Information design (also known as 'information architecture') is the study of the details of complex systems. Among these are websites, user interactions, databases, technical writing documentation, and human-computer interfaces.
#10887
Every content producer cowers before twin demons. On one side stands the publisher’s mandate: you must make your deadline. Readers expect it, and readers lose trust if you’re late to market. On the other side stands the editor’s prime directive: you must publish worthwhile material. Readers expect it, and readers lose trust if you publish filler simply because an issue is due. Publish junk once, and you lose a few discerning people. Do it continually, and you lose everybody.
Zeldman, Jeffrey. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Information Design>Web Design
#18661
The artless Websites created during the Web's infancy were of necessity built only with simple HTML tags, and were forced to divide up their functionality and content into a maze (a web?) of separate pages. This made a navigation scheme an unavoidable component of any Website design, and of course, a clear, visually arresting navigation scheme was better than an obscure or hidden one. But many Web designers have incorrectly deduced from this that users want navigation schemes. Actually, they'd be happy if there were no navigation at all.
Cooper, Alan. Cooper Interaction Design (2001). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability
#26448
Most web development projects put a lot of effort into the design of navigation tools. But fact is that people tend to ignore these tools. They are fixated on getting what they came for and simply click on links or hit the back button to get there.
Olsen, Henrik. GUUUI (2005). Articles>User Interface>Information Design
#19619
Navigation: An Often Neglected Component of Web Authorship
Web authors should follow web design conventions that account for the variety of ways users will try to navigate through their pages. While usability testing is the best way to ensure your site is really operating as you intend it to, this page offers a basic overview of basic navigation principles that most visitors will expect on most pages that they visit.
Jerz, Dennis G. Seton Hill University (2000). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability
#13889
The Need for Architect/Construction Worker Dichotomies in Information Architecture as a Profession 
I would suggest that before we adopt the 'information architect' model and concede the construction worker (role of 'other') to many members of our field in order to negotiate management positions for a few, that we look to other professions to see how they have resisted this dichotomy. It may be argued, perhaps, that professions such as medicine and the law have managed to avoid successfully such hierarchical dichotomies -- at least in part. At the least, we should debate the possible implications of such systems more rigorously than we have to date.
Sauer, Geoffrey. CPTSC Proceedings (2002). Presentations>Information Design>Workplace
#21560
The Need for Web Site Navigation
I know that a Web site with good navigation will put you closer to your goals than one without. The article that follows may give you ideas for adding navigation to your own site.
Leonard-Wilkinson, Theresa A. W-edge Design (1999). Design>Web Design>Information Design
#18585
New Architect Research is your source for IT white papers and market research reports from over 3,500 leading IT vendors and over 60 top analyst firms. You can also sign up for the KnowledgeAlert email service to automatically be notified of new research or white papers as they come in.
#22392
New Metadata Standards for Digital Resources: MODS and METS
Metadata has taken on a new look with the advent of XML and digital resources. XML provides a new versatile structure for tagging and packaging metadata as the rapid proliferation of digital resources demands both rapidly produced descriptive data and the encoding of more types of metadata. Two emerging standards are attempting to harness these developments for library needs. The first is the Metadata Object and Description Schema (MODS), a MARC-compatible XML schema for encoding descriptive data. The second standard is the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), a highly flexible XML schema for packaging the descriptive metadata and various other important types of metadata needed to assure the use and preservation of digital resources.
Guenther, Rebecca and Sally McCallum. ASIST (2002). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>XML
#21753
Extensible Markup Language, or XML, provides a way to mark up content that adds information about its purpose. With the information stored using XML, an application known as a parser can reliably extract the relevant information and process it accordingly for multiple situations.
#22233
Newcomers Lured by the Sweet XML of Success
How do you simplify the message you want to broadcast to the world without losing its meaning? For established players it's so much easier because they can get in front of their customers. They can run seminars or publish White Papers that will most likely reach an audience. Or they may gain interest from independent technical consultants to whom users will listen.
Sharpe, Richard. PC Magazine (2004). Articles>Information Design>XML
#29196
North Bay Multimedia Association
NBMA is an open community of new media professionals. Since 1992, it's been a meeting ground to explore the present and future of new media; a place to exchange ideas, learn about new techniques and technologies, be inspired, and find business support in a friendly and productive atmosphere.
North Bay Multimedia Association. Organizations>Information Design>Multimedia>California
#21372
Discussions of how we should label ourselves and define our work are like flu epidemics. They break out from time to time, follow a fairly predictable course, and often make us want to barf.
Rosenfeld, Louis. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Information Design>Professionalism
#18557
Effective documentation is built around the work environment of the user. The index, too, should relate to the work the user performs. As in the body of your documentation, topics in your index should consist primarily of objects, tasks and concepts from the world of the user
Brown, Fred. Allegro Time! (2000). Articles>Indexing>Information Design
#10429
On Beyond Help: Meeting User Needs for Useful Online Information 
It is well accepted that understanding the users and a thorough analysis of their goals and tasks is a prerequisite for usability. To produce a document, online information, or knowledge base that is truly usable, the designer and writer must also consider different user approaches to the information to create it in a form that meets those needs. The underlying technology must also be considered, as it affects the presentation of the information as well as the functionality available to users. To meet user needs for useful online information, all these elements must be factored into the design—and technical communicators must master the skills necessary to make the right choices.
