Information Architecture in Technical Communication

Welcome to the second issue of Indus for the year. In the Nov-Dec issue of last year, senior communicators from the Indian IT industry shared their experiences with usability and complete user experience, in the context of technical communication. Interestingly, all those writings attracted attention and reprint opportunities from other STC chapter newsletters and the Usability SIG newsletter. Indus seems to have hit upon the right subject of the times.

In the Indian scenario of technical writers donning many hats, we wondered what else comes close to what we do in achieving complete user experience. We chanced upon the paradigm of Information Architecture (IA), which is closely related to user experience. Sometimes a quest for user experience and information architecture will arrive at the same solution.

The phrase Information Architecture was brought to wide attention, by Richard Saul Wurman. Trained as an architect he has become a skilled graphic designer and the author, editor, and publisher of numerous books that employ fine graphics in the presentation of information in a variety of fields. He views architecture (of buildings) as the science and art of creating an "instruction for organized space." He sees the problems of gathering, organizing, and presenting information as closely analogous to the problems an architect faces in designing a building that will serve the needs of
its occupants. 

With this background setting, we planned to look at the status and scope of use of IA in the Indian technical writing community, and also the world at large. We do not have exclusive "Information Architects" among us, no doubt. Don't we all play the role of IA in our information design and development? What are IA standards prevalent for technical documentation? What are the tools being used by the conscious practitioners of IA? 

You should enjoy reading the article on Content Management by JoAnn Hackos, an international leader in the management of the design, development, and dissemination of information. You will also see the other handful of concepts on standards, models, definitions, skills required to practice IA, the working and relevance of IA to user experience, being deftly handled by three Indian technical communicators. Do look forward to read more on the same theme in the next issue of Indus too! 

Subash Babu and D. Vijayalakshmi