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This is one of the most complete and thorough resources on the topic of Information Architecture. As relevant today as when it was written. A must read for Web Developers and other folks whose work it is to design, produce and publish web sites.
What I found is for a technical person like me, this book was so useless that it has compelled me to write my first Amazon review in years.I planned to read it cover to cover. Does it really take a diagram with a bunch of arrows in a circle to explain that. I'm a developer building a company-internal website and I'm struggling to organize all the information it will contain. So I gave up and started skimming.I couldn't find much better in the remaining pages. For a developer, run away. After 50 pages I realized that I haven't really read anything at all yet. For example, the term "synonym ring" is defined as a group of words with the same meaning.
(Figure 9-21) Does such a diagram really enhance anybody's understanding of the concept of equivalence. I bought this book hoping to ease that struggle. (Figure 9-2)To explain the concept of equivalence we have another diagram: "A=B" inside a circle. So far it's been ridiculously verbose, rambling, and content-free. Page after page of touchy-feely gobbledygook that has not helped me organize information at all.There are more useless diagrams in this book than I've ever seen before. Why does this diagram even exist in the first place.Maybe some business or consultant type might get something out of this book. Fast.
This made the how to confusing.All in all, this book was able to tell me what to do and why I should do it when crafting the information of my website. The sections jumped from definition of concepts, to elements of concepts and then to a step by step guide to information architecture.
The humorous authors took an interesting approach to help readers understand the world of information architecture. Morville and Rosenfeld managed to sum up a very complex and difficult topic into about 500 pages of text.
They draw readers in by talking to them as if they were there in person, and then take their time to explain each subject.However, the organization of this book made it difficult to read. Starting with the basics and working their way to the complicated material, Morville and Rosenfeld teach readers how to organize information on the web to make websites readable, searchable, usable and of course informative.
They guide readers through a step by step process showing them what to do and why to do it in order to make their website more profitable.The two authors made learning this complex, ambiguous topic simple by providing readers with plenty of familiar anecdotes, charts, examples and analogies. I often found myself confused and having to look back to remember what they were talking about.
But I still don't know how.
This book is the "Aha." for many librarians ready to bring their game to the 21st century. Lou and Peter have created a solid introduction to the practice and profession of information architecture. Along with Dan Brown's book on deliverables (Communicating Design) and Peter Block's book (Flawless Consulting), this is the required reading for my graduate seminar in Information Architecture at UCLA's library school. And we read the entire thing in the first three weeks.
Lot of text, nicely written, easy read, finished the book in one hour. Not much useful Gained almost nothing from the book. where can I get my money back.
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