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Effectively defining and positioning the scope of information architecture as a profession is very important. The following approaches to explaining IA do not articulate the function of information architecture as it relates to a value proposition for business organizations and individuals.
[+]Not Library Science
Although the field was given life largely through the library science perspective, information architecture is not viewed as library science for the Web.
What excludes IA from being a library science is that library science is traditionally the science of classifying and organizing information for retrieval in physical space using standardized approaches to information classification such as Dewy Decimal Classification (DDC) or Library of Congress Classification (LCC).
Some information architecture approaches may borrow from library science. But they should always include 1) interest in the information that constitutes the aggregate of a complete work or broad informational set, 2) the potential dynamic behavior of such information, and 3) the behaviors of the people and things that must consume it for some underlying purpose through a computing interface. These are clear distinctions that separate information architecture from library science.
The core functional goal of information architecture within the business is not about shaping the Web into experiences. The emerging field of user experience design (UXD) strategy most appropriately fits this designation. Consequently, a view of experience design generally reflects a common goal to which an entire development group or individual may aspire. It is reasonable to say that information architecture contributes to this goal -- with the objective to define and manage the attributes afforded to the information in context to the targeted experience.
The function of information architecture is not meant to champion usability and accessibility. This is the domain of the established HCI-related discipline known as usability engineering/research. However, since usability is an adjacent function to information architecture, many information architects have acquired proficient knowledge and reliable skill to guide projects around effective user-centered research.
Information architecture is not intended to provide the “blueprint” for an entire Web development scenario. This perspective typically encourages an analogy that compares IA to physical architecture and an IA as the “architect” or lead strategist to a project. Some projects may be small enough where a cross-function information architect (CF-IA) may be responsible for all product recommendations and project lifecycle strategy. But, this is viewed as being beyond the primary business function of information architecture.
Possible confusion around the “blueprint” analogy may stem from an interaction design responsibility that many information architects are typically asked to produce – that is the wireframe. The wireframe does possess architectural blueprint qualities; and in this case it does offer an “architectural” diagram and guidance for many of the other functional areas that must build and produce communications for the targeted user interface.
However, when an IA is assigned as the project “architect” it is because the IA has assumed the strategic and discovery role for the entire project in addition to assuming the responsibility for addressing the concern of information architecture for a project.
Information architecture, for the web at least, is not about making the complex clear. While this may be an obvious benefit of our work product and a way to ground the purpose of any form of communication, this statement is too broad to serve as a position of functional or even disciplinary distinction for information architecture.
For any given project, it takes more than the function of information architecture to make the complex clear; it takes an entire team of unique disciplines that have unique functional interests. Since the end product displayed on a screen of a computing interface is the final form of an intended communication, everyone involved in the project contributes to making the targeted experience clear.
While "making the complex clear" is an original position—made popular by Richard Saul Wurman—it does not articulate the business value of information architecture in the context of user experience design and the full life cyle of information use, management and retrieval.
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