The WWW has grown and changed with dizzying speed, requiring web masters, designers, and managers to master new technologies on what seems like a weekly basis. Each new skill or consumer demand is then somehow pasted into the existing web site, making some web sites look like a fast-growing but poorly planned city-roads everywhere, but impossible to navigate.
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web shows how to use both aesthetics and mechanics to design distinctive, cohesive web sites that "work." Most books on web development concentrate either on the aesthetics or the mechanics of a site. This book focuses on the framework that holds the two together.
"We're convinced that everyone--novice and wizard alike--needs to invest considerable time and energy in their web site's information architecture, especially if their goal is to build a large, complex web site or intranet," says author Lou Rosenfield, "The reality is most novice site developers are so blinded by the Web's exciting technical and graphical possibilities that they don't immediately key in on the intangible value of information architecture."
"Information Architecture for the World Wide Web" shows how to apply principles of architecture and library science to design web sites and intranets that are easy to use, manage, and expand. It is for novice designers who want to avoid the pitfalls of poorly designed sites; experienced designers who've created sites but realize something "is missing"; and programmers and administrators who are comfortable with HTML, CGI, and Java but want to organize their web pages into a cohesive site.
Special attention is given to:
- Large, complex site planning
- Web site hierarchy design and organization
- Effective navigational elements
- Techniques for making a site easier to search
About the Authors
Lou Rosenfeld is president and co-founder of Argus Associates. He has served as lead information architect on large, complex web sites for such prestigious clients as Borders Books & Music, Chrysler, UMI, and many others. He co-writes the regular "Web Architect" column for Web Review magazine and has written and edited numerous other books, book chapters, and scholarly articles. Lou also presents at numerous national conferences each year on the topics of information architecture and information retrieval and evaluation.
Peter Morville is vice president of Argus Associates, an information architecture design firm located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since 1993, he has provided strategy consulting and information architecture services to a diverse and prestigious group of clients, including Chrysler Corporation and Dow Chemical. Peter has written extensively on the topics of information architecture and information retrieval. Recent publications include the Internet Searcher's Handbook and the "Web Architect" column in Web Review magazine. He speaks frequently at national professional conferences such as Internet World, Web Design & Development, and Comdex.
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
By Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville
1st Edition February 1998 (US)
226 pages, 1-56592-282-4, $24.95 ($US)
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