Information Architecture (IA) is often thought of in two ways: internally focussed as the design of taxonomies, indices and metadata, or externally focussed, everything to do with presenting information to those who might need it. IA in this book is defined as the externally focussed task of synthesizing and structuring an organisation's information and presenting it in a way that maximizes end user utility. IA is seen as a high level team based endeavour that involves web designers, line managers, information professionals and business strategists and uses a mix of behavioural theory, psychology, classic design principles and information seeking heuristics to achieve business goals.
The book is presented as a collection of ten lectures designed around a standard university semester. The coverage of the material is comprehensive and includes most of what would be expected in a course on IA. However the authors are a touch evangelical about the value and role of IA, and the first and last chapters are more about advocacy than about understanding how to do IA. The other chapter are well written, well researched and based on the direct experience of the authors.
The first section summarizes the development of the Internet. That leads to the theory of IA, starting with researching the business needs, designing and planning site navigation, how to use research into information user behaviour in the design of web sites, designing for interaction and how to design for maximum accessibility.
The second section looks at practical aspects of introducing IA in the corporate environment and how to make information available to employees and customers of large organisations. Much of this is based on an application for a large organisation that the authors developed. The next chapters look at global IA and the issues around internationalisation of information and the design problems that arise with mobile technologies.
Overall, the book is a good introduction to the main parts of corporate based IA. However, it does show its origins as student based materials rather obviously, and it might not be as useful for readers who are not attending the lectures it originally accompanied. It could be seen more as an instructor's guide than a student's guide. The material touches upon everything, but needs to develop much of the material in more depth. The book really needs to be longer to work as a general use text book.
For a book advocating multi‐dimensional Internet access to information and design with the user in mind, it lacks some things that might be expected in a modern text: there is no supporting web site or online discussion forum; there is not even an index.
