Tracing the Roots: A Brief History of Information Architecture

Author: Rodrigo Ronda

Introduction

In today’s digital landscape, where clarity and usability define success, Information Architecture (IA) serves as the blueprint behind user-friendly websites, mobile apps, and knowledge systems. Yet, despite its growing importance, the discipline of IA remains relatively young and often misunderstood. To understand its current role and significance, we must trace its origins—from early analog systems of classification to the dynamic, user-centered designs of the digital age.

Information Architecture (IA) is the practice of organizing, structuring, and labeling content effectively and sustainably to help people find and understand information. It’s about making information clear, accessible, and usable — whether it’s on a website, an app, a document, or any complex system.

Information Architecture began gaining popularity in the 1990s. Although its momentum slowed during the dot-com crash of 2001, interest in the field quickly rebounded in the following years.

The goal of this article is to examine the historical origins of Information Architecture and contribute to its conceptual understanding. The focus is on developments up to 1998, the year that the discipline gained prominence thanks to the book “Information Architecture for the World Wide Web” by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville.

Historical Review

Long before the term Information Architecture existed, the practice of organizing information was foundational to human knowledge. Ancient libraries, such as the Library of Alexandria, and classification systems, like the Dewey Decimal System (1876), exemplify early efforts to bring order to information. These systems relied on taxonomy, hierarchy, and metadata—core principles that would later influence digital IA.

In the 20th century, thinkers like Paul Otlet and Vannevar Bush began imagining more dynamic, interconnected systems of knowledge. Bush’s 1945 essay “As We May Think” described the “Memex,” a theoretical machine that allowed users to link documents via associative trails—a conceptual forerunner of hypertext and the web.

Most of the literature focuses on the coinage of the term, which was first used by Richard Saul Wurman in 1975. Around 1998, Rosenfeld and Morville made the profession more well-known through their book “Information Architecture for the World Wide Web,” also known as the “polar bear book.” Sometimes, Edward R. Tufte is also mentioned as the person who started this, along with Wurman, from AI. But they are more well-known for their work in information design.

This article will show that before Wurman came up with the term “Information Architecture,” there was already a similar term in use. From 1983 to 1998, some efforts also created patterns in what we now call “Information Architecture”.

Architecture, general etymology

Humans have imagined an object before creating it. To do this, they imagined a solution that met their specific need. These processes have many names, such as “design,” “conception,” and “planning.”

The word “architecture” comes from the Latin word “architectúra,” which means: The art of designing and building structures.

Many people use the word “architect” to talk about someone who creates or invents things.

General influences

Some events marked patterns in the interdisciplinary use of the term “architecture” and even in the world of computing. One of these events was the General Systems Theory, which was proposed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy in 1931 at the University of Chicago. These principles influenced the ideas for a method of analyzing and designing systems (SSADM) that was developed in the 1980s.

Another factor was the development of structuralism as a methodological approach. This approach was based on the idea that the most important thing was to understand the internal structure of an object. This meant understanding its hierarchy and the connections between the elements of each level. Structuralism is connected to semiotics and linguistics because of Ferdinand de Saussure. It influenced the study of cultures by Levi-Strauss, the study of the mind by Vygotsky and Piaget, and other sciences and scientific fields.

The structured systems analysis and design method (SSADM) was another important factor in information architecture. SSADM had relevant authors who had made important contributions to the design of information systems. The most important ones are: Larry L. Constantine, Wayne P. Stevens, Glenford Myers, and Edward Yourdon. [Senn, 1987]

Origin of the use of the term Architecture within the context of Information

The term architecture started to be used in the computational context by the IBM company around 1959, and can be traced in the work done by Lyle R. Johnson and Frederick P. Brooks, members of the Machine Organization department at IBM’s main research center in 1959. Later, as the article states, one of these authors, Frederick P. Brook, in his book “Planning a Computer System: Project Stretch”, edited by W. Buchholz in 1962, wrote in chapter 2:

“Computer architecture, like other architecture, is the art of determining the needs of the user of a structure and then designing to meet those needs as effectively as possible within economic and technological constraints.” [Computer architecture, Wikipedia, 2008]

Moreover, in IBM technical literature, we can find a definition of the term “architecture” as:

“The term architecture is used here to describe the attributes of a system as seen by the programmer, i.e., the conceptual structure and functional behaviour, as distinct from the organization of the data flow and controls, the logical design, and the physical implementation” [Amdahl, Blaauw y Brooks, 1964]

Although the use of the term in these cases is associated with Computer Architecture, this conceptualization marks an important guideline in the further expansion of its use in other areas of computing.

