Organize for your audience!
Information architecture is both an art and a science. It begins with a clear grasp of the target audience and their interests and results in the web-like ordering and naming of content elements that will help people effectively fulfill their information needs. To a large degree, the success of your web application is closely tied to the effectiveness of your information architecture in organizing to reflect your audience's interests.
Good information architecture:
- Conveys a message to the user through standard or innovative layout
- Allows the user to find the information they need quickly and with a minimum of clicks
- Encourages repeat visits and increased traffic to the site
- Enhances efficiency and effectiveness through layout that's intuitive to audience
- Drives target audience to take desired actions
- Ensures logic and navigability throughout the site
- Addresses multiple audiences for a website - the layout and design of navigation must meet the needs of each audience
Flaws in information architecture can affect a web site's bottom-line dramatically.
Good Internet architecture is like good building architecture: Both add to the value of the property.