AIFIA | Future of Information Architecture

Survey, January 2003
The decisions we make today are influenced by our implicit assumptions about tomorrow. During these turbulent times, all of us can benefit by asking the difficult questions and sharing insights. This survey is part of an effort to identify important trends and possible futures for information architecture. Results will be analyzed during the upcoming Leadership Seminar.

1. What has been the single most important development in the practice of information architecture in the last 5 years?

The creation of new positions for information architects in a wide variety of organizations.
Only one huh? Possibly the acknowlegdement that IA is needed for online distribution. Gone are the days where flashy design can dictate a company's web requirements - form over function. Also I recently was at a gathering where I met a product manager who not only knew what IA is but told ME what value it has and how he NEEDS an IA for his division.
The development of navigation and interaction patterns (other than inverted L) in web sites / web applications.
its incorporation into mainstream project vocabulary and understanding of its need and purpose
The formation of groups to promote the practice and educate the professional world of its importance.
The migration of desktop applications and client-server applications to the web browser. This opens up the world to yet another Tsunami of information needing architecture provides a least common denominator (the browser) which is OS platform independent and raises the level of expectations for more robust (desktop application-like) funtionality (and development of IA/UI standards to go with it) being available on the world wide web.
hype...going on and on about the same thing. it aint rocket science girls n boys!
User Research
Figuring out how to communicate - the fact that companies are hiring Information Architects means we're able to communicate what our field does (even as we're in the process of defining it).
Polar Bear books
The monetization of the web (i.e. e-commerce e-tailing) that made evident to companies tangible connections between information design & usability and the bottomline.
The documentation and presentational tools for envisioning websites. They allow team members to communicate about IA and IA ideas to be delivered to clients.
The solidification of an IA methodology.
Technology has evolved to a point where IA now the next logical critical skill in furthering the usefulness of the Internet and related technologies.
Site Maps
The acceptance of user-centered design practices
The death of the internet boom without doubt. While IA survived as a discipline since the bust the most basic aspect of a professional discipline - progressing along a career-path of increasing responsibility that might move one moving from student to intern to beginning professional to senior practitioner to team manager to department director - is unavailable to most IA's. While many active IA's found places after the crash and will continue to prosper it is impossible to attract enough new adherents to constitute a next generation when there is no career path available to them. This can and must change.
a community in which to talk about it and exchange perspectives and techniques -- which in turn gains legitimacy for the practice.
The widespread understanding that information needs to be organised around people in modern companies. Five years ago information was treated with regimes such as ISO9001 and any (!) architecture was intended to be learned and even trained into employees. That is no longer a viable option and companies realise that information must be based around people both internally and externally in an all encompassing manner and the acheivement of such is seen as a sign of business maturity rather than becoming entrenched into pointless standards.
The emergence of the job title 'information architect'
The realization that IA has to tie in with real-life aspects of profit margin actual goals etc. It's not good to be innovative simply for the sake of it. I'm thinking of menus you can't see until you happen to roll over them... thank god you don't see nearly as much of that these days.
The demise of Argus - a major blow to the concept of IA as a stand-alone discipline.
The fact that its becoming more commonly recognized in the software development community as a necessary part of the design/develop process.
the emergence of the discipline
the invention of information architecture? ;-) Strangely enough probably teh SIGIA list. it has provided a forum for ideas and a place for us to share a vocabulary and ideas.
The launching of the SIG-IA listserv following the first ASIST IA Summit was perhaps the most important event.
e-commerce
implications of content management on IA
A standardization of the design process realizing the best practices of all.
