefront. Richard Saul Wurman made the seminal contribution in defining IA with his 1996 coffee table book Information Architects. This has been followed up with much debate within the ranks of the American Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), especially on their intemet newsgroup. Participants in this discussion divide into two main groups: the Classification / Taxonomy / Library & Information Science camp, and the Box-drawing / Information & Visual Design camp. Missing in this debate is a sense of consensus, guidance, definition, and direction. Despite the rapid growth of interest in I.A, the lack of books one can turn to presents a hole in many practitioners' toolsets. In the book that is the subject of this review, Eric Reiss defines IA in his introduction as "deal[ing with] the arrangement of browser-based information...so visitors can do whatever they came to do with as little effort (and confusion) as possible". So, this book addresses web-based IA concerns and aims to fulfill the important role of standing alongside Rosenfeld & Morville's book and others in the IA library. The first time I read this book. quite frankly, I hated it. I felt that it was too basic and simple to meet my needs. Then, eight months later, I replaced an information architect in midproject, and had a real need for quick guidance and ideas. Returning to this book, I realized how useful it is when placed within the right context and purpose. The book is divided into three parts: Considerations, Mechanics, and Fine-tuning. Beginning with an overview of the status of IA and its criticality in projects, Reiss provides a nice mnemonic for his view of the development process: Allocate, Analyze, Architect, Apply, Accumulate, Assemble, and Adjust_ The real benefit of this book appears in the second and third parts. I especially appreciated his exposition of using Post-It notes to illustrate hierarchies of Web pages. He also provides great advice on using iterative processes to create the IA of a site, showing how to drat~ the higher, broader levels before being bogged down by low-level minutiae. For chapters 8-17 alone, this book is worthwhile to both neophytes to Web organization and to HCI consultants moving from evaluative to strategic activities. Reiss liberally uses quite specific examples f~om his projects, showing his practical experience in dealing with IA issues. Photographs and diagrams help illustrate his work process. For information architects, this approach provides wonderfully inspiring guidance. His examples showing lower levels of a site provide extremely helpful, accurate advice. The book is not without a few problems: The first time I read it I was a bit put offby its Amerocentric style. The audience for this book is chiefly Web designers who have little or no formal education in HCI, and who may have English as their second language. Expressions such as "pogo-stick" (meaning to move between upper and lower levels of a hierarchy), "say" (meaning "for example": "If you have, say, a...), and "web-bizz" potentially confuse the text for these readers. Also, Reiss uses an inordinate number of contractions, violating the cardinal rule about writing for international audiences that contractions should be avoided where possible. Still on the topic of style, exclamation marks and italics heavily pepper the text, implying insistence where it is not necessary. This style tends to reduce the weight of Reiss's authority, making him sound like he is just trying too hard. In addition, Reiss' treatment of usability testing presents it only as a final phase. Many HCI consultants probably will take issue with this cursory approach to usability engineering. Also, Reiss incorporates a glossary twice: once in the first chapter, and second, as an alphabetic list at the end of the book. I found this arrangement interruptive and a bit confusing. Yet the glossary itself is quite useful for novice Web designers and program managers, the people who haw been suddenly tasked with getting their company onto the Web. Finally, I would have liked more discussion and examples about controUed vocabularies, especially the process of creating and implementing them. Still, Reiss does provide a small summary of them and their importance. Overall this book is what it says it is: a guide to practical information architecture. Though thoroughly practiced information architects who already know everything won' t find this book particularly practical, the person who must architect a site without having a lot of experience in doing so will enjoy this highly usable book. For me, Practical Information Architectune sits proud and dog-eared on my shelf.