Publisher: O'Reilly Media Released: February 1998 Pages: 224
Some web sites "work" and some don't. Good web site consultants know that you can't just jump in and start writing HTML, the same way you can't build a house by just pouring a foundation and putting up some walls. You need to know who will be using the site, and what they'll be using it for. You need some idea of what you'd like to draw their attention to during their visit. Overall, you need a strong, cohesive vision for the site that makes it both distinctive and usable. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is about applying the principles of architecture and library science to web site design. Each web site is like a public building, available for tourists and regulars alike to breeze through at their leisure. The job of the architect is to set up the framework for the site to make it comfortable and inviting for people to visit, relax in, and perhaps even return to someday. Most books on web development concentrate either on the aesthetics or the mechanics of the site. This book is about the framework that holds the two together. With this book, you learn how to design web sites and intranets that support growth, management, and ease of use. Special attention is given to: - The process behind architecting a large, complex site
- Web site hierarchy design and organization
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is for webmasters, designers, and anyone else involved in building a web site. It's for novice web designers who, from the start, want to avoid the traps that result in poorly designed sites. It's for experienced web designers who have already created sites but realize that something "is missing" from their sites and want to improve them. It's for programmers and administrators who are comfortable with HTML, CGI, and Java but want to understand how to organize their web pages into a cohesive site.
The authors are two of the principals of Argus Associates, a web consulting firm. At Argus, they have created information architectures for web sites and intranets of some of the largest companies in the United States, including Chrysler Corporation, Barron's, and Dow Chemical. |
-
Chapter 1 What Makes a Web Site Work -
Consumer Sensitivity Boot Camp -
If You Don’t Like to Exercise... -
Chapter 2 Introduction to Information Architecture -
The Role of the Information Architect -
Who Should Be the Information Architect? -
Collaboration and Communication -
Chapter 3 Organizing Information -
Organizational Challenges -
Organizing Web Sites and Intranets -
Creating Cohesive Organization Systems -
Chapter 4 Designing Navigation Systems -
Browser Navigation Features -
Building Context -
Improving Flexibility -
Types of Navigation Systems -
Integrated Navigation Elements -
Remote Navigation Elements -
Designing Elegant Navigation Systems -
Chapter 5 Labeling Systems -
Why You Should Care About Labeling -
Labeling Systems, Not Labels -
Types of Labeling Systems -
Creating Effective Labeling Systems -
Fine-Tuning the Labeling System -
Non-Representational Labeling Systems -
A Double Challenge -
Chapter 6 Searching Systems -
Searching and Your Web Site -
Understanding How Users Search -
Designing the Search Interface -
In an Ideal World: The Reference Interview -
Indexing the Right Stuff -
To Search or Not To Search? -
Chapter 7 Research -
Getting Started -
Defining Goals -
Learning About the Intended Audiences -
Identifying Content and Function Requirements -
Grouping Content -
Chapter 8 Conceptual Design -
Brainstorming with White Boards and Flip Charts -
Metaphor Exploration -
Scenarios -
High-Level Architecture Blueprints -
Architectural Page Mockups -
Design Sketches -
Web-Based Prototypes -
Chapter 9 Production and Operations -
Detailed Architecture Blueprints -
Content Mapping -
Web Page Inventory -
Point-of-Production Architecture -
Architecture Style Guides -
Learning from Users -
Chapter 10 Information Architecture in Action -
Archipelagoes of Information -
A Case Study: Henry Ford Health System -
Chapter 11 Selected Bibliography -
Information Architecture -
Organization -
Navigation -
Labeling -
Searching -
Strategy and Process -
Usability -
General Design -
Colophon |
- Title:
- Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
- By:
- Peter Morville, Louis Rosenfeld
- Publisher:
- O'Reilly Media
- Formats:
-
- Print
- Safari Books Online
- Print:
- February 1998
- Pages:
- 224
- Print ISBN:
- 978-1-56592-282-2
- | ISBN 10:
- 1-56592-282-4
|
-
