From the Publisher:
Some Web sites "work" and some don't Good Web site consultants know that you can't just jump in and start writing HTML, the same way you can't build a house by just pouring a foundation and putting up some walls You need to know who will be using the site, and what they'll be using it for You need some idea of what you'd like to draw their attention to during their visit Overall, you need a strong, cohesive vision for the site that makes it both distinctive and usable 
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is about applying the principles of architecture and library science to Web site design Each Web site is like a public building, available for tourists and regulars alike to breeze through at their leisure The job of the architect is to set up the framework for the site to make it comfortable and inviting for people to visit, relax in, and perhaps even return to someday 
Most books on Web development concentrate either on the aesthetics or the mechanics of the site This book is about the framework that holds the two together With this book, you learn how to design Web sites and intranets that support growth, management, and ease of use Special attention is given to: 
The process behind architecting a large, complex site Web site hierarchy design and organization Techniques for making your site easier to search


Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is for Webmasters, designers, and anyone else involved in building a Web site It's for novice Web designers who, from the start, want to avoid the traps that result in poorly designed sites It's for experienced Web designers who have already created sites but realize that something "is missing" from their sites and want to improve them It's for programmers and administrators who are comfortable with HTML, CGI, and Java but want to understand how to organize their Web pages into a cohesive site 
The authors are two of the principals of Argus Associates, a Web consulting firm At Argus, they have created information architectures for Web sites and intranets of some of the largest companies in the United States, including Chrysler Corporation, Barron's, and Dow Chemical

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web

In the Web, making judgments of information quality and authority is a difficult task for most users because overall, there is no quality control mechanism. This study examines the problem of the judgment of information quality and cognitive authority by observing people's searching behavior in the Web. Its purpose is to understand the various factors that influence people's judgment of quality and authority in the Web, and the effects of those judgments on selection behaviors. Fifteen scholars from diverse disciplines participated, and data were collected combining verbal protocols during the searches, search logs, and postsearch interviews. It was found that the subjects made two distinct kinds of judgment: predictive judgment, and evaluative judgment. The factors influencing each judgment of quality and authority were identified in terms of characteristics of information objects, characteristics of sources, knowledge, situation, ranking in search output, and general assumption. Implications for Web design that will effectively support people's judgments of quality and authority are also discussed.

/pdf/judgement-of-information-quality-and-cognitive-authority-in-17ekf2rxg2.pdf

Judgement of information quality and cognitive authority in the Web

“Serendipity” has both a classical origin in literature and a more modern manifestation where it is found in the descriptions of the problem solving and knowledge acquisition of humanities and science scholars. Studies of information retrieval and information seeking have also discussed the utility of the notion of serendipity. Some have implied that it may be stimulated, or that certain people may “encounter” serendipitous information more than others. All to some extent accept the classical definition of serendipity as a “fortuitous” accident. The analysis presented here is part of a larger study concerning the information‐seeking behaviour of interdisciplinary scholars. This paper considers the nature of serendipity in information‐seeking contexts, and reinterprets the notion of serendipity as a phenomenon arising from both conditions and strategies – as both a purposive and a non‐purposive component of information seeking and related knowledge acquisition.

/pdf/serendipity-and-information-seeking-an-empirical-study-5bslm6cs3n.pdf

Serendipity and information seeking: an empirical study

Being a controversial industry, oil companies turn to corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a means to obtain legitimacy. Adopting a case study methodology, this research examines the characteristics of CSR strategies and CSR communication tactics of six oil companies by analyzing their 2011–2012 web site content. We found that all six companies engaged in CSR activities addressing the needs of various stakeholders and had cross-sector partnerships. CSR information on these companies’ web sites was easily accessible, often involving the use of multimedia technologies and sometimes social media platforms. Furthermore, to boost the credibility of their CSR messages, these companies utilized a variety of tactics, such as factual arguments and two-sided messages. In sum, this research unveils the interconnectedness among business strategy, CSR practices, and CSR communication in oil companies’ attempt to gain legitimacy in an environment of controversy. The article ends with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings.

Striving for Legitimacy Through Corporate Social Responsibility: Insights from Oil Companies

We propose a data mining model that captures the user navigation behaviour patterns. The user navigation sessions are modelled as a hypertext probabilistic grammar whose higher probability strings correspond to the user's preferred trails. An algorithm to efficiently mine such trails is given. We make use of the N gram model which assumes that the last N pages browsed affect the probability of the next page to be visited. The model is based on the theory of probabilistic grammars providing it with a sound theoretical foundation for future enhancements. Moreover, we propose the use of entropy as an estimator of the grammar's statistical properties. Extensive experiments were conducted and the results show that the algorithm runs in linear time, the grammar's entropy is a good estimator of the number of mined trails and the real data rules confirm the effectiveness of the model.

