Web Site Design Principles -- A visual design & architecture primer -- cont'd.
In the context of Web Sites, the contribution of Information Architecture is simply the links and pages and the relationships between them.
Though, on paper, IA work reduces to a site map...
...all of the value (and difficulty) of
good IA comes comes from:
- Understanding how and why human beings do the things they do (yes psychology),
- An instinct for making ?pathways of purpose? for online Users (more on that later), and
- A knack for compelling action.
At this point, it makes sense to drop in another definition:
Usability
- The "effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which a specified set of users can achieve a specified set of tasks in a particular environment."
In Web Site design, Usability and IA are inseparable ? though some folks will tell you it?s possible for good IA to stand alone, I have seen so much good IA fucked into worthlessness because the Usability was bad. This usually happens when programmers, who much more readily ?get? IA than Usability, have created a sound architecture, but not had the good sense to let a good Usability or Human Factors person take it from there.
Although there are many kinds of Web Site, which is to say there are many different purposes for which Web Sites are designed, since our aim as industry is to make sales happen, we?ll focus on e-commerce sites.
For clarification, e-commerce means to sell on the Web ? it?s a broad category that includes many forms of fulfillment ? but the commonality is that the ?deal is closed? online. There are a couple of models where that?s the case without a CC (or other method of electronic payment) having been debited, but they don?t concern this discussion.
On the Web, ?where? EQUALS ?how?
Do you think Tiffany?s would build a store on this "road"...
(cont'd shortly)
2HP