  A tech writer friend told me how proud his 93- year old grandma ( Grammy Bertha”  was when she found out that he had become an architect.  He couldn’ t bring himself to tell her that he wasn’
t the kind of architect she had in mind.  Probably just as well.  She would not have understood that while a traditional architect designs and directs the construction of buildings,  an information architect is designs the organization of a website's structure and content,  the labeling and categorizing of information and the design of navigation and search systems.  It’
s a whole new world,  Bertha.  Although the term information architecture has become a commonly used term in the world of web design,  its origin stems back to the 1970’ s.  Long before the internet was a household mainstay,
 Richard Saul Wurman,  a trained architect who later became a skilled graphic designer coined the term information architecture.  Wurman recognized the similarities between designing a building and the problems of organizing and clearly presenting information.  Just as an information organizer or information architect evaluates and arranges information,  when designing a building,  an architect analyzes the building’
s use and designs the flow and layout so that it best meets user needs.  Since Wurman’ s conception of the term information architecture,  many variations have evolved stemming from a need to organize an ever increasing influx of information presented by the Internet and other communication platforms.  The variations fall within three basic categories:  the actual structure,
 the physical act of creating the structure and the community that promotes the structure and practices the act of creating it.  The following definition expressed by Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture ( AIfIA)  further defines these categories:  “ 1.
 The structural design of shared information environments.  2.  The art and science of organizing and labeling web site,  intranets,  online communities and software to support usability and findability.  3.
 An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and information architecture to the digital landscape. AIfIA)  The Actual Structure Information architecture is often used to describe the structure or the blue print behind the information.  This can best be described by an example taken from Shel Kimen’ s definition of information architecture,  “
In a library,  for example,  information architecture is a combination of the catalog system and the physical design of the building that holds the books.  On the Web,  information architecture is a combination of organizing a site’ s content into categories and creating an interface to support those categories.
 ( Kimen)  The Physical Act of Creating the Structure The occupation of web designer has become more prevalent,  and the term information architecture has been adopted to describe what web designers do.  Because of this,  “
the physical act of creating a structure”  definition of information architecture has grown to be the most common use of the term.  The act of creating dynamic web sites that guide people through information is the foundation,  as both of the definitions below illustrate.  Mattie Langenburg refers to information architecture as,  “
taking content and creating a structure to present that content to an audience.  ( Cohen)  Additionally,  WebWord says,  “
Information architecture involves the design of organization and navigation systems to help people find and manage information more successfully.  ( Rhodes)  The Community that Promotes the Structure and Practices the Act of Creating it Information architecture also refers to the community that is affected,  works within and works for the information environment.  This community evolves as the value of structure gains visibility with key business members.
 The global information community serves as a communication link for the information architect to the rest of the business.  This global community connects the architect to tools,  development opportunities and research while advocating the information architecture basis.  Because this definition of community is evolving,  few concrete definitions exist.  However,
 considering there are entire organizations and web sites devoted to the advancement of information architecture as a community,  it warrants discussion as a definition of information architecture.  Although information architecture carries multiple definitions,  the term itself is becoming more common as web sites become more complex and the need for specialized knowledge increases.  Information architecture can refer to the actual structure of the information on a web page,  while also referring to the roles of the architect in creating the structure and the community that supports it.
 References Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture ( AIfIA)  http: aifia. org/ pg/
about_aifia. php Cohen,  Sacha.  Becoming an Informational Architect.  http: technology.
monster. com/ articles/ infoarchitect/  Kimen,  Shel.
10 Questions about Information Architecture.  CNet.  June 22,  1999.  http: builder.
com. com/ 5100- 31- 5074224. html Shimple,
 John.  Information Architecture.  HotWired.  http: hotwired. com/
webmonkey/ 98/ 28/ index0a. html? tw=
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