subject: Web Information Architecture: Structuring Your Sites Content To Maximize Its Usability [print this page] These days, websites are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The days of static and limited content websites are numbered. The new breed of websites is dynamic, application rich, interactive, engaging, and more types of contents which include not only texts and images but multimedia elements. Moreover the number of pages in most enterprise level sites is quite a lot. All these makes the role of web information architects even more significant while designing and developing a website. Web information architecture refers to organizing or structuring a sites information. The sites content are organized into categories and an interface is created for each category. Any large website project needs the right information architecture so that users priorities are met. The information structure should be simple, very clear, and able to attend to users needs. In other words a visitor should effortless find the information they are looking for in your site.
The importance of having the right information structure is even more important considering the fact that online users are highly volatile and quick in abandoning a site if they are denied simple and easy access to information they are looking for. Hence serving users requirement is the main concern in structuring a sites content. But information structuring is not limited to organizing contents. It also has to do with assessing of the value of your content. The needs of your target audience are first research and then restructuring of content follows.
Strictly speaking information structuring is not a technical job and cant be called a part of web designing or programming. Rather it is a part of web usability process. There are several open source workflow applications which are designed to make this process more effective. An open source workflow system can also be modified or customized to increase its efficiency and functionality. It automates several tasks in organizing information and hence makes the job of an information architect easy and less time consuming.
There are many companies, inshore as well as offshore, which offer dynamic website software applications development including open source workflow applications. Outsourcing will defenitely prove economical for you.
