Book Review: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites

With a subtitle of Designing Large-Scale Web Sites, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is not the place to go for information on simple threeor four-page sites. Likewise, if you are looking for a Web design book that provides code samples, read another book because you will find none here. However, whereas the bookstores are full of books with advice on designing small sites or coding, they contain few books on handling the design (vs. the coding) of large sites. To understand the entire process of putting together a large site without having it crumble under its own weight, do not put this book down until the site is up and running. Like many of the current user-centered design books, this book emphasizes the need for up-front planning and for understanding the Web site’s purpose. Design of a large-scale site simply prohibits using a cookie-cutter approach, and this book avoids even trying. The chapters each address a different topic. These topics lay out the main design concerns you must address. The book provides the questions for which you will need to find answers and guidance in interpreting answers, but it does not provide the answers themselves. Although it will hold your hand through the design process, you still shape that process. Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville do not seem to see the problem with large-scale Web sites as one of lack of information or even poorly presented content. Rather, they define the problem more in terms of the difficulties users have in finding the information. This definition makes perfect sense (and is probably the only workable one) when viewed in terms of corporate intranets and other sites that allow many people to publish information as needed. Even though the new crop of content-management tools removes the Webmaster as the central gatekeeper, a large site must be designed to allow for easy access and updating. The book focuses on front-end work and initial design. It covers ways to design the site’s navigation, including properly labeling everything. The