Users, content and context

The three circles of information architecture — users, content and context — are the model Rosenfeld and Morville use to scope any IA project. A structure only works where the three overlap.

Users

Who needs the information, what they already know, and what task they are trying to finish. Users bring Mental models that decide whether a label or grouping makes sense to them. In technical documentation, the same product has very different users: installers, operators, maintenance staff and auditors.

Content

What exists, in which formats, owned by whom, and how it changes. A content inventory and audit is usually the first practical step; a Content model then describes content types and their parts, and Metadata describes each item.

Context

The business goals, regulation, technology, culture and constraints around the information. For machine documentation, context includes legal requirements for instructions, translation workflows and the delivery channels (PDF, portal, in-product help).

In practice

Research methods map to the circles: interviews, Card sorting and Tree testing for users; inventories and audits for content; stakeholder interviews and document analysis for context. The result feeds the four systems described in Information architecture.