Knowledge vault
Information architecture
A linked notebook on information architecture: how content is organized, labeled, navigated and searched, and how taxonomies, metadata, ontologies and content models turn documentation into something people and machines can find their way through. Every note links to the notes it builds on — the graph shows how the ideas connect.
16 notes · 69 links
Graph view
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Note index
Foundations
- Information architectureInformation architecture is the structural design of shared information environments: how content is organized, labeled, navigated and searched so that…Read the note
- Mental modelsA mental model is a person's internal picture of how something is organized and how it works. In information architecture, mental models decide whether…Read the note
- Users, content and contextThe three circles of information architecture — users, content and context — are the model Rosenfeld and Morville use to scope any IA project. A structure…Read the note
Organization systems
- Controlled vocabularyA controlled vocabulary is an agreed list of terms used to describe and retrieve content, where each concept has one preferred term and the variants are…Read the note
- Faceted classificationFaceted classification describes each item along several independent dimensions — facets — instead of placing it in one position of a single hierarchy. The…Read the note
- MetadataMetadata is structured data about content: what it is, what it is about, who it is for and how it may be used. In information architecture, metadata is what…Read the note
- TaxonomyA taxonomy is a controlled set of terms arranged in a hierarchy of broader and narrower categories. Each term has one preferred label, and every item is…Read the note
Semantics
- Knowledge graphA knowledge graph represents knowledge as a network of entities (nodes) and typed relations (edges), usually structured by an Ontology. The term became…Read the note
- OntologyIn information science, an ontology is a formal, explicit description of the concepts in a domain and the relations between them. Tom Gruber's often quoted…Read the note
Navigation and findability
- Card sortingCard sorting is a research method in which participants sort cards — each naming a piece of content — into groups that make sense to them. It reveals users'…Read the note
- FindabilityFindability is the quality of being locatable: how easily people — and increasingly machines — can find a particular piece of information. Peter Morville,…Read the note
- Labeling systemsLabeling systems are the words and icons that represent content and choices: menu items, headings, link texts, button captions, index terms. In information…Read the note
- Navigation systemsNavigation systems are the means by which people move through an information environment and understand where they are. Rosenfeld and Morville distinguish…Read the note
- Tree testingTree testing evaluates a proposed hierarchy by asking participants to find items in a text-only version of it — no visual design, no search. It is sometimes…Read the note
Structured content
- Content modelA content model defines the types of content an organization produces, the parts (fields) each type consists of, and how types relate to each other. It is…Read the note
- Topic-based authoringTopic-based authoring is the practice of writing documentation as self-contained units — topics — that each answer one question or support one task, instead…Read the note