Written by two leading Web site consultants, this book explains how to merge aesthetics and mechanics for distinctive, cohesive Web sites that work. It focuses on the framework that holds the two together. By applying the principles outlined in this updated edition, the reader should learn how to build Web sites and intranets that are easier to navigate and appealing to users, as well as scalable and simple to maintain. The book also teaches: how to develop a strong, cohesive vision for a site that makes it both distinctive and usable; how to organize a site's hierarchy in ways that are meaningful to its users and that minimize the need to re-engineer the site; how to create navigation systems so that users can move through the site without getting lost and frustrated; how to label a site's content in the language of the users; how to organize a site in a way that supports both searching for specific items and casual browsing; how to configure search systems so that users' queries actually retrieve meaningful results; and how to manage the process of developing information architecture, from selling the concept to research and conceptual design to planning and production.

Today's web sites have moved far beyond brochureware. They are larger and more complex, have great strategic value to their sponsors, and their users are busier and less forgiving. Designers, information architects, and web site managers are required to juggle vast amounts of information, frequent changes, new technologies, and sometimes even multiple objectives, making some web sites look like a fast-growing but poorly planned city-roads everywhere, but impossible to navigate. Well-planned information architecture has never been as essential as it is now. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 2nd Edition, shows you how to blend aesthetics and mechanics for distinctive, cohesive web sites that work. Most books on web development concentrate on either the graphics or the technical issues of a site. This book focuses on the framework that holds the two together.
This edition contains more than 75% new material. You'll find updated chapters on organization, labeling, navigation, and searching; and a new chapter on thesauri, controlled vocabularies and metadata will help you understand the interconnectedness of these systems. The authors have expanded the methodology chapters to include a more interdisciplinary collection of tools and techniques. They've also complemented the top-down strategies of the first edition with bottom-up approaches that enable distributed, emergent solutions.
A whole new section addresses the opportunities and challenges of practicing information architecture, while another section discusses how that work impacts and is influenced by the broader organizational context. New case studies provide models for creating enterprise intranet portals and online communities. Finally, you'll find pointers to a wealth of essential information architecture resources, many of which did not exist a few years ago.
By applying the principles outlined in this completely updated classic, you'll build web sites and intranets that are easier to navigate and appealing to your users, as well as scalable and simple to maintain. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 2nd Edition is a treasure trove of ideas and practical advice for anyone involved in building or maintaining a large, complex web site or intranet.

Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville are both information and library scientists. Having seen the internet grow in the late 1990s they realized that it takes more to design a large-scale web site than a content management system. The first edition of their book published in 1998 heavily influenced the emerging information architecture industry.
Defining "Information Architecture" (IA) is difficult. IA denotes to the work librarians have been doing for centuries: organising large amounts of information. Of course, designing a web site differs a lot from organising a library. Thus, the authors provide an entire chapter on how to define IA and what metaphors are appropriate.
The basics of IA are taxonomies, labelling systems, navigation, search systems, and thesauri. Each of which is addressed in a chapter of its own. The authors describe the theoretical background of each concept, the methods that apply to it, and the effects of good vs. a poor implementation. The chapter on thesauri, for instance, describes classic thesauri: a list of synonyms labelled as preferred, broader, narrower, related, and variant terms. In the context of web sites a thesaurus might serve as an A-Z index (rarely seen on the web although much more ‘user-friendly’ than a site map) or can be used to transform search queries. If a user enters a search term the system could search for synonyms as well or it could even correct common misspellings. Furthermore, a thesaurus also helps content authors to use a consistent vocabulary.
The book continues with insights on the IA in practice. Rosenfeld and Morville focus on the business context. Aspects of strategy, organisational issues, and ethics are discussed. It is, for example, difficult to calculate the return on investment of IA. However, there are a lot of cases where IA indeed paid off. The authors provide two detailed case studies: the Microsoft intranet and evolt.org, an online community platform.
The second edition of the book features a vast appendix of IA related books, journals, conferences, and web sites. Also, there are now chapters describing research and education in IA, tools and software used by IA professionals, and a completely new chapter on thesauri.
"Information Architecture for the World Wide Web" is a book full of practical advice for everyone who is involved in designing or maintaining a large-scale web site: designers, computer scientists, usability engineers, marketing staff and management. Rosenfeld and Morville successfully ran an IA consultancy until the web bubble burst in 2001. Much their experience – success and failure – are comprised in this book. It is not a scientific book on information science but a practitioner’s guide on structuring and organising large amounts of information.
[from http://www.elearning-reviews.org]