Talking about IA: A practical way to talk about, compare, and evaluate any kind of information architecture

Can you compare the information architecture of your favorite app to your favorite restaurant? How are they different? How are they the same? Is your IA better? In this presentation, learn a new, critical language for discussing and evaluating information architecture.

You will learn how to evaluate information architecture and identify specific areas of improvement, as well as how to throw serious nerd shade and talk serious nerd smack about the information architecture of other attendees.

Key takeaways from the session:

Attendees will learn a flexible language they can use to describe information architecture and its outcomes for different types of systems and environments.

This language includes a model for different types of systems, qualities for describing and how information architectures differ, and a way to define the different experiences people have within an information architecture.

As part of the presentation, we’ll see examples and practice describing the information architectures of common experiences.

At the end, I propose a definition for “good” information architecture that differs from common definitions of “good” in the hopes it gives us seething useful to talk and think and disagree about.