In 1967, Nicolas Negroponte founded the Architecture Machine Group at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), which was a combination of laboratory and think tank in the study of new approaches to human-computer interaction. This laboratory later became the MIT MediaLab.

On 1970 July 1^st, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) Company emerged. In the beginning, Xerox Corporation brought together a group of world-class scientists specializing in Information Sciences and Natural Sciences and gave them the task of creating “the architecture of information” [Pake, 1985]. This company made many contributions: the first personal computer with a friendly interface, the first WYSIWYG text editor, laser printer, and Ethernet networks. Many of the investigative techniques of this company were emphasized in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and the social aspects of computing. [Hearst, 1996]

It is noteworthy that the first documentary evidence of the use of the compound term “Architecture of information” has two interesting features: specialists in Information Sciences and user-focused development. This approach towards the user is also evident from the earliest uses of the term “architecture”. This Xerox project gave birth to the first personal computer with a graphical user interface.

The second historical evidence of the use of the term is found in Richard Saul Wurman’s work among which there is an article written together with Joel Katz entitled “Beyond Graphics: The Architecture of Information” written in October 1975 and published by AIA Journal; and a lecture given in 1976, during a meeting of American Institute of Architecture (AIA) which he titled The Architecture of Information.

This claim was recognized in a book published by the author in 1996 [Wurman, 1996]. Wurman is an architect by profession, and he is considered one of the pioneers of Information Design. [Jacobson, 1999] According to his own website (www.wurman.com), he has had a passion throughout his life: “making information understandable“. Wurman has focused on urban environments from his origins as a professional in information design, with emphasis on the processes of organizing information, such as previous steps to make information visibly understandable to users.

It should be noted that the way the term “information architecture” has been seen in two ways:

• First, as “Architecture of information”
• Second, as “Information architecture”

Both forms mean the same, so the first is used in a more formal register than the second, which is a more colloquial.

The third evidence of the use of the term “information architecture” with this terminology structure is found in a series of articles published in the 80s. Authors of these articles refer to Information Architecture as a tool for designing and creating information systems (information system design). Most of these articles take a practical approach to the “information architecture” application.

Among the most prominent authors of these works are:

• James C. Wetherbe,
• Gordon B. Davis,
• Douglas R. Vogel,
• Gary W. Dickson,
• James C. Brancheau.

It is interesting to see how most of these authors show remarkable influence from Structured Analysis and Design in previous articles and papers.

A chronology of these little-cited items is displayed below, showing the development of the profession of information architect in the 80s and early 90s of XX century.

 

1983

---

Title: “Developing a long-range Information Architecture”

Authors: James C. Wetherbe and Gordon B. Davis

Publication: Proceedings of the National Computer Conference, Anaheim, CA, 1983

1984

---

Title: “University planning: Developing a long-range Information Architecture”

Authors: Douglas R. Vogel and James C. Wetherbe

Publication: Planning and Changing, fall 1984

 

1985

---

Title: “The Management of Information Systems”

Authors: Gary W. Dickson and James C. Wetherbe

Editorial: McGraw-Hill, New York, 1985.

(In this book, Information Architecture is conceptualized)

 

Title: “Information architectures”

Authors: Richard A Spencer

Publication: Journal of Systems Management; NOV 85, Vol. 36, p34-41

 

1986

---

Title: “Information architectures: methods and practice.”

Authors: James C. Brancheau and James C. Wetherbe

Publication: Information Processing & Management, Vol 22, No 6, December 1986, pp 453-463

 

1987

---

Title: “Information Architectures and Data Modelling: Cornerstone for Succeeding in the Information Society”

Authors: James C. Wetherbe

Publication: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Entity-Relationship Approach, North-Holland Publishing Co., 1987, p. 3

 

1989

---

Title: “Building and implementing an Information Architecture”

Authors: James C. Brancheau, Larry Schuster, and Salvatore T. March.