Data Mining of User Navigation Patterns

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is about applying the principles of architecture and library science to web site design. Each website is like a public building, available for tourists and regulars alike to breeze through at their leisure. The job of the architect is to set up the framework for the site to make it comfortable and inviting for people to visit, relax in, and perhaps even return to someday.

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

The creation of guides to resources on the Internet specific to particular subjects have raised a number of interesting questions and issues. These issues fall into two broad categories: The Internet environment (its culture, virtual communities and netiquette ; agency and authority ; the nature of publication ; the importance and lack of standards ; and searching tools and processes) and the process of guide construction (the importance of people ; the nature of resources on the Net ; intellectual property ; levels of connectivity ; and time). Some conclusions are drawn regarding the future and evolution of information professions in this environment.

Networked information retrieval and organization: issues and questions

Architektura informacji w serwisach internetowych : [projektowanie dużych serwisów internetowych]

It may be a bit strange to consider where the field of information architecture (IA) is headed. After all, many would argue that it’s too new to be considered as a field at all, or that it is mislabeled, and by no means is there a widely accepted definition of what information architecture actually is. This uncertainty hasn’t crimped the discussion, however; unlike Gertrude Stein’s Oakland, there certainly is a there there. Practicing information architects probably number in the thousands, and this vibrant group is already building various forms of communal infrastructure, ranging from an IA journal and a self-organizing “library” of resources to a passel of local professional groups and degree-granting academic programs. Most importantly, there is no talk about the field disappearing in the face of the current economic downturn. Information architects, often working in “new economy” settings, have certainly felt the bite of the recent layoff mania. However, many employers have finally begun to realize that many of their key business problems are actually information problems, and that there are now a class of professionals—information architects—who can help address these problems. Information architects themselves are showing both resiliency and strong optimism regarding the long-term demand for their services. So the profession has achieved a beachhead that will enable it to stabilize and perhaps even grow during these difficult times. So, the field is picking up momentum. But what kind of field will it become? A best-guess answer may come from looking at history. When have other fields come together quickly, why, and what did they become? And can these past disciplinary lifecycles work as predictors for the evolution of information architecture? There are many candidate fields to consider, but the one that may ring truest is the emergence of management a century ago. Professional management arose in response to a revolutionary event: new transportation and communication technologies that enabled the rapid growth of multinational corporations. Where management often had been concentrated in the hands of a single individual, with the reigns passed from father to son, the multinational corporation demanded a class of management professionals with different yet complementary areas of expertise. Modern management, as an applied field, drew from many disparate professions, ranging from manufacturing to law to banking, and integrated these practices in new ways. Today’s MBA programs provide what is ultimately an interdisciplinary education, integrating practices and perspectives from areas as diverse as psychology (embodied in organizational psychology and marketing) to engineering (management information systems) to mathematics (accounting and forecasting). © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. ● Published online 11 June 2002 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/asi.10098 1 These topics appear with great regularity on the main information architecture disscussion list, SIGIA-L (http://www.info-arch.org/lists/ sigia-l/). 2 Boxes and Arrows, a journal dedicated to information architecture debuted in March, 2002 (http://www.boxesandarrows.com). 3 An information architecture “wiki” was begun in October 2001, and has rapidly gained steam as a collection of distributed information architecture resources; using wiki solftware, responsibilities for content addition, modification, and even deletion are shared by the disributed information architecture community (http://www.iawiki.net). 4 Information architecture “cocktail hours” are proliferating, and may be the grassroots kernels of local “chapters” of a future professional association of information architects (http://www.IAwiki.net/CocktailHours). 5 Information architecture courses have been taught at a number of acedemic venues, including programs in information sciences, libraianship, and graphic design. Now full specializations in information architecture are beginning to emerge as well (http://www.IAwiki.net/DegreeInIA). 6 According to the September 2001 ACIA survey, “Short and Long Term Outlook for Information Architects” (149 responses), 47% expect demand to increase a little over the next 5 years, and 32% expect it to increase a lot. Long-term need for information architecture services will explode: 26% of respondents predict it will grow a little, and 62% predict it will grow a lot (http://argus-acia.com/iask/survey010907.html). 7 Peter Morville (http://www.semanticsstudios.com) first suggested this analogy between information architecture to management (in a personal communication). 8 This topic is explored further in Alfred D. Chandler’s The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Belknap Press, 1980).

Louis B. Rosenfeld

Papers

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web

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

Networked information retrieval and organization: issues and questions

Architektura informacji w serwisach internetowych : [projektowanie dużych serwisów internetowych]

Information architecture: looking ahead