The adoption of the Internet in increasing numbers and the increasing sophistication of users.
Publication of the Polar Bear book.
The recession. A depressed economic environment has brought new clarity and focus to Web projects clearing the way for IA to establish its value proposition. And thanks to the brutal laws of economics there are now fewer unqualified or semi-qualified professionals calling themselves IAs; which is very good news for the profession as a whole.
The recognization by companies that the structure labeling and organization of their website is important and deserves resources and support. They are finally understanding that just because it looks pretty doesn't mean that people can find things on it.
google search engine
that it came into existance
People coming together and sharing their work processes and solutions. THis has enabled the building of a common vocabulary and common practices which helps the industry/profession stabilize.
Focusing of bottom-up inforamtion architecture to differentiate from other user experience roles
Publication of the book Information Architecture for the WWW
Oddly enough it has to be content management software. Originally intended to make anyone an expert at organizing and publishing online content they merely opened the eyes of many executives to the needs of professionals whose job it is to be concerned with structure and organization of information.
An understanding at the BUSINESS level of the importance and necessity of the discipline in designing building and delivering strong user experiences.
The building of an IA community with recognized leaders who help pull/push the field along.
There hasn't been any significant development in the industry
the actual practice of information architecture
site maps
That it's become widely recognized as a separate role field and practice.
the recognition of its existence and necessity as a process.
The end of the dotcom bubble which forced everyone to take a more serious look to the Internet and what can be donde with it.
5 years? Simply put the practice of information architecture. Looking back 5 years I see that IA was around people talked about it but it was hardly practiced. I live in Portland and I work in the web field. Most of the local companies never had IAs they had designers and developers who took on some basic (and often poorly implemented) work of IA. Back then there were three production roles: programmers (ASP Perl etc) developers (markup JavaScript) and designers (Photoshop)... the Project Manager took the initive to do the site flows the designers took the initive to do the navigational structures the programmers took the initive to do the backend logic that translated to very primitive thesari etc and the developers took the initive to piece it all together and maybe documentate it if they were lucky and found themselfs will some free time. Today this isn't the case... there are actually roles for IAs that do this stuff with greater skill. Today people don't spend their money on redesigns they spend it on rearchitecting.
Common recognition that usability practices have positive ROI.
Content Management Systems: When we used to code web pages by hand the architecture of a site had to be built and maintained from scratch often page by page. Content management systems have streamlined information architecture management adding preset rules for information management that improve the speed of development and ease of maintenance of the overall architecture of a site. On the otherhand preset rules can be detrimental by limiting the ability of the site developers to create a site architecture that is optimal for its purposes.
It was essentially unknown five years ago outside a tiny group of people.
The splitting off of I.A. from the related disciplines of visual design/software design.
The development of XML.
The growing recognition of the value of IA and affiliates (UXD HCI ID) has got to be the most important development. Without business champions this would be little more than an intellectual exercise.
The most important development I've seen exemplified at the large financial institution where I currently work is the growing role of information architecture in business strategy. As human faces become computer interfaces information architecture becomes the conduit for communication both within the organization and between the organization and the folks outside.If business folks aren't thinking about IA concepts and IA folks aren't thinking about business strategy the consequences are real and quantifiable.
Polar Bear book
My answer to that is the medium that has enabled this work the Internet.
Lots of people getting practical experience and real knowledge and sharing it
I'd have to say the establishment of SIG-IA within ASIST and the corresponding summit conferences.
The recognition that the tools to do this have existed for years in the profession principles and practice of library science.

