From newspapers to websites and microwave ovens to mobile apps, on a daily basis the average person encounters and navigates a huge amount of information in the form of text, icons, images and numbers. Whether in the interface of a simple alarm clock or the workings of a large complex multi-user system, the way information is labelled, grouped and structured shapes how a product or service is used. Designers often refer to this structuring of content as a product’s information architecture. This is most clearly seen in website design, where navigation, tabs and pages create hierarchies and groups that order what the user sees.
Continued on pages 38–39 of Design. Think. Make. Break. Repeat.