Peter Morville Peter Morville is President and Founder of Semantic Studios, a leading information architecture and knowledge management consulting firm. From 1994 to 2001, Peter was Chief Executive Officer and a co-owner of Argus Associates, a pioneering information architecture design firm with world-class clients including 3Com, AT&T, Compaq, Ernst & Young, Ford, IBM, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, and the Weather Channel. He also served as Executive Director of the ACIA. Over the past 8 years, Peter has written and spoken extensively about information architecture, business strategy, and knowledge management. He has been interviewed by Business Week, Knowledge Management magazine, MSNBC, and the Wall Street Journal. View Peter Morville's full profile page. -
Louis Rosenfeld Lou Rosenfeld is an independent information architecture consultant. He has been instrumental in helping establish the field of information architecture, and in articulating the role and value of librarianship within the field. Lou played a leading role in organizing and programming the first three information architecture conferences (both ASIS&T Summits and IA 2000). He also presents and moderates at such venues as CHI, COMDEX, Intranets, and the web design conferences produced by Miller Freeman, C|net and Thunder Lizard. He teaches tutorials as part of the Nielsen Norman Group User Experience Conference. View Louis Rosenfeld's full profile page. |
Colophon Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal featured on the cover of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is a polar bear (Ursus maritimus). Polar bears live primarily on the icy shores of Greenland and northern North America and Asia. They are very strong swimmers, and rarely venture far from the water. The largest land carnivore, male polar bears weigh from 770 to 1400 pounds. Female polar bears are much smaller, weighing 330 to 550 pounds. The preferred meal of polar bears is ringed seals and bearded seals. When seals are unavailable they will eat fish, reindeer, birds, berries, and trash. Polar bears are, of course, well adapted to living in the Arctic Circle. Their black skin is covered in thick, water-repellent, white fur. Adult polar bears are protected from the cold by a layer of blubber that is more than four inches thick. They are so well insulated, in fact, that overheating can be a problem. For this reason they move slowly on land, taking frequent breaks. Their large feet spread out their substantial weight, allowing them to walk on thin ice surfaces that animals weighing far less would break through. Because food is available year-round, most polar bears don't hibernate. Pregnant females are the exception, and the tiny (one to one and a half pound) cubs are born during the hibernation period. Polar bears have no natural enemies. Their greatest threat comes from hunting, but in the past 15 years most governments have placed strict limits on the hunting of polar bears. Their population has more than doubled in that time, and is now estimated to be between 21,000 and 28,000. They are not considered to be endangered. They are extremely aggressive and dangerous animals. While many bears actively avoid human contact, polar bears tend to view humans as prey. In encounters between humans and polar bears, the bear almost always wins. Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover layout was produced with QuarkXPress 3.3 using the ITC Garamond font. Whenever possible, our books use RepKover, a durable and flexible lay-flat binding. If the page count exceeds RepKovers limit, perfect binding is used. The inside layout was designed by Nancy Priest and implemented in FrameMaker 5.0 by Mike Sierra. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. The screen shots that appear in the book were created in Adobe Photoshop 4 and the illustrations were created in Macromedia Freehand 7.0 by Robert Romano. This colophon was written by Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary. |
|
Description
|
Table of Contents
|
Product Details
|
About the Author
|
Colophon
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Recommended for You
|
Recently Viewed
|
|
|
By Robert Bruce Thompson
October 1997
By Bryan Costales, Eric Allman
March 1997
By Æleen Frisch
January 1998
|
Customer Reviews
2/19/2010 (1 of 1 customers found this review helpful) 4.0a classic for info architecture By maybanks from san francisco - Accurate
- Concise
- Well-written
3/28/2001 4.0Information Architecture for the World Wide Web Review By Marc Hil Macalua from Undisclosed 8/25/2000 4.0Information Architecture for the World Wide Web Review 7/3/2000 (1 of 2 customers found this review helpful) 3.0Information Architecture for the World Wide Web Review By redifuse from Undisclosed |
|
|
