Background for reader

Company A is medium sized web design company that hosts, builds and manages websites for international companies (who have outlets in the Maltese environment), part-government owned organizations. The international companies require a service which maintains corporate standards set by the international company whilst also incorporating the global image with a tweak of originality which matches local expectations. Company A’s clients demand the kind of exceptional quality that can compete in the international arena

IA in the Organization

In addition to the core workers, working on the design and administration of the websites you develop, an Information Architect would be highly beneficial. A full-time Information Architect is a necessary if you want to give your clients the most effective service possible.”

A full time IA would be able to research and gain a rich understanding of the company background and strategy. In distinguishing the organizational structure and corporate expectations, the IA can aim to satisfy the company they are working for on more than one front. The full time position would allow the IA to build strong ties between all employees. An IA could assist the company in developing a more professional and centralized workforce. The IA would work to establish a cohesive unit of individuals who work together to give the company the best results possible.

Stationed within the organization itself the IA would be able to quickly identify typical customers and clearly categorize their expectations. With this in hand the IA could provide insight into future endeavours; opening up more business opportunities for your company. With the right marketing in place, the new service could be promoted amongst current clients; and in turn, help exposure this new service to other potential clients, by word of mouth.

An Information architect would also bring particular skills to the company. In your company’s case the best candidate would be someone who can offers various information architecture skills as well as other competences required by your company. This individual would then gradually develop suitable frameworks, drawing on all areas of information architecture. During this time the information architect would have the time to analyze the potential of current staff. With these step in place, the IA could then begin to shift their own skills to maintaining the frameworks and delegating specific tasks to employees who are considered capable of handling information architecture related tasks. In putting these new skills into the action the current staff can be educated to assist the information architect, who will be working on the overall frameworks that combines all stages of implementation and design. The information architect will also be responsible for monitoring individuals and their responsibilities. By merging these characteristics together, an active functioning whole, would be established

Including an Information architect to your workforce would have many quantitative and qualitative benefits. In terms of quantity, your company would gain financially from employing an IA, but the financial benefits are only one side of the coin. Without an IA, your company also jeopardizes their reputation in terms of quality of service.

Take this scenario as a model example of potential problems that a company similar to yours might face without an IA:

A site has been launched for a Maltese subsidiary of a largely global, home store company. The web designer in charge of the site spoke to the Maltese manager of the global company and was briefed on what he expected to be in this site. The ecommerce factor was stressed as being the most important part of the site and the manager expected the site to reflect the site of their International / American based site. The designer went ahead with the design and produced and aesthetically pleasing site which highly resembled that of the American one, but after launching the site there proved to be some significant problems. Clients were naturally assumed to have ‘typical’ online purchasing tendencies as Americans; local online consumer patterns were not investigated. Along the same lines labels used were not applicable to a Maltese/European clientele. Maltese people are familiar with British, not American English. This was not taken into consideration when the text for the site was being built, as it was lifted straight from the American site. The Navigation of the site was not functional to the Maltese surfer. Furthermore, content (i.e. items of furniture, household appliances and decorations) were not catogorised in a way that a local person would expect them to be, causing clients to loose hope in finding what they were looking for on the site. In the meantime the manager of the company contacted the designer and expressed concern about the minimal number of internet sales and the effectiveness of the site content. The web designer was left with the problem and proposed rebuilt the site from scratch to management. This was going to cost the company a significant amount of man hours as the worker had to work overtime in order to keep on target with other on going projects, for other clients.

Had an information architect been in control of such a project the web designer would not have been responsible for liaising with management. The information architect would be responsible for this and would have paved the way for the designer with well thought-out plans and detailed designs at the initial stages of the project. An Information architect would have investigated all possible problems prior to the launch of the site. The web designer would have been specifically guided, with appropriate labels, content and taxonomy whilst being left relatively open with the creativity (giving the designer all the raw material required, hence allowing him to focus exclusively on what he does best: being creative).

On a quantitative level it’s impossible to calculate the exact financial benefit of having information architecture in place; in this case would have saved man hours which were required for reconstruction and fixes at post production stage. At this point it’s important to consider all your ongoing projects and similar post production fixes that have to be made to each. In an overall view, in a company like yours that is constantly dealing with large amounts of content and designs, for multitudes of clients, an information architect would be a wise investment.

Qualitatively, such predicaments like the scenario above also threaten the credibility of the company; thus resulting in these large companies taking their business to what they consider a more reliable provider.

In conclusion, it can not be stressed enough how fundamental an IA is to your company. An information architect would open up endless opportunities to your company in your business sector. This individual would give your company the cutting edge against your competition; instigating growth and allow you to provide a unique and highly appreciated enhanced service.

Resources

Rosenfeld, L & Morville, P (2002), Information architecture for the World Wide Web, O’Reilly. Ch 15,17,18,19 (convert the authors/title into a link to the book homepage?)

Computer/online technology is still relatively new in Malta, so I knew my findings would vary. We are still in the process of moving away from the paperless office; everything is still at testing stages. So its really hard to imagine how IA would be received.

My findings were quite a surprise. I found that the Maltese government website does actually follow an architectural structure. I then recalled that the site was build by a large IT company, who is probably the most dominant IT company on the island. It seemed obvious that they wouldn’t bypass something so important. Although I am pretty sure that not all government sectors are worked into this structure but the pattern definitely shows room for expansion without the need for total reconstruction (which did ring a bell with something I had read)

Then I asked some friends of mine; generally people who work in computer related companies. It seemed that the general trend was that there was ‘some’ form of information architecture but it was not considered as a standing sector of its own. It has a small allocation of the company’s budget and was usually merged under other expenses. Maltese companies do not seem to consider organization as a priority which could save time and money. Employees don’t seemed to be included, educated or even asked how they interpret terminology within the system.

I hope I don’t sound biased in saying so, but in Malta outside the IT sector; IT use is very limited (usually there is one person who is IT literate and this person will do anything from repairs, networks, websites, databases). It’s pretty much a one man show.