“A Bugged Life” Blog Blueprint

September 17, 2006

I had dinner with INQ7’s Editor in Chief JV Rufino last week because I needed a bit of insight on information architecture. He was essentially the only person who I felt could help me with some issues about IA.

There is a big similarity between being an editor of a magazine and being an editor of an online publication, which I shall refer to as the website. These are the similarities:

Magazines have a page plan. Websites have a content management system.

Magazines have sections. Websites have categories or channels.

Magazines have a front cover. Websites have a portal.

Magazines use circulation data for advertisers. Websites use page views.

Magazines use independent readership surveys. Websites subscribe to a reliable ad server.

Above all these however, one should go back to basics and figure out what kind of publication one should concentrate on in the first place. Applied to blogging, you can ask what your target niche is, and then from there the design should follow. More on this later as I chronicle the site redesign for A Bugged Life.

Thoughts and Musings Writing

Comments

11 responses to ““A Bugged Life” Blog Blueprint”

September 17, 2006

Marc

I”m not sure if it’s still alive now, but there was an initiative to set up a special interest group for IA in the Philippines. I got started late 2000 and originally wanted to pursue it, but IA as a discipline/career here never took off… the Rosenfeld/Morville polar bear book is one of the best IA books out there.

Marc
September 17, 2006

Jayvee

marc,

ive been wanting a copy of a book like that. is it available in local bookstores?

IA is such an interesting topic. maybe it will kick off now? its all in the timing.
September 17, 2006

Kiven

seryosohan ito chief ah hehe
September 17, 2006

Jayvee

i was interested in IA because of the recent site redesign of m-ph.com as well as our other company blogs.

FYI my goal is to create the first corporate blog network in the Philippines (meron na ba to?) fueled by content from our magazines as well as from regular bloggers.

im trying to find a way to pay them.
September 17, 2006

Marc

I’m not sure if it’s available here but I’ll bring a copy to the ___ this week 🙂 buzz me so I won’t forget. When I ‘left’ IA, boxesandarrows.com was one of the bookmark-worthy sites out there. Might want to check it out 🙂

Just a little more nostalgia…I got so addicted to IA I even thought about pursuing a Library Science masters in UP (this HCI degree at Ann Arbor is said to be the best program out there)…but after countless sessions with local companies back then, offering IA as a separate billable service under the web dev umbrella just wasn’t sellable. Even know, I look at it as an ‘invisible’ skill, rather than a marketable service local establishments would be interested in.
September 17, 2006

Jayvee

yahoo!

correct me if im wrong but JV told me that you dont even need to have a “technical web background” when it comes to IA. in fact, it would be better to approach the discipline without any background on web development?
September 17, 2006

Marc

Very true. No hard skills required, just a commonsense appreciation for user experience. But IMO, IA will always be a subset of interface design so having web skills is a major plus. Low fidelity pen and paper prototypes will only work for a few clients; they almost always want colorful design studies to go with your IA schematics.

Maybe we can ask the resident library science blogger Vonjobi for his $.02 🙂
September 18, 2006

vonjobi

hey marc, even if you had gotten that degree in UP, you would have been lucky to learn anything about IA. i didn’t =)

i guess the book is still the best way to go. but it has always been unavailable on amazon since i started looking for it a few years ago.

it’s just too bad that now that i can borrow it from the library here in toronto, i don’t have the time to read it =(
September 18, 2006

Marc

Von, it’s a very light read…dali lang yon for you. It’s available at Amazon now (last I checked) and based on its Amazon sales rank, it looks like it still is THE IA bible..

BTW, how was the course in UP?
September 20, 2006

Ron

target niche = hot girls. demographic? 18-28
October 5, 2006

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