2. What frustrates you most about the practice of information architecture today?

We're experiencing a transition from the pioneer period (where ideas about how to describe and do IA were important) to the performance period (where what's important is doing good IA within real world situations). As we cross this chasm the community leaders need to find new roles or new communities.
Despite the advances it has made within companies I've personally been met with too much skepticism re: IA. Sr. managers feel its there right and responsibility to dictate what organization and labeling are to be for their sites; they see IA as a small component of usability and and minimize its importance...
The continuous lack of a strict definition of IA (even when I want to deviate from that; no starting point means no deviation to specify).
it seems like every book that comes out talks about the same principles we've been discussing since the polar bear book. it appears as if it's hit a wall and is not truly expanding and evolving.
People assume I am a developer or a designer. I do neither. The art or practice of organizing and structuring information is taken for granted.. everyone just thinks that anyone can do it.
You mean besides defining the damn thing ? *_* You mean besides the aggregation of diverse job descriptions and lack of viable employment options due to fallout of a failing economy? I would have to say the most frustrating thing about it is a lack of support from many in the development community...their hesitance to share control over product organization and deployment [I get plenty of support and my Design & Architecture team is a subset of development; and yet I feel that management CEOs MBAs sales and marketing have all accepted the need for a user centered design process...and most developers pay lip service to it...but when the chips are down a development team's reluctance to rework old code can often be the most difficult obstacle in a product re-design.
clients don't get it sometimes...convincing clients who just want a database that works...that's all they see.
Politics correct Vs user needs
Not enough high-quality resources. The listserv idea is great but SIGIA is too much fighting not enough substance.
The constant on-going struggle to have clients (both internal and external) buy into the benefits of IA & usability.
The lack of IA specific tools.
There are many new people entering the field who don't know what they are doing but are getting jobs bc they'll take lower salaries. I guess that's the same in every industry but since the jobs are scarce as it is it frightens me to see a lot of the work that's done by these new professionals.
So many UX folks have jumped on the bandwagon. IA has a chance to become a sustainable lonterm profession but it will disappear unless it becomes concise and focused. It is not the end-all be0-all strategic integration discipline. It is about structuring information. Focusing on this will allow it to loive on. Broadening the focus will destroy it.
Separation between conceptual diagrams and actual code
The people who are experts are so because they decided to tell everybody they are. No-one's really been doing this for a long time.
the very same community. it so rarely says hey that's a cool idea! and so often degrades into quibbling and book promotions.
It is equated with a technical task like programming within projects [if it takes two men two days to dig a hole how long will it take four men] when its contextual and political nature requires immersion in an organisation and reflection over a long period of time. A colleague was allocated three days in a project plan to architect an entire intranet site.
The inability of the 'information architects' to unify behind a definition of their practice; the fact that it is viewed more as a role than a skill
There's a bunch of people doing very similar or at least related things but claiming it's a completely different thing. Small IA Big IA traditional requirement definition user experience strategy interaction design... all of these things have no practical every-day deliniations-- we should all just learn from each other and figure out how we can integrate bits and aspects from each
Lack of appropriate integrated tool to manage work products and integrate them with other prodcution disciplines.
Lack of cohesiveness. Information architect usability engineer interaction designer visual designer user interface designer user advocate. There are many definitions job titles and overlap between them. Ask me what I am and I'm all of the above at different times. Our internal confusion of who we are and what we do will confuse people outside our field.
IA isn't real to the people who have the power. To my bosses co-workers and clients IA is just a buzzword at best (usually).
that the community seems to want to appropriate ideas from many fields (which I think is very good) but then wants to denigrate practitioners in these fields. for example graphic design theory forms some of the basis for ia theories (clarity communication layout) however graphic designers themselves are often seen as problems by IA's. Similar issues seem to arise with system analysis and system analysts. in reality i think that outside of such area as New York and Silicon Valley people who do ia often wear many many many hats.
having to justify its value to would-be clients that don't get it. Like: Isn't information architecture just asking questions you'd have to ask anyway to build the thing -- i.e. why pay for this exercise separately?
Reductionism of the role. IA used to be about all the Elements of User Experience (as defined by JJG) but now has devolved in being more about individual tasks such as creating controlled vocabularies. It's hard to sell the bits of IA--easier to sell ourselves as the bridge between the users and the technology from strategy to interface.
The difficulty in selling the value of IA to potential clients.
Endless navel-gazing about defining the damn thing.
