Information Architecture Handbook. A Hands-on Approach to Structuring Successful Websites. [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Structure enterprise Web sites for maximum success -- one step at a time!
* Initial planning, mechanics, fine-tuning, and beyond.
* Easy-to-read and jargon free-no experience necessary.
* The first practical information architecture guide written by a practicing architect and content provider.

Web users simply will not tolerate sites that are poorly organized, or make transactions difficult. Bad information architecture costs money but quality information architecture can deliver powerful competitive advantage. Practical Information Architecture is the very first, step-by-step handbook designed to guide readers through the entire process of creating and implementing an underlying structure for a website from initial goal-setting to final production so the site effectively communicates their ideas, promotes their services and sells their goods. Eric Reiss starts by reviewing the initial planning considerations associated with effective Web site information architecture, including the identification of key business objectives. Next, he walks through organizing the site's content and creating a first-draft structure; then fine-tuning the structure to reflect ongoing feedback and an increasingly deep understanding of how the site will actually be used. For every Web architect, developer, designer, and site owner; and for marketing professionals, consultants, and anyone concerned with the effectiveness of Web sites.

Eric L. Reiss currently heads an Internet consultancy called e-reiss.com.

A step-by-step guide for readers explaining the process of creating an underlying structure for a web site. Topics covered include: Setting and achieving website goals; translating the site's goals into meaningful content; organizing the content so that visitors can find what they're looking for.

On-line success doesn't happen by accident!

I wrote this book for people who have a direct influence on the content and structure of a website - sites created for their personal use, for their employer, or for a client organization. Although the market abounds with books on HTML programming and graphic design, very little exists to tell people how to create a "flow chart" for their website - one that helps define and arrange the site's content so visitors can quickly and easily find what they're looking for. Although this isn't a particularly glamorous subject, information architecture is often the single most important step in the creation of a successful website.

As far as possible, I've tried to put together a nuts-and-bolts, hands-on guide to the subject. I've been using and refining the techniques I describe since the late 70s and have been involved in the creation of interactive media on a daily basis since the late 80s - from primitive menu-based DOS applications to the latest in glitzy e commerce sites.

It may come as a surprise, but the problems I've faced over the years have not changed very much, even though the individual programs and interfaces have. That's because the issues of information architecture are generic in nature and are thus largely unrelated to technological advances. A simple analogy: safer cars may keep us from getting killed on the highway, but they don't make us better drivers.

I'm not a theoretician. I'm not a programmer. I'm not a hot-shot designer. Rather, I'm a content provider who, like those I'm addressing, has to solve here-and-now problems that are directly related to the usability and ultimate acceptance/success of a website. This book explains how I think and how I work - my tricks of the trade.

you how to create an underlying structure so your site communicates your ideas, promotes your services, and sells your goods. In many ways, this structure is like an architectural blueprint - but instead of showing the builders where to put the kitchen, the structure maps out the location of the information you want to share with those who visit your site. The structure is the "blueprint" of the information architect.

"A well-designed structure helps the designer create more effective graphics and navigation. It helps the programmer write the code. Most important of all, it keeps your visitors from getting lost, frustrated or bored.

"Unfortunately, most people don't think about the structure; in fact, most people don't even know such a thing exists. Instead, they plunge ahead with the more entertaining parts of a web project, like the graphics and typefaces, and let the structure grow naturally - like weeds in a garden.

"It doesn't have to be that way…"

Practical Information Architecture is a concise, step-by-step guide to this vital but all too often neglected aspect of website creation. Author Eric Reiss draws on his extensive experience in the field to guide you through the information architecture process, from defining your goals to fine-tuning your site. Supported by a wealth of illustrations and examples, Practical Information Architecture is an invaluable source of hands-on advice to help you:

o set meaningful website goals
o determine what information needs to be on the site to achieve these goals
o incorporate useful browser-based features that enhance the user experience
o produce easily understood diagrams to guide programmers and graphic designers
o define menus that visitors will immediately understand
o segment a site to meet the needs of widely divergent target audiences
o understand the impact of wireless technologies such as WAP.

Practical Information Architecture is written for web marketing professionals, site-owners, designers, webmasters, copywriters, consultants, students, and anyone else involved in building a website.

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Eric Reiss has been actively involved in the creation of multimedia and web projects for over a decade. Following a long career as a senior copywriter for one of Europe's leading business-to-business advertising agencies, he now heads e-reiss.com, which provides specialized business services for on-line ventures. A Texan by birth, Mr. Reiss has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark since 1976.

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