Five Years of Information Architecture

The feature article in the most recent issue of the British information industry newsletter FreePint is entitled 2001 to 2006: Five Years of Information Architecture.

It provides an interesting overview of what has remained the same and what has changed in the field of user-centered web design, navigation and labelling.

"The topics of the day [in 2001] were understanding your audience, site organisation, navigation and labelling. There were plenty of badly organised websites, so there was plenty of work to be done. There still is. Most companies have a more grown-up attitude to their websites, but that doesn't mean the crimes of executive-centred design and organising your site like your organisation have gone away."

"However, five years is a long time on the web. Some topics we consider staples in today's IA are startlingly absent from that early article: facets, content management, folksonomies and Web 2.0."