Comments on: UIEtips: Four Essential Skills for Information Architects – An Interview with Donna Spencer http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2009/10/22/uietips-ia_essential/ UIE\'s latest insights on the world of design Thu, 23 May 2013 10:02:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Sarah Richards http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2009/10/22/uietips-ia_essential/comment-page-1/#comment-148808 Sarah Richards Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:59:41 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/?p=716#comment-148808 I've found that one of the strongest, but often overlooked, skills is editorial. A good IA will only work if the content is rationalized in the very beginning. Architecture hangs from a single premise: the information is worth finding. When an IA works closely with, or is, an editor, I think the usability rockets. All too often, I've found clients creating poor content and then they expect an architect to cover all the failings. I work on a site with over 3,500 pages of content. We have another estimated 3,700 pages coming in the next 18 months and our audience is wide-ranging. With good search and editorial, our IA problems are just catagorised under 'nightmare' instead of 'dire' :-) I’ve found that one of the strongest, but often overlooked, skills is editorial. A good IA will only work if the content is rationalized in the very beginning. Architecture hangs from a single premise: the information is worth finding. When an IA works closely with, or is, an editor, I think the usability rockets. All too often, I’ve found clients creating poor content and then they expect an architect to cover all the failings.

I work on a site with over 3,500 pages of content. We have another estimated 3,700 pages coming in the next 18 months and our audience is wide-ranging. With good search and editorial, our IA problems are just catagorised under ‘nightmare’ instead of ‘dire’ :-)

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