Information Architecture is a reasonably common term these days and if you are someone working with web sites, web design or web development, you are sure to know someone with the job title of IA (Information Architect). In fact it is associated so much with the web the general perception is Information architecture deals with structuring web sites. It is natural to think Information architecture or IA, came after the web, when in reality, it was coined in 1976 by Richard Saul Wurman, way before the 'world wide web' of Sir Tim Berners-Lee was conceived.
Wurman created the phrase Information Architecture in reaction to the massive amounts of disorganised information being created by the society. "I thought the explosion of data needed an architecture, needed a series of systems, needed systemic design, a series of performance criteria to measure it." He created the popular ACCESS travel guide books which used colored text for mapping content by neighborhood. The design concept was based on 'how we seek information'. This remains the governing principle of information architecture of the web as well.
The best definition of my job title has come from the legend himself - 'information architects are people who make the complex clear'
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