Quesenbery, Whitney. Technical Communication Online (2001). Articles>Usability>Information Design
#30193
One Hundred and One Forms eTips 
One hundred and one tips for designing digital forms using Adobe Acrobat.
Padova, Ted. Adobe (2007). Presentations>Information Design>Forms>Adobe Acrobat
#27631
One-One, One-Many and Many-Many Relations in XML Schema
This article is the second in a series that shows you how to implement relations for designing robust XML schema definitions.
Chaterjee, Jagadish. Dev Articles (2006). Design>Information Design>Databases>XML
#28576
Open Access Digital Repositories: An Indian Scenario
Open access digital repositories give barrier-free access to literature for study and research to users worldwide. They solve the pricing and permission crises for scholarly materials. This paper deals with open access digital repositories in India. The results of the study reveal that the repositories contain both published and unpublished documents, like seminar proceedings, conference papers, theses, dissertations, research reports, books, and so on. The results also point out that open access digital repositories in India are mostly subject specific and commonly use open source information repository software like DSpace, Greenstone Digital Library Software, and GNU EPrints. It is observed that generally the open access digital repositories use OAI-PMH (protocol for metadata harvesting), so that they can be accessed using search tools such as Web search engines, whereas a few don't use it but provide direct access to their documents through their websites.
Ahmed, Fayaz and Rafiq Rather. International Journal for Technical Communication (2007). Articles>TC>Information Design>International
#18638
The Open eBook Forum (OeBF) is the leading international trade and standards organization for the electronic publishing industry. Our members consist of hardware and software companies publishers, accessibility advocates, authors, users of electronic books, and related organizations whose common goals are to establish specifications and standards and to advance the competitiveness of the electronic publishing industry. The Forum's work will foster the development of applications and products that will benefit creators of content, makers of reading systems and consumers.
OeB (2003). Organizations>Information Design>Publishing>eBooks
#29304
Opening Open Formats with XSLT
This month I'm taking a break from covering XSLT 2.0 to describe how the combination of XSLT 1.0 and an application with an open XML format solved a problem for me. I solved this problem so quickly and easily that it got me thinking about how the combination of XSLT 1.0 and the increasing amount of open XML formats are opening up a world of simple, valuable new applications and utilities for us to write.
DuCharme, Bob. OpenOffice.org (2004). Articles>Information Design>XML>XSL
#23119
Thumbnails are minature representations of an image or page. They provide a convenient way to electronically "thumb" through many images/pages before retrieving the one you need. In this experiment, we measured subjects' recognition speed to thumbnails of five sizes.
SHORE (1997). Design>Document Design>Information Design
#22646
This document discusses the evolution of the Internet from an unorganized collection of web pages to an organized collection of data. It outlines how XML is at the center of that transformation, and how organizations can take advantage of this evolution with the development of web based services.
Duffy, Scott. XGuru (2001). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>XML
#28069
Overcoming Objections to XML-Based Authoring Systems
During a recent development effort, one of our clients was alarmed at the conversion costs of the proposed XML-based content management system compared to the existing MS Word-based process. This was just one instance of an alarming trend of balking at XML-based systems in favor of using public web folders, indexed by some full-text search engine, as part of a local intranet. In the short run, these edit, drop, and index solutions have some appealing features, including low development and conversion costs. But they are short-lived systems that either wither from lack of functionality or rapidly outgrow their design.
Buehling, Brian. XML.com (2001). Articles>Information Design>Software>XML
#18662
OVID: Object, View and Interaction Design
OVID (Objects, Views, and Interaction Design) is a formal methodology for designing the user experience based on the analysis of users' goals and tasks. Drawn from the disciplines of engineering, it is ideally suited to interface and component-based development. The method is applied after user goals, tasks and objects have been identified, through other means. The output of the method is an abstract diagram that describes the architecture of the desired design, from the users' point of view. The diagram is used in conjunction with the visual specifications to enable implementation of the final diagram.
#27459
The Page as a Map: Multiple Pathways for Multiple Users
Can our users and what they need quickly, with the least amount of effort and frustration? How can we make information work for different types of users? We know that 'visual is easier,' but we need to understand how people actually use documents to harness the visual power. This session focuses on a core task:page design for impatient, goal-oriented users. It proposes that visual designs which provide a clear 'map' to the information make user orientation and navigation easier, and provide access options for different users. While the focus is on print, the principles also apply to the electronic environment.
Keyes, Elizabeth. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>Personalization
#26158
The Paper Mountain Goes Online
Ample research has proved that companies can save many thousands of dollars by rewriting key documents in plain English. Poor communication on the Web and intranet are squandering the time and money of many an organisation.
McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2004). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Minimalism
