The mixed-bag dimensions in information architecture
To start developing narrative for an object in art, it needs context. A flower could be part of a bush, in a vase, behind a person’s ear, and in each of those contexts a different story starts evolving. Even the centrality of the floral form could shift from central focus to ambiance.
Context is a key consideration in information architecture, and can be shown and leveraged in many ways. Levels, though, is one of the places where context really shines through.
Levels tend to switch taxonomy between corporate cultures. I still stick to “levels” for several reasons:
- It’s used reasonably frequently
- Even where it’s not used, it tends to be understood without too much chaos
- In it’s primary use case — hierarchies — it’s intuitive once the structure is in front of people
- I have other uses for some of the other words that can pop up
The numbering of levels is cultural, too. Just like the floor differences between the US and UK — is the ground floor the first floor, or the floor above the ground floor? e.g., is the ground floor 1, or 0?
Levels are inherently imbued with the parent/child relationship, with the single-occupant level being the topmost parent. I tend to call it out with some special emphasis as I try to suss out whether a group looks at it as 0 or 1. Just like with floor numbers in the US, we tend to look at that topmost level as 1; but I still try to figure out who I need to help wrap their head around that numbering system. Basically, leave them behind or force them to figure it out on their own, and confusion and crossed wires will continue longer.
Levels are common — we don’t blink when we see them. They are the submenus in website navigation. Open a category (level 1), and another list of categories appear (level 2). That level might open a page, or it might open another list (level 3). Levels are intended to help people navigate to more precise data. Each level provides more context through what is included. It’s juxtaposition, again; this time through taxonomy and compiled meaning.
In this way, levels are simply part of a hierarchical information structure. Information points like a website can be contained and lensed to facilitate navigation, and navigation does not need to get down to the most granular detail.
Levels can also be dimensional. Dimensionality is developed in needing adjacent information structures to support it, and can even provide a handoff space where process or network supersedes the hierarchy of navigation.
The potential for levels becoming dimensional arises particularly in big-content sites like Amazon or CNN. Big-content sites can implement additional systems to support access to detail as well as having a more formal menu-style navigation structure. Filters, search, and shopping carts are set up as adjacent information from the navigation — they are simply too complex to put in whole, so they are encapsulated. Especially on big content sites, though, there are handoff points where navigation cedes authority to those adjacent information structures.
In other words, when we get into complex information and/or large data stores, we start chunking not only in categories, but in layered access to a multiplicity of information structures. We develop a navigational matrix with access to multiple dimensions of data through encapsulated rich data nodes.
This is one pieces of Why learn the fundamentals of information architecture structures?
