2024 was one of the most momentous years for Information Architecture since its invention. The question being asked repeatedly in 2024, was, “are you useful to us.” This is a much deeper issue that is running throughout UX right now. UX professionals are seeing their ranks dramatically reduced because corporations question their value to projects.
But Information Architecture is valuable, especially as the very nature of information is being absorbed and reconfigured by Large Language Models. Gini Rommetty’s 2019 statement that “there is no AI without IA” was deeply prescient.
Moreover, the demand for justified value is actually a sign of IA’s increasingly central role in digital ecosystem development. This article really highlights this role: IA, either formally or informally, ends up being a part of just about every part of accepted software development processes, with an impact on the effectiveness and success of each.
Information areas for improvement, and the relative value of each, from Abby Covert’s article “What is the return on investing in information architecture?”
So if this is so, why are IA and UX professionals seeing their ranks thinned? The primary thing is that the practice is important but it’s not being well represented by the practitioner. IAs and UX experts don’t talk about ROI or value propositions reflexively; their approaches assume systemic, inherent value for the user.
But value can’t be assumed, the user experience wins are not enough. Organizations have the right to define and map their needs in the context of how the organization exists and succeed. Digital ecosystems are increasingly a core factor in that, so of course their value is an important question and people who have broader needs are asking it.
What does this mean for IA? To start with, metrics will increasingly be the language of value in UX and IA. Lija Hogan of Usertesting.com recently talked to us about the state of UX research, and she put it this way: "you can no longer assume that C level folks will know about or believe in ROI from UX fundamentals. You need to show that you are in service of business goals first and foremost.”
Lija also said that this point of view exists across the board, from for-profits, non-profits, and universities, each with their own unique success metrics. Some examples of success metrics she gave were reducing call center traffic, agency or department utilization rates, or meaningful visitor traffic to targeted site areas.
Information Architecture might be a capstone of good digital ecosystems, but you can’t act like you’re entering a priesthood!
“The Monument to the Priesthood", Gilgal Sculpture Garden, Salt Lake City, Utah. From Whistlepunch, CC License
It explains why the people doing IA and UX are increasingly not Information Architects. The major representative of IA and UX thinking is often the product manager. They apply many principles that look like IA and UX to that work, even though they've often not been formally trained in these domains.
For Information Architects this can be upsetting, but they are missing the core message here: Product managers are expected to place a product in the broader context of an organization's needs. The Product manager holds a project holistically in her mind so it can effectively represent the needs of the organization and the product's champions.
Second, Product managers base decisions on success metrics. As the world finds digital products -- and more importantly, digital ecosystems -- increasingly central to the success of organizations, those success metrics will be increasingly important to helping orgs ensure that products are properly made to best fit their needs and goals.
So in a world where Information Architects are laser focused on users without organizational success metrics, the product manager may be the only person on a team who:
best represents the product as an asset that is part of an organization's overall product strategy and portfolio, and
uses accessible metrics to assess that fit.
It’s not that product managers WANT this job; they are desperately busy people, and having to do design or architectural work only adds to their strain. But if they can’t find allies they will make do. So finding a shared language of value through success metrics will be critical to IAs who want to work for organizations that are trying to ensure their products are properly made for the right reasons. For us to fulfill the promise that our position as a core capability in business has created, we need to listen to the stakeholders in the room and make sure we realize that their metrics-based needs are also, to paraphrase Dan Klyn, a thing that is “good”.
We can be part of this new central role or we can abdicate it, but regardless, digital ecosystems will be built with UX and IA principles, and metrics-driven measures of value are here to stay.
Are we off base? Is this what you're seeing in your world as well? We'd love to hear your story about it, so drop us a line!