About the Information Architecture Institute

The Information Architecture Institute is a 501(c)6 professional organization, operated by a dedicated, multi-national group of people. Volunteering our own resources, we aspire to build bridges to related disciplines and organizations. We invite you to join us in advancing the state of information architecture through research, education, advocacy and community service.

We live in exciting times. As the information age rolls forward, our businesses, markets and societies are being transformed into adaptive, connected networks. The Internet of today only hints at the ubiquitous communication infrastructure of tomorrow. The construction of this brave new world requires a new kind of architecture, focused on digital structures of information and software rather than physical structures of bricks and mortar. As we spend more time working and playing in these shared information spaces, people will need and demand better search, navigation and collaboration systems.

We are working hard to build an international membership that connects people with diverse languages, cultures and perspectives. So far, we have over 2000 members from 60 countries. Our Board of Directors and Board of Advisors are comprised of individuals from six continents. Our Translations Initiative and Local Group Program serves to promote and extend our services to all corners of the world.

Read our Annual Report (2007-2008) (PDF) to find out what we accomplished in our sixth year of operation.

Read our latest Letter from the Board of Directors for up to date news on the Institute's activity.

Spotlight on our People

Russ Unger
President

West Chicago, IL, USA

Photo of Russ Unger

Russ Unger is the Director of Experience Planning for Draftfcb, the largest advertising/marketing agency in the Midwest and currently serves on the board of directors of the Information Architecture Institute as president. Russ has been working on websites since 1993—when there was only Notepad to code with and Mosaic was the only browser around. That was when he found his interest in User Experience Design and Information Architecture began to flourish.

Since then, he has worked with a number of major brands, including Sharpie, Kraft, Kmart, Gatorade, Propel, Quaker and Celebrity Cruise Lines, as well as on large scale Intranet and Extranet applications for such companies as Volkswagen Credit, Audi Financial Services, Information Resources, Inc. and Marsh. He has been involved in the Information Architecture for large scale public-facing sites for such companies as Metromix, Oprah.com, United Airlines and Hewlett-Packard. He has also worked off-line, creating unique biometric (fingerprint reader) applications and has worked as the Design Lead for Motorola’s Connectivity domain where he was responsible for creating user interfaces for mobile applications in Motorola's Consumer Experience Design group.

In addition, