In Parts I and II of our “Built-to-Last” series, we talked about two major concepts for creating effective deliverables in Information Architecture (IA). Part I described how to create contextually appropriate and concise models. Part II demonstrated that using contextual inquiry to get deep involvement from stakeholders would improve understanding in the future.

In this section we tackle the greatest challenge to effective document delivery: all organizations making anything that involves software are looking at a problem set with multiple layers of technology, stakeholders, and objectives. In short, all modern projects are complex projects, so it is incumbent on any deliverable to find a way to embrace and manage that complexity.

A structural vocabulary will help your project team make choices about design and implementation.

Sites need guides, the friendly voice helping people discover spaces where they can learn, work, and play. Most sites try to do this by adding 3 major navigation strategies: directional signage, maps, and indexes.

Previously we gave an overview of each of these guide strategies, along with some pointers about how you can pick the right one for your site. This post gets into more detail about the classic and original web navigation guide: directional signage.