A Journey into Web Usability What an Information Architect Learned on His Summer Vacation Steve Toub Introduction I'm a librarian who provides information architecture consulting on Web projects. As an information architect, my role is to organize content (grouping, labeling) and design navigation systems (indexing, searching) that help users find the information they need. 1 At Argus Associates (http:Pargus-inc.com) we use various tools and techniques to learn about the goals and scope of a Web site and the information needs of the various audiences. Although our designs have been well-received by our clients, I've always felt a little uncomfortable knowing that we didn't formally incorporate real-world users into our design process, nor did we test our designs formally with users. We practiced art but didn't apply any empirical evidence to back it up. The question continued to nag at me: "What empirical evidence do you have that your design works well for users?" This self-doubt cut at the heart of my identity as an information architect - if users or usability experts could improve upon my work, what good was being an information architect at all? After contemplating the death of my profession and running through the five
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