the practice doesn't frustrate me but the IA community does - often - by fostering unseemly levels of self-promotion and posturing at least in certain quarters. I would like to see the community as a whole striking a more reserved dispassionate tone - less like a trade marketing group and more - I shudder to say this - academic.
I can't really say that there is something about the field at large that frustrates me. I think things are moving ahead. I wish there were more jobs in IA (in more places than SF or NYC so I could move out of the city) but I think that has more to do with the economy than IA per se. On a more personal level what frustrates me is the dependence upon IS I have for making more signifant and out there IA changes on the sites I work on. The basics are working well now (nav labels metadata etc). But as far as really refining search or creating dynamic browsable libraries of resources or leveraging our metadata to automatically generate pages - I need IS resources to do that and there aren't enough IS folk to go around. So these nifty IA tools that could really help our users out don't get done because IS is too busy fixing fires.
the search engines failures
Still too many broad definitions out there - by practitioners by companies hiring. This makes it seem as if IA is everything and nothing. Impossible to grow new IAs if we aren't clear on what the field encompasses or if it really is something else.
The need to continually define the terms; just defining we are multi disiplined should be enough
Not really **frustration** however I wish that I got opportunities to do IA-related work more iteratively.
It doesn't fit in. Meaning that in design houses it is looked at as being to tech and process heavy and in tech houses its viewed as being too design oriented. I guess that points to the larger issue of most people still not knowing what it means. People who practice can't even get a solid handle on the definition without fighting. How is anyone else to grok the concept?
The incesseant bickering over definitions and the lack of focus on the variety of work performed by those who are practitioners and not just those few individuals who have written books or who work for Adaptive Path or Carbon IQ.
Continued controversy over what IA is and sniping from related professions. Also the lack of general understanding about what IA is and why it is important. If corporate leaders don't understand it why should they hire IAs?
Talking about the same stuff we were talking about 5 years ago. No real developments.
We dive to quickly into making a site come alive before asking the most basic questions (and getting the answers to those most basic questions). Like - Why should this site exist? OR Why would people want to visit this site?
That the usability and IA are seen as one-time things and companies are not investing in long-term development of site usability. Also that even many professional IAs downplay the importance of accessibility in their designs.
Simplistic approaches to structure. Lack of simple indicators for return on investment on a more considered IA process
The difficulty of selling a capacity to organize information in a World where everyone thinks of himself as an expert in the field.
- Bickering IAs vs. designers/developers IAs vs. Experience Designers IAs vs. Usability Engineers etc. - The lack of a real definition Even Lou's book fails to properly identify exactly what IA is which causes a huge problem and leads t
The practice of information architecture is invisible. The web has created an amazing opportunity for improved information management but these projects are being led by marketing and technology departments who have been trained in ROI or server performance rather than how to ensure optimal information management and retrieval. The result is a lot of very attractive high performing websites that don't necessarily inform the user to the greatest degree.
It's becoming a balkanized specialization intent on dissapearing up its own ass. SIGIA is basically useless and is filled with people who refuse to learn from each other waiting around for a few rockstars to write a few lines. IAs on the list seem incapable of analysing others' work or in really looking at structure in any meaningful way. There's no commonly accepted standards of quality and people seem to think that criticism only means telling you what's wrong with your opinion and work.
The time wasted on various groups claiming I.A. for themselves. I really don't care if the library scientists think it's about findability or if the visual designers think it's about user experience. Folks in practical terms it's about all of those things together.
Having people pay lip service to its importance yet not provide the resources (time money people) necessary to accomplish it successfully.
Two things: in the business context the conclusion that this process is a quick-fix to heal all interaction / usability wounds. Within the field of practice itself the tendency to gaze at our own belly-buttons i.e. fixation with defining (and agreeing) on Who We Are.
My concerns are mostly practical. I work in a fairly blessed environment and I am extremely persuasive. Nothing frustrates me more than poor planning/project management.The benefit of researching and validating before building is still lost on most project managers and generally requires countermanagement (giving them your schedule before they give you theirs ;) Also working backwards from a fabricated deadline is always a pleasure. That's me but the problem I see in sigia-l and other folks is that they don't know what being an IA means. In many ways it's an in the blood thing. We're the editors...
that it is too broadly defined. It should stick to its structural & semantical intents instead of dabbling into behavior and visual.
I am not frustrated this is only the beginning of a long road. We are just in the beginning phases of the Internet.
The endless silly arguments by people trying to make IA equal the things they happen to do in their present job
Lack of theory perspecitve and tools
That everybody says they want it no one is willing to pay for it and no one wants to hear that it takes time to make it happen.

