# What is Information Architecture?


- Date: 02-Feb-2018
- Author: Souvik Das Gupta
- Tags: Information Architecture, Education, User Experience
- URL: https://miranj.in/blog/2018/what-is-information-architecture


It’s often hard to define abstract, rudimentary and ubiquitous practices. Design is one such example which [I’d touched upon earlier][design].

[Information Architecture][ia] (IA) belongs to a similar territory.

[design]: https://miranj.in/blog/2013/let-your-designers-design
[ia]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_architecture

> Information architecture is the practice of deciding how to arrange the parts of something to be understandable.
> 
> — [IA Institute][definition] 

[definition]: https://www.iainstitute.org/what-is-ia

Information architecture models are everywhere -- printed material, digital documents, websites and even physical spaces (not typically thought of as information). It wouldn’t naturally occur that someone might have worked hard to [make sense of mess][mess] to enable understanding and use.

[mess]: http://www.howtomakesenseofanymess.com

When it comes to defining information architecture, [IAI][]’s take is a good start. It attempts to *describe* IA through a specific activity. Several online references take a similar approach i.e. describing IA as an activity that involves “*[drawing boxes][theguardian]*”, *[arranging parts][definition]* or *[organising, structuring, and labelling][usability]*. This approach makes the definition a bit narrow and incomplete.

[iai]: https://www.iainstitute.org
[usability]: https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/information-architecture.html
[theguardian]: https://www.theguardian.com/help/insideguardian/2010/feb/02/what-is-information-architecture

Instead, taking a broader approach here’s an attempt to define Information Architecture—

> Information Architecture is the thoughtful, deliberate practice of achieving a shared mental model, and further applying it to make something understandable.
>  
> *Thoughtful*, because it involves shedding biases and unseeing things as they appear (or are presented).  
> 
> *Deliberate*, because it involves making carefully considered and well-reasoned decisions.  
> 
> *Practice*, because it involves application of principles, theories, tools and processes towards a purpose.
>
> *Shared*, because it involves reaching parity in understanding of ideas and thoughts.
>
> *Mental Model*, because it involves representing assumptions, structures and arrangements people carry in their minds.

Hope this adds to how we all understand IA.