Publication: DATABASE, summer 1989.

 

Title: “Information architectures. The information resources entity (IRE) modelling approach”

Authors: Forest Woody Horton

Publication: Aslib Proceedings; Nov-Dec 1989, Vol. 41 Issue 11/12, p313-318.

 

Title: “The use of high-level models in the specification of an information architecture”

Authors: Robert A. Stegwee

Publication: R. Maes (Ed.) Proceeding of the First Dutch Conference on Information System. Amersfoort (NL) November 1-2.

 

1991

---

Title: “Information architecture: sharing the sharable resource.”

Authors: Douglas R. Vogel and James C. Wetherbe

Publication: CAUSE/EFFECT, 14, pages 4-9.

 

Title: “Alternative Strategies for Information Architecture Specification.”

Author: Robert A. Stegwee

Publication: A. van Harten and B.G.F. Pol (Eds.) Bedrijfskundig Onderzoek 1991 : 5e NOBO Onderzoekdag Bedrijskunde; Dutch and Enschede (NL), November.

 

Title: “Information Architecture: In Search of Efficient Flexibility.”

Authors: Brandt R. Allen and Andrew C. Boynton

Publication: MIS Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 435-445

 

1992

---

Title: “Division for Conquest: Decision support for Information Architecture Specification”

Authors: Robert A. Stegwee

Publication: Groningen (NL): Wolters Noordhof

 

There are other articles written in the 90s than in their content, which address “Information Architecture” as an important topic:

• Prototyping an institutional IAIMS/UMLS information environment for an academic medical center.
  Perry L. Miller, Jeffrey I. Clyman, John A. Paton, Seth M. Powsner.
  Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 80 (3) Julio 92, pp 281-287. 1992 

• Prerequisite matrix in decision-making process through the business systems planning (BSP) study of the Public Health of Split.
  B. Matokovic.
  Journal of Medical Systems 18 (1) Feb 94, pp 1-7. 1994 

• Communications architecture: towards a more robust understanding of information flows and emergent patterns of communication in organizations.
  A. H. Sagars and V. Grover.
  European Journal of Information Systems 3 (2) Abr 94, pp 87-100. 1994 

• Archives and the new information architecture of the late 1990s.
  R. F. E. Weissman.
  American Archivist 57 (1) Winter 94, pp 20-34. 1994 

• The quality of information on the Internet [in Hebrew]
  M. Farber.
  Information and Librarianship 21 (1) Mar 95, pp 45-7. 1995

• Modelling requirements for future CASE: modelling issues and architectural consideration.
  P. Marttiin, K. Lyytinen, M. Rossi, V-P. Tahvanainen, K. Smolander, J-P. Tolvanen.
  Information Resources Management Journal 8 (1) Winter 95, pp 15-25. 1995 

• Information architectural design in business process reengineering.
  W. J. Kettinger, J. T. C. Teng, S. Guha.
  Journal of Information Technology 11 (1) Mar 96, pp 27-37. 1996 

• Architecture for Information in Digital Library.
  William Y.Arms, Chistopher Blanchi, Edward A. Overly.
  D-Lib Magazine, Feb. 1997 

• Information architecture practice: research-based recommendations for the practitioner.
  K. P. Perisasamy, D. F. Feeny.
  Journal of Information Technology 12 (3) Sep 1997, pp 197-205. 1997

The vast majority of these previous papers are little cited in Information Architecture’s current bibliography.

Another document that addresses the topic of Information Architecture, written in 1995, was a thesis for the Doctor degree by Murray Louis Weitzman and entitled “The architecture of information: interpretation and presentation of information in dynamic environments, published by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

In this thesis, written a year before Wurman’s book Information Architects, Weitzman argues that the origin of the term comes from Xerox projects:

“Xerox was one of the first corporation to address this notion of information structure and use the ‘elegant and inspirational phraseology, the architecture of information’ to define its new corporate mission.” [Smith & Alexander, 1988 cited by Weitzman, 1995, pag 12]

He continues:

“The basic purpose of Xerox Corporation is to find the best means to bring greater order and discipline to information. Thus our fundamental thrust, our common denominator, has evolved toward establishing leadership in what we call the architecture of information. What we seek is to think of itself as a natural and undeveloped environment which be enclosed and made more habitable for the people who live and work within it. (Xerox: Searching for an Architecture of Information, an address by C. Peter McColough, President, Xerox Corporation, before the New York Society of Security Analysis, March 3, 1970)” [Weitzman, 1995, pag 12]

In this thesis, other than confirm that Xerox was the company starting using the term before Wurman’s Conference in 1975-76, shows information architecture as a tool to support the design and presentation of a document, bringing up the concept of “information structure” and posing as a concept of Visual information Architecture, VIA. This thesis used as a bibliography, books on design, architecture, among others, by Tufte and Wurman.

The following year after the completion of this thesis, the large-scale production of books focused on information architecture as a profession. This was also due to the accelerated development of computer technologies from 1990 to 1995.

Among the most remarkable books of this period, from 1996 to 1998, are:

 

Title: Information Architects.

Author: Richard Saul Wurman.

Year: 1996

Editorial: Zurich, Switzerland: Graphis Press Corp.

---

Title: Building Enterprise Information Architecture: Reengineering Information Systems

Authors: Melissa Cook and Hewlett-Packard Professional Books

Year: 1996

Editorial: Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

---

Title: Website Information Architecture.

Authors: Paul Kahn and Krzysztof Lenk.

Year: 1998

Editorial: Indianápolis, IN: New Riders.

---

Title: Designing Websites with authority: secrets of an information architecture

Author: Jakob Nielsen.

Year: 1998

Editorial: Indianápolis, IN: New Riders.

---

Title: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web

Authors: Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville.

Year: 1998

Editorial: Cambridge: O’Reilly

 

An important note is that the book written by Melissa Cook, entitled “Building Enterprise Information Architecture: Reengineering Information Systems” is based on the Enterprise Architecture Framework proposed by John A. Zackman in 1987 [Zackman, 1987]. This Zackman framework is a clear result of the central development of architectural concepts applied to the computing environment, and it has a principle of structured analysis and design. Also Zackman model includes information architecture as one of the design elements of information systems.

It is also important to highlight that Rosenfeld and Morville, by writing their book, which became very popular due to its simplicity in drafting and synthesis, facilitated AI diffusion and assimilation in the area of the World Wide Web as a profession. These authors are librarians (they studied Library and Information Science), which warrants their work when incorporating new techniques of organization and representation of information from Information Sciences into the work of an information architect. They gave IA another point of view.

From the year 2000 onwards, many books and articles on AI have been written. Among the most prominent authors today are Eric Reiss, Jesse James Garrett, Susan Batley, Christina Wodtke, Earl Morrogh, Peter van Dijk, Louis Rosenfeld, and Peter Morville, Andrea Resmini, Donna Spencer, Erin Malone, among others.

It is noteworthy that in Earl Morrogh’s book entitled: Information Architecture: An Emerging 21st Century Profession, a historical depth on the study of information architecture is provided.

For this century, the term Information Architecture is widely known, and the work of its experts is included in software design processes. On the Web (WWW), various publications and companies dedicated to the topic can be found.

 

Conclusions

The evidence shown in this article requires rethinking historical criteria on information architecture discussed so far. This review includes the author’s opinion.

1. The term “information architecture” etymologically comes from the evolution and extension of the term “architecture” within the computing environment, which also becomes the term traditional architecture (art and science of designing buildings and projects). This trend was evident from the 60s of the twentieth century.
2. The oldest evidence found so far for the term Information Architecture is the foundation stage of Xerox Corporation in 1970, this project that gave birth to many significant advances in computing projects.
3. There were two visions that formed the modern IA. The first one saw it as the one to raise the organizational structures of information in the visual results of our information environment. And the second one saw it as an organizational model of the interactions of information systems to achieve business process integration and information products. Both views focus on the computational environment. Both views were mixed in the 90s, adapting to new technologies (eg, the Web) and forming what we have today as IA. It is important to emphasize that R&M added the vision of Information Science with their Polar Bear book.

