Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites

With a swift and convincing stroke, the authors of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web tear down many entrenched ideas about Web design. Flashy animations are cool, they agree, as long as they don't aggravate the viewer. Nifty clickable icons are nice, but are their meanings universal? Is the search engine providing results that are useful and relevant? This book acts as a mirror and with careful questioning causes the reader to think through all the elements and decisions required for well-crafted Web design. --Jennifer Buckendorff

Product Description

The over-riding concern and emphasis in the first section of the book is on how to organize the information on the web site in such a way that the target audience can readily get at it. To this end, the authors focus on three 'systems' that need to be developed, implemented and coordinated on a web site: a navigation system, a labeling system and a searching system. Once these systems are thought through and designed then the rest of the work becomes a matter of filling in the information content, functionalities and the bells and whistles.

Clear, concise and even a bit humorous, this book will definitely give you a peace of mind if you find yourself a bit overwhelmed at times when deciding on just how you will approach building a web site.


The best book about Web design strategy on the market!   October 16, 2002
John Zapolski
27 out of 28 found this review helpful

With the second edition, Morville and Rosenfeld have met a pretty significant challenge: surpassing their first book. The new edition is chock full of great new chapters on topics both technical and creative.

By covering subjects like thesauri, CVs, and metadata, while at the same time tackling headfirst "big picture" ideas of information architecture, the two authors are to be commended for writing a book that is at once instructive to advanced practioners yet still recommendable to strategists, designers, programmers, and others who might have only a vague notion of information architecture. And the chapter on business strategy is as good an introduction as I've read in any business book.

This book is the closest anyone has come to a single book addressing all of the complexity and challenges of organizing, structuring, and managing large scale Web sites, and does so with clear, easy-to-read prose eshewing jargon and consultant-speak. Quite an accomplishment, indeed!


Great 2nd Edition Update   June 22, 2003
E. Griffin (Wilton, CT, USA)
44 out of 49 found this review helpful

This is a great book to introduce business people to information architecture, for architects to reinforce their skills, and for web designers to principles to apply to site design. The second edition has more information and is more in depth than the first, and is well worth purchasing.

The first three chapters of the book explore what information architecture is and what it is needed. Chapters 4 - 9, the "Basic Principles of Information Architecture" have the most substance. Several chapters bear reading several times, including:

Chapter 5: Organization Systems, Chapter 7: Navigation Systems, Chapter 8: Search Systems and Chapter 9: Thesauri, Controlled Vocabularies, and Metadata

The sections on Process and Methodologyactice, and Organizational fit are all good for people learning about IA, but may be too basic for anyone that does a lot of work or reading in the field. The Education Chapter is already out of date, which is to be expected.

IA for the World Wide Web is a great book, worth reading and worth hanging onto for reference or to use to explain the IA to others.


Kudos to Rosefeld and Morville   October 16, 2000
K. Mohnkern (Pittsburgh, PA USA)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful

A book on web design written by librarians. Skeptical? So was I. But darned if they don't hit the ol' web design nail right on the ol' head. (Okay, they're not really librarians - but both authors come from a Library Science background.) When I started on my Interaction Design masters degree, there wasn't anything written sepcifically about it. So my education was based on other fields - architecture, rhetoric, psychology, graphic design. Now we're starting to see some good Interaction Design books coming from experts in those other fields.

The strength of this book is its emphasis on defining a navigable structure for a site. It covers structure, navigation, searching/browsing, and this is the first book I've seen that spends a whole chapter on button and link labelling systems. It's added labelling to my ID vocabulary.

I do agree with another reviewer who wanted more in-depth examples, but with enough web experience it's easy to come up with examples on our own. So I gave the book the fifth star.

This and Jennifer Fleming's Web Navigation (both O'Reilly books) are must-haves for web designers.


Web Development Requires a Solid Foundation!   May 23, 2000
Jim Moran
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

Today many Website design technologies and rigid content requirements have made Web development a more demanding task. Although there are many fine Website design books around to assist Webmasters, a return to the basics of design layout is in serious order.

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web offers readers the guidance they need to design Websites that are easy to manage, navigate, and expand as mission requirements change. Rather than discussing strict HTML and Web graphics design, the authors focus upon the actual mapping out of Websites to insure that they are properly structured and will deliver content in an efficient and orderly manner.

Rosenfeld and Morville outline the main job tasks of the information architect and the disciplinary background they should possess or cultivate. They cite backgrounds in library science, journalism, engineering, marketing, graphics design, and computer science as essential disciplines to be embraced. When brought together and put into practice they will perform important roles in developing an eye and mindset for successful Web development.

The authors discuss important Website design considerations such as the productive use of screen real estate, navigational bars, frames, pull-down menus, and other features that can be employed to effectively deliver Website content. Although this line of instruction is not the main emphasis of the book, the brief addressing of these features assist readers to gain added perspective of the overall strategy of delivering, you guessed it, Web content!

Readers are instructed to perform thorough research to determine answers to questions such as: What are the goals? What can your clients afford? Who are the intended audiences? Why will people visit a site? What types of content should and should not be part of the site? Answers to these and other questions should be determining factors throughout the entire Web development process.

Readers will find the discussions involving brainstorming extremely helpful. This activity should be of major concern during the Web development process. The use of boards, flipcharts, mockups, design sketches, developing prototypes, metaphor exploration, creating scenarios, and structured blueprints can greatly enhance the entire development process.

Reading this book will be for many a refreshing and stimulating experience. Readers will gain valuable behind-the-scenes insight necessary to successfully design Websites that not only look good but perform well to achieve intended goals. Good HTML, programming language scripts, and flashy Web graphics are not enough. Pick up some solid visionary thinking skills. Highly recommended!