Information Architect (noun.)

Definition: A person who helps other people determine or improve their information architecture.

Also referenced as:

Related to: Architect, Controlled Vocabulary, Diagram, Frame, Information Architecture, Ontology, Structure, Taxonomy


Chapter 4: Choose a Direction | Page 95

Words I don’t say in this eBook.

I’ve avoided using these terms and concepts:

  1. Doing/Do the IA (commonly misstated)
  2. IA (as an abbreviation)
  3. Information Architecture (as a proper noun)
  4. Information Architect (exceptions in my dedication and bio pages)
  5. App as an abbreviation (too trendy)
  6. Very (the laziest word ever)
  7. User experience (too specific to design)
  8. Metadata (too technical)
  9. Semantic (too academic)
  10. Semiotic (too academic)

I have reasons why these words aren’t good in the context of this book. That doesn’t mean I never use them; I do in some contexts.

Chapter 7: Prepare to Adjust | Page 159

Meet Abby.

Abby Covert is an information architect. After ten years of practicing information architecture for clients, Abby worried that too few people knew how to practice it themselves. She decided that the best way to help would be to teach this important practice.

After two years of teaching without a textbook, Abby told her students that she intended to write the book that was missing from the world: a book about information architecture for everybody.

As she wrote the first draft, she identified a mess of inconsistencies in the language and concepts inherent in teaching an emerging practice. At the end of the semester, she had a textbook for art school students, but she didn’t have the book that she intended to write for everybody. She had gone in the wrong direction to achieve a short-term goal.

She was frustrated and fearful of starting over. But instead of giving up, Abby faced her reality and used the advice in this book to make sense of her mess.

To get to the book you are reading, she wrote over 75,000 words, defined over 100 terms as simply as she could, and tested three unique prototypes with her users.

She hopes that it makes sense.