Keith Instone

This report about the SIG appeared in the November/December 2001 issue of the SIGCHI Bulletin (PDF, 540K).

The purpose of the SIG was to provide a "round table" discussion about how information architecture is being practiced by SIG attendees. In order to set up the discussion, the organizers presented three scenarios for how they practice their trade in their different settings: a technology and business consultancy, a firm that specialized mainly in information architecture development, and a financial services company. This definitely was a hot topic with many attendees standing in the back of the room and many listening in remotely from the halls.

The presentations had an underlying structure of the IAs role in the product development cycle, the process and method for how they practice their work, and their focus on the project.

After the presentation, the floor was opened up to the audience. The discussions included thesauri development practices, challenges in the role of IA in product development, and the continuing debate of defining information architecture. With many flavors for how IA is practiced, it was only natural to hear SIG attendees discuss the overlaps of information architects with fields such as interaction architects, usability testing, and experience designers.

The organizers distributed a survey in conjunction with the presentation in order to understand differences as well as resource discovery in the overlapping fields. The highlights of some of the survey include who are influential people in the field, the education and experience of current practitioners, tools they use to do their job, as well as how they see components of HCI influencing their work.

The organizers provided a venue for the diversity of attendees to discuss the practice of information architecture, promote best practices and cross-pollinate ideas, evaluate tools to support the various stages of developing systems, and educate SIG members interested in entering the field. Expanding the practice of information architecture and leveraging the overlaps with other practices will advance and enhance the usability and satisfaction of information resources, information systems, and software. Workshops and tutorials on how to do information architecture and more venues for discussing IA with the CHI community would be the next logical steps.