I recently read Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web (2nd Edition) (Voices That Matter), written by Christina Wodtke and Austin Govella.

I have wanted to read this book since its release earlier this year because I'm a little bit 'jack of all (web) trades', with the majority of my Information Architecture work being done as part of a team or partnership, so I am still in education mode when it comes to IA, though how many people decide to stop learning IA?

Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web is aimed at IA beginners, so reading it has filled in a few gaps and will make a great reference book when working on new projects and writing proposals.

So, let's get into why you should read this book.

• The majority of the chapters are packed with practical instructions on each step of the IA process. You will be walked through each step of the various processes, such as classifying your content and sitepath diagramming.
• Great examples within make reading this book a pleasure. I've seen so many books that are mostly dry text with the occasional illustration or table, but this book is full of screenshots, example deliverables, illustrations and photographs.
• The content is well organized (as you might expect!) and focused. The information is relevant, interesting and doesn't go off onto tangents, so it makes a great reference book for web designers, project managers, web producers and information architects. All 11 chapters can be tackled separately, although I did benefit from reading the book cover to cover.
• The chapters on search, navigation and architecting social spaces are well worth reading if you aren't super-familiar with best practices in these areas. (Another great book on the subject of social web design is Designing for the Social Web (Voices That Matter)).
• Search and Ye Shall Find was a fun chapter for me because I'm a search geek, which probably stems from my days at ProQuest in Cambridge, UK when we used Open Text (I think they still might, actually). Analyzing search results, wondering if there are other results hidden with, creating the perfect search query in order to get the ideal set of results...bliss. I get extremely frustrated when I can't manipulate a set of search results through filters, can't make a decision about a set of search results because they're missing dates, or don't know how my results are sorted. One of the best lessons I learned in this book are four ways that users seek information: known-item search, exploring, don't-really-know-but actually-looking-for-something-else, and re-finding.
• This book is a good length. At 290 pages (including index) is small enough to carry around but packed with so much information that it's definitely worth owning your own copy. I finished it in about six hours.
• The final chapter puts everything together and uses the Boxes and Arrows site redesign as the vehicle which carries all the lessons of the book into one satisfying journey.

Have you read this book? Did you find it useful?

My only negative comment is I found some typos in screenshots and copy. Nothing major, mind you. :)

This is the part where I disclose that I have already trashed my copy a little bit. :)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="384" caption="Uh oh, more damage to the Information Architecture book..."][/caption]