This is the first text to explore the roots of the emerging Information Architecture profession. A true foundations text, it introduces students to key innovations in the history of communications systems and technologies leading to the Information Age; Information Age-related problems; information architecture practitioners, educators, and educational programs.

• Heavily endorsed by industry experts.

  • Ensures this original reference is on the cutting-edge of technology.

• Most thorough treatment of the profession of information architecture available—Provides a comprehensive view of what the profession of information architecture is all about.

  • Allows information architecture to be viewed in contrast with similar professions, and to be defined in terms of its unique characteristics and goals.

• An important complement to “how to” IA texts—Which focus only on the “how to” of designing and building web sites.

  • Helps students put the “how to” of IA in a much broader context, enabling them to fully appreciate how IA is moving from a technician level to a professional level.

• Information Architecture: From Craft to Profession—Part I.

  • Introduces and sets information architecture in an historical context by drawing an analogy between its evolution and the evolution of architecture.

• Human Interactions, Human and Computer Interactions, Computer Networks—Parts II-IV. Focuses on the history of communication systems and technologies and covers the evolution of communication systems, the evolution of computing systems, and the convergence of communication and computing systems.

  • Helps students see how individual communication systems and technologies have varying capacities for communicating, storing, and retrieving information.

• Info Ailments—Part V.

  • Helps students sort through the range of issues that have arisen from the relentless hype associated with new communication technologies as well as the unorganized and uncontrolled flood of data unleashed by them.

• Toward a New Discipline—Part VI. Focuses on the emergence of the professional occupation of information architecture and proposes that the “solutions” to many of the current IA issues will be designed by Information Architects.

  • Shows how Information Architects, trained to be conceptual thinkers and creative problem solvers, will foremost be design professionals who are well-versed in the history, theory, skills, and science of their field.

• A very accessible and engaging narrative style.

  • Draws students into the material and keeps them reading.

• “Keywords” lists.

  • Assists students and instructors in conducting online research for articles and imagery related to the subject areas discussed in the text.

Foreword, Richard Saul Wurman.

I. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE: AN INTRODUCTION.

II. HUMAN INTERACTIONS: THE EVOLUTION OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS.

III. HUMAN AND COMPUTER INTERACTIONS: THE EVOLUTION OF COMPUTING SYSTEMS.

IV. COMPUTER NETWORKS: COMMUNICATION AND COMPUTING SYSTEMS CONVERGE.

V. INFO AILMENTS: UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF THE INFORMATION AGE.

VI. TOWARD A NEW DISCIPLINE: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

APPENDICES.

Information Architecture  [RELATED TITLES]   (Computer Graphics / Arts)
Web Design: Aesthetic / Layout Principles  (Computer Science)

"It is a unique privilege to help shape a profession .... Information architecture has emerged from a diverse set of people with skills in structuring information to make it useful, applying their skills to what at first appeared to be a new kind of documentation .... This book not only reviews the profession in order to train new professionals, it is an important contribution to creating it." — Dr. Arnold Lund, Director of Information Architecture, Sapient

""This book provides exactly what is needed at this point in history-a solid framework which I feel the vast majority of practicing information architects will agree with." — Karen Young, Information Architect, IBM

Earl Morrogh is a writer, designer, and educator who has studied and worked for 30 years in several fields including architectural and visual design, multimedia design, communications, and education. He considers these areas of professional interest to be interrelated and his knowledge of them essential for informing his research of the emerging profession of information architecture.

He has worked in both the public and private sectors in a variety of capacities including: art director of an internationally distributed sports magazine (Surf magazine); communications director of the Florida component of the American Institute of Architects; project manager of a National Science Foundation-funded project (the Interactive Media Science Project) in partnership with Apple Computer, Inc., Pioneer, Inc., and Houghton-Mifflin Publishing, Inc.; associate director of the Florida Department of Education's distance learning initiative (Florida Remote Learning Services); and assistant director of Florida State University's distance learning office (Office of Distributed and Distance Learning).

He holds an undergraduate degree in sociology with a minor in architecture and a master's degree in mass communication with a specialization in interactive communications. At present he is a consultant and visiting scholar in Florida State University's School of Information Studies where he has taught undergraduate courses in information architecture and design theory.

Born in southwest Louisiana, "Acadiana," Mr. Morrogh has lived in the Florida panhandle since 1972 where he enjoys living in a rural setting in a house he and his wife of 23 years designed and built. He also enjoys sea kayaking, sailing, scuba diving, and other water-related recreational activities.

The first book to explore the roots of the emerging Information Architecture profession.

A true foundations text, this book introduces the reader to:

• Key innovations in the history of communications and computing
• Technologies leading to the Information Age
• The origins of the World Wide Web
• Information architecture's pioneers
• The emerging profession of information architecture

Information Architecture: An Emerging 21st Century Profession features:

• An abbreviated history of revolutionary information and communications technologies
• Social and technology-related factors in information creation, communication, storage, and retrieval
• Information Age-related problems
• Information architecture practitioners, educators, and education programs
• Visions for the future of information architecture

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