Got Content? You Need Information Architects

The inability to find content, a lack of compliance, and poor customer experiences all add up to real costs. If you care about getting the right information to the right people at the right time and you want to do it consistently across the enterprise, then you need to care about information architecture (IA). Forrester recently interviewed effective information architects across a range of industries. We found that they possess a people-centered, open-minded perspective and a knack for grasping concepts as well as perceiving details. Their primary responsibility is to analyze, model, and set up organizational schema for unstructured information. The most important challenges for content-oriented information architects are: 1) to promote their unique skills; 2) to actively contribute to business and IT projects; and 3) to be specific and practical.