December 17, 2001 New Thinking:
Information architecture versus graphic design

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• The Web is a literate rather than a visual medium. That is to say that words, and not images, are the building blocks for the vast majority of websites. Commercial graphic design focuses on grabbing the consumer's attention through the use of strong visual images, and short emotive phrases. Graphic design is concerned with how a page looks. Information architecture design is concerned with how a page reads.
• The Web is an active rather than a passive medium. We are constantly making decisions such as to search for a particular term, to click on a particular link, etc. information architecture design is concerned with supporting such decisions through search and navigation processes.
• The Web is a visually constrained environment. Computer screen size and resolution, combined with download issues, mean that visual experiences are poor on the Web. Certainly, in comparison to a glossy magazine or a large TV screen, the Web cannot compete from a visual communication point of view.
• The Web is accessed through computers. By their very nature computers are functional, work-oriented tools. You sit upright, close to a screen. Most people buy computers for two principal reasons. Firstly, to work. Secondly, to educate themselves or their children.
• The Web is a time sensitive environment. There is one word to describe the average person who uses the Web: impatient. People don't like being kept waiting on the Web.
• The very architecture of the Web is about linking pieces of content. Effective web design is about organizing and classifying content so that it can be easily found and read, listened to or viewed.
• AOL, Ebay, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, CNN, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Napster and Cisco, are just some examples of organizations that take an information rather than graphic design approach to web design.

In response to my last column, many people were upset that I should describe the Web as a library. But it is a library. It's a library of books, ideas, music, art, cars, houses, government legislation, technology news, computer software and hardware. Unfortunately, the Web is a library that very often has the books on the floor and the lights turned out. information architecture design is about turning the lights on and putting the 'books' in their proper place.

I'd like to finish with a quote. It's from one of the most extensive surveys of public opinion on the Internet, which was published by the Markle Foundation in the summer of 2001:

“By far the leading metaphor for the Internet in the public’s mind is not 'a shopping mall' or 'banking and investment office,' but rather 'a library.' Despite the popular depiction of the Internet as a channel for commerce, the public mostly views it as a source of information, and these uses appear to explain its popularity much more than its utility as a way to shop, bank, or invest.”

Let's give the public what they want.


Gerry McGovern


 

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