Part 1: What is an information architecture?

What is an information architecture?

An information architecture is a set of plans describing the structures, relationships and hierarchies that exist between your KMS or DMS and its data. A well-crafted architecture makes possible other improvements such as automation, enhanced navigation, search, personalised content, and more. Without an information architecture, your KMS or DMS is likely to become unstructured, mired in complexity, have siloed data, and lack the ability to leverage more advanced AI and automation functionalities.

Information architecture is about helping people understand their surroundings and find what they’re looking for, in the real world as well as online. - Information Architecture Institute (link)

Defined in this way, information architecture sounds very formal and serious; however it doesn’t need to be. In its simplest form information architecture relates to three concepts:

1. How your users navigate through your site and its information
2. How this information is made searchable to users
3. How information is labelled and presented to your users

Context, content & users

Information architecture is positioned at the intersection between your content, your users and the contexts from which they access your content. This architecture requires that you define structures and relationships that exist between your sites, pages, content and metadata.

Just as traditional architecture determines how people will use a building or another structure, information architecture guides users in how they use information systems. - Linkgraph (link)

Of course, these defined structures may change when considering global, local or ad-hoc contexts.

For instance, you may require that every article in your KMS contains metadata relating to the:

• author;
• subject; and
• article owner.

→ your global context

Whereas, for articles relating to your HR Department, you might require metadata such as:

• article expiry date;
• applicable audience; and
• responsible HR personnel.

→ your local context

Key components of an information architecture

Your information architecture is unique to your KMS or DMS. You may require more or less components and detail depending on the scope, functionalities and content within your KMS or DMS.

Information architecture is about how you organise and label your content and how your visitors interact with the content to get work done. This includes elements like navigation, search, site hierarchy, taxonomy, and security. - Microsoft 365: Introduction to Sharepoint information architecture (link)

We suggest you include the following components as a starting point for a robust and effective information architecture:

• User groups → Used to determine access to content and functionalities according to a users’ roles, memberships and projects.
• Information visibility & hierarchy → Describes how, when and where content should be presented to users tailored according to their needs.
• Global navigation structure → A plan that organises sites, sub-sites and pages for best navigability and effectiveness.
• Local navigation structure & metadata → Details what content, functionality, sections and metadata is needed within pages (general and specific).
• Information structure & metadata → Details the shape and format of metadata required by pages to improve consistency and enable features.

Macro to micro

An information architecture describes your KMS or DMS at its macro-, meso- and micro-levels. These different levels progressively ‘zoom in’ on each other and are linked; each level describes, influences and relies on the others.

Separating information across different levels abstracts away the complexity that exists within your KMS or DMS. This enables you to deal more effectively with parts in isolation. For instance, changes to the user groups with access to certain sites can be managed at the macro-level, without needing to delve into micro-level metadata.

An information architecture’s levels typically require defining similar amounts of detail. However, as you ‘zoom in’ deeper — towards information structure & metadata — there are more items to define. That is, your information architecture increases in size and depth towards the micro-level.

The physical world provides a useful analogy for understanding an information architecture’s levels. Physical objects are comprised of molecules and compounds, which are themselves comprised of atoms. Similarly, in a KMS or DMS, global sites are comprised of local sites which are in turn comprised of metadata and content.

Information architecture components

This article is the first in TILT Legal's three-part series on developing information architectures. Stay tuned for part two releasing later this week where we explore further the various components that form your information architecture.

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