Replies: 2 comments

I tend to think of information architecture and navigation design as separate but related fields.

Information architecture is deciding what goes where on the site. Navigation design is how to help people navigate your information architecture.

The way I use the terms, this article is a lot more about navigation design than information architecture. There wasn't much in it on how to structure the information or content of a site.

The information is still useful and valid. But one of the "good usability" items for me is having what I find when I click on a link correspond to my expectations. In this case, that didn't happen.

Am I alone in using the terms this way?

Posted by David Tallan @ 01/16/2002 02:46 PM EST

I disagree that information architecture and navigation design are two separate disciplines; I think that IA encompasses both organization *and* navigation. The way I practice IA, it covers: organization (how the information is grouped/classified), navigation (global, local, contextual, supplementary--the various paths through that content), labeling (the system for naming the structures and the navigation elements) and search (a supplementary navigation aid that warrants its own consideration because over half of users are "search dominant").

I think that there is overlap between information architecture and interaction design when it comes to designing local navigation--determining the paths/page flows for deep content areas/to the page level of the site. And of course, wherever there is overlap, there is room for contention.