3. What will cause the greatest changes in the practice of information architecture over the next 5 years?

High-bandwidth wireless will drive much higher adoption / use of the Internet which will increase the need for people with IA skills.
Since I feel IA acknowledgement has grown substantially over the last 5 years I think its natural progression will enable it as a major job function in the next 5. Usability Artist Information Designer Experience Design - all may be actual job titles. Something similar to the way product management has grown in importance since the late 70's.
The webbification of a lot more services and processes (not just on the world wide web but also within off-line applications) and the necessary associated move towards unification of navigation and interaction.
the changing face of the Web and software (i.e. rapidly evolving technologies increased bandwidths etc.) will create new challenges for today's IA's that will hpoefully expand on our current skillsets.
The increased importance of being able to find track and connect information (like in a national database or suspected terrorists or criminals etc.) will bring forth a new respect for the practice. Once more people understand that it takes a certain skill to do this job that not everyone possesses our field will gain momentum.
Broadband. The IA of the future will be less librarian and more programming manager [as in the job description of a program scheduler at a TV station]. Film editing skills will weigh in heavy as the IA of the future is forced to sort out the best possible method of integrating segues between multiple moving picture segments.
usability testing field studies
don't know
IA is so broadly defined right now that I think it will work to our detriment down the road. It's hard to pitch myself as a UI designer taxonomist UX/usability specialist etc. We need to figure out a way to specialize in the field without losing aspects of the others.
Any time a cause or practice can gain high-exposure for its benefits benefits that impact people's lives in a meaningful significant way that's what gets people's (and companies') attention and that's how something like the practice of IA will gain traction.
The formation of academic institutions around IA
Industry requirements. I think the next five years will demonstrate the need for IA...whether the role will be absorbed into a multitude of others or will remain independent.
When the current buzz wears off IA will move to information structuring in a commodity role. This is a hugely important role but the strategic roles will move toward the ways in which we begin to use the vast amounts of information that are slowly being structured tagged and labeled and available via the Internet.
A visual language to describe structure and interaction flow that is closely and persistently wedded to the code base. And tools to work with
When IA really becomes a field with specialties such as faceted classification and search design etc... we can happily have generaliss and specialists living together in harmony. If we can stop arguing the rest of the world can start listening.
I think it will disappear from the general consulting world and return to being per-project for hire small shops sort of work. General consultancies like Booz Allen and Accenture never had IA as an offering and in this climate won't invest -- and if they do they won't understand what they're investing in. You'll see more people running their own small businesses as information architects and user experience researchers and hiring out.
Maturity of intranets will lead to enterprise information architectures in the majority of large companies. These projects will be immense but the only way for companies to be able to cope with large amount of information reduce costs in a bear market and improve employee satisfaction. This will lead to a proliferation of information architect sub-species as described in Morville's Dream Team. This in turn will lead to more-in-a-long-and-tedious-series-of-self-definition arguments that will slow down the whole process spawn more Derek Rogersons make the whole thing more difficult to explain and split the vision within projects under many practitioners.
The decrease in importance of the WWW as-it-is-today; the movement towards whatever-comes-next
A practical compelling awareness among decisionmakers of what IA actually is.
continuing development and refinements in pda's wireless devices kiosks dvd's along with the web.
developing products with dynamically-driven content
New technologies especially wireless and handheld devices.
The adoption of new technologies.
Increasing adoption of technologies that make automated categorization available particular on the desktop computer (e.g. virtual folders in email). I'm not saying this will improve IA; but the marketplace will force us to adapt.
Web services and the rise of client-executable Web applications the Semantic Web (maybe) and the emergence of self-organizing information spaces - will force IAs to reinvent their roles in a post-document-centric world.
information visualization
The ability to think about content data and information conceptually and feed into the ways that it is then transferred and swapped between systems.
Public awareness of the benefit of Information Architecture.
The ability or inability to continue to show value of the work. For many IA is seen as a burden to shrinking and disappearing project budgets. How can the practice be shown to be worthwhile? How will the ROI of IA staff members be effectively communicated to management?
When we stop being so focused on ourselves and begin to focus on our partnerships and the ways in which we work with others and fit into the field of Experience Design/User Experience as a whole.
Increasing numbers of IA degrees/increased professionalism in the field. Corporations' continued need for cost savings driving them to hire more in-house IAs rather than using consultants. Expansion of user interfaces in smaller more discrete technologies i.e. the computer screen on your refrigerator that connects directly to your grocery store so you can scan the items you use and get an automatic reorder.
convergence. yes i know it's easy to laugh at these days but the integration of internet wireless and other platforms like video games is where it's at. aside from the internet browser (ie/netscape) there is no real discussion on what else is going on. when was the last time you heard someone discuss the IA of video games?
the actual practice of information architecture
The increase of budgets for interactive media in advertising.
I think it's in great danger of being subsumed again into other roles and fields and practices; I hope that won't be the case. I think the continuing importance of metadata development will cause the split between metadata/librarianship-based IAs and more user experience-based IAs already a tension to widen possibly leading to one role or another getting subsumed into another field.
More integrated development tools (content invetory/site diagrams > requirements). Software and online services held to account like any other public service or product
The proliferation of open source solutions which will put at the reach of everyone's hands the possibility of easily creating a site... only to discover that a good architecture is not a given thing.
A clear definition a concentrated focus a widly accepted understanding. Seriously. I think that most companies that do not have IAs do not have them because they are not crystal clear what the role of an IA is and if they already have people who do IA.... more so they see enough overlap (because IA is not clearly defined) that they feel they don't need it... (IA? isn't that just another name for usability?). Stop arguing start defining determine a goal and direction.... move forward as a field and as a practice. From there credibility will acrew and the rest will fall in place.
Library programs have gotten much more sophisticated since I worked as a undergraduate work/study student at a MLS program's library. One hopes that groups like IAfIA will promote the integration of information architecture with general IT/web initiatives to improve information management in the future.
Someone outside the field will solve our problems while we bicker and argue over theory.
The tech crash. I believe I.A. is on its way out as a discrete functional role - it's simply too costly to keep an I.A. around who can't do development or visual design. I.A. will instead be a required skill for developers and designers.
The continued proliferation of information will make its organization prioritization classification and effective presentation even more essential than they are today. The codification of metadata standards will both make classification easier and make its application more desirable and effective.
When IA and affiliates simply become part of the process that is to say ubiquity. To paraphrase Pogo I have met the architect and he is me.
I think voice interfaces 3D imaging and virtual interfaces will be the biggest challenges. Not. I think there will be far less marquee work to be done and much more bread and butter content management/organization type work. I also think hybrid IA-BSA roles will be more common as businesses construct and MEASURE. Consultants will continue to have a hard time selling the vaporous-sounding user experience and companies will rely much more on inhouse folks to apply tactical upgrades and strategic enhancements that above all are measureable.
The creation of tools that support the efforts of IAs (taxonomy engines and DTD for controlled vocabularies and better diagramming tools) ... But we need to educate the world about why these tools are necessary.
The method in which people interact with machines.
More practical experience and the development of some solid toolkits/best practices/bodies of knowledge
The academic teaching of IA as well as the creation of standard work methods and tools.
If the data mess we have created causes some catastropic event that costs organizations extreme financial loss that becomes obvious. Meaning the data mess is the cause of the catastophic event and its nasty consequences.

Survey Notes

This survey was conducted January 14-15, 2003. Members of sigia and aifia were invited to participate. A total of 60 responses were collected. Please direct any questions to Peter Morville.

See Also

A second follow-up survey was conducted in late January 2003. Results are available in PDF and Excel formats.