Information architecture is about flexibility. Systems cannot be imposed from the top down; success comes from adaptation, consensus building, and the balancing of divergent interests.
There are three primary interest areas, represented by:
What it does
The programmers have a tough job behind the screen. It is their job to make a system work. It is not their job to make it easy to use. Programmers need help in usability regards because as Jedi Masters, they will always know more than the average user.
Negotiating usability takes tact, first and foremost, but it also takes an understanding of how programmers work. The easier the change to implement, the more likely it is to occur; the earlier usability enters the process, the more it will be reflected in the final deliverable.
Remember that many vendors don't want to make their systems simple and intuitive because they can make money on training, help systems and manuals. Clients, be insistent.
What it says
The primary task of an information architect is categorizing information. Typical categories include timely versus timeless; global versus local, and top-down publishing versus bottom-up publishing.
The first investigative task of any IA is to look at the bottom-up publishing. These publishing processes will have ramifications throughout the intranet project.
A crucial aspect is labeling the categories. If 10,000 employees waste five minutes looking in the HR department for an online form found under "e-neighborhood," at 30 cents a minute, the company just lost $15,000 in productivity.
How it looks
Graphic designers -- particularly Flash Web designers -- are notorious for putting looks first and functionality second. Computer users are accustomed to certain conventions; those conventions are a friend, not a constraint.
The visual display of a Web site includes both content and navigation. In the early days of the Web, navigation almost always carried a visual, iconic metaphor. The rise of conventions (blue underlined text links, clicking the logo and tagline to return to the home page) has lessened the use of icons.
A recent Nielsen-Norman Group study found 61 percent of all home page pixels to be essentially wasted (39 percent content).