Summarizing these two visions, we can say that:

• The first one came from Information Design as a need to organize the information before rendering.
• The second one arose from the Analysis and Design of Information Systems and a need to organize processes and information resources before programming.

Unfortunately, this research has not been able to find a meeting point between these two visions, leading to the assumption that they were created independently.

Then we can set as pioneers of information architecture:

Focused on information organization for rendering [from the 70s to the 90s]

1. Xerox Project
2. Richard Saul Wurman

Focused on system analysis and design [from the 80s and early 90s]

1. James C. Wetherbe
2. Douglas R. Vogel
3. Gordon B. Davis
4. Gary W. Dickson
5. Richard A Spencer
6. James C. Brancheau
7. Forest Woody Horton
8. Robert Stegwee
9. J. Zackman
10. Mellisa A. Cook

Focused on the Web platform [from 1995 to 2003]

1. Jacob Nielsen
2. Paul Kahn
3. Lenk Krzysztof
4. Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville
5. Eric Reiss
6. Christina Wodtke
7. Earl Morrogh

From ancient libraries to modern websites, the journey of Information Architecture reflects our ongoing quest to make meaning from complexity. As digital experiences continue to grow in scope and sophistication, the principles of IA—organization, labeling, navigation, and search—remain central to designing systems that serve human needs. Understanding its history not only grounds us in the roots of the discipline but also prepares us for its future innovations.

Bibliography

• Amdahl, G. M.; Blaauw, G. A.; y Brooks Jr., F. P. Architecture of the IBM System/360. IBM Journal for Research and Development, April 1964 [online] (consulted January 2008) [http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/082/ibmrd0802C.pdf]
• Ames, Andrea L. y Corbin, Michelle. Information Architecture: Contributing Strategically to the Success of Our Customers and Our Businesses. Technical COMMUNICATION, Volume 54, No 1, p. 11-15, February 2007.
• Arms, William Y.; Blanchi, Christopher; Overly, Edward A. An Architecture for Information in Digital Library. D-Lib Magazine, Feb. 1997. [online] (consulted December 2005) [http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february97/cnri/02arms1.html]
• Batley, Sue. The I in information architecture: the challenge of content management. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives. Vol. 59 No. 2, p. 139-151, 2007
• Brancheau, James C.; Vogel, Douglas R.; y Wetherbe, James C. An investigation of the Information Center from the user’s perspective. DATABASE, Fall, p. 4-17, 1985
• Brancheau, James C.; Schuter, Larry; y March, Salvatore. Building and implementing an information architecture. DATABASE, Summer, p. 9-17, 1989
• Brancheau, James C. y Wetherbe, James C. Information architectures: methods and practice. Information Processing & Management, Vol 22, No 6, December 1986, p. 453-463
• Bustamante, Jesus. La arquitectura de información del siglo XX al XXI. El Profesional de la Información, v. 12, n. 2, marzo-abril 2003.
• Dickson, Gary W. y Wetherbe, James C. The Management of Information Systems. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1985. Cited by Brancheau, James C.; Schuter, Larry y March, Salvatore. Building and implementing an information architecture. DATABASE Summer, p. 9-17, 1989
• Everest, G.C. y Kim, Y.G. Perspectives on Data Planning and Information Architectures. MISRC Working Paper WP-89-04, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1989. Cited by Kettinger, W. J.; Teng, J. T. C.; Guha, S. Information architectural design in business process reengineering. Journal of Information Technology 11 (1) March 96, p. 27-37. 1996
• Evernden, Roger y Evernden, Elaine. Third-Generation Information Architecture. Communication of the ACM. Vol 46 No 3, March 2003.
• Garret, Jesse James. The Elements of User Experience. [online] (consulted March 2006) [http://jjg.net/elements/]
• Hearst, Marti A. Research in Support of Digital Libraries at Xerox PARC. Part I: The Changing Social Roles of Documents. D-Lib Magazine, May 1996. [online] (consulted January 2007)
• [http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may96/05hearst.html]
• Jacobson, Robert [ed]. Information Design. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1999
• Kettinger, W. J.; Teng, J. T. C.; Guha, S. Information architectural design in business process reengineering. Journal of Information Technology 11 (1) March 96, p. 27-37. 1996
• Morrogh, Earl. Information Architecture: An Emerging 21st Century Profession. Prentice Hall, 2003
• Morville, Peter. A brief history of information architecture. In: Information Architecture. designing information environments for purpose. Edited by: Alan Gilchrist y Barry Mahon. Facet Publishing London, 2004 [online] (consulted November 2007) [http://www.semanticstudios.com/publications/historia.pdf]
• NetLingo Internet Dictionary | Online Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms, Acronyms & Text Messaging. [online] (consulted January 2007) [http://www.netlingo.com/lookup.cfm?term=Xerox%20PARC]
• Orna, Liz P. Collaboration between library and information science and information design disciplines. On what? Why? Potential benefits?. Information Research, 12(4) paper colis02. 2007 [online] (consulted December 2007) [http://InformationR.net/ir/12-4/colis/colis02.html]
• Oxford University Press. Oxford Superlex Dictionary. [CD-ROM] Oxford University Press – Hachette Livre, 1994-1996.
• Palo Alto Research Center. PARC History. [online] (consulted January 2007) [http://www.parc.com/about/history/default.html]
• Pake, George E. Research at Xerox PARC: a founder’s assessment. IEEE Spectrum, Octubre 1985. Cited by Hearst, Marti A. Research in Support of Digital Libraries at Xerox PARC. Part I: The Changing Social Roles of Documents. D-Lib Magazine, May 1996.
• Reed Technology and Information Service Inc. Library and Information Science Abstract, LISA. [CD-ROM] Reed Technology and Information Service Inc, Bowker-Saur, 1998
• Reiss, Eric. Practical Information Architecture. A hands-on approach to structuring successful websites. Addison-Wesley, 2000
• Resmini, Andrea and Rosati, Luca. Pervasive Information Architecture. Designing cross-channel user experience. Morgan Kaufmann, Elsevier, 2011.
• Ronda León, Rodrigo. La Arquitectura de Información y las Ciencias de la Información. No Solo Usabilidad Journal, No 4. Abril 2005 [online] [http://www.nosolousabilidad.com/articulos/ai_cc_informacion.htm]
• Rosenfeld, Louis y Morville, Peter. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. Cambridge: O’Reilly, 1998
• Sanders, Donald. Computer in society. McGraw-Hill (2nd edition), 1977
• Senn, James A. Análisis y diseño de sistemas de información. McGraw-Hill. Traducción: José Lara Portal. 1987
• Smith, D y Alexander, R. Fumbling the Future. Quill William Morrow, New York, 1988. citado por Weitzman, Louis Murray. The architecture of information: interpretation and presentation of information in dynamic environments. Tesis (Ph. D.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1995.
• Tramullas, Jesus. Diseño y arquitectura de información para la Web, 2001-2004. Un análisis bibliográfico selectivo. El Profesional de la Información, v. 13, n. 3, mayo-junio 2004.
• Weitzman, Louis Murray. The architecture of information: interpretation and presentation of information in dynamic environments. Tesis (Ph. D.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1995. [online] (consulted January 2008) [http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29085]
• Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia). Systems theory. [online] (consulted February 2008) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_theory]
• Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia). Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method. [online] (Consulted February 2008) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structured_Systems_Analysis_and_Design_Method]
• Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia). Information architecture. [online] (Consulted August 2008) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_architecture]
• Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia). Computer architecture. [online] (Consulted August 2008) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_architecture]
• Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia). Nicholas Negroponte. [online] (Consulted January 2008)  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Negroponte]
• Wodtke, Christina. Information architecture, blueprints for the web. New Riders, 2002.
• Wurman, Richard. Information Architects. Zurich, Switzerland: Graphis Press Corp, 1996
• Wyllys, R. E. Information Architecture. The University of Texas at Austin School of Information, LIS 386.13, 2000 [online] (Consulted February 2005)  [http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~wyllys/ITIPMaterials/InfoArchitecture.html]
• Zackman, J. A. A framework for information system architecture. IBM System Journal. Vol 26, No 3, pages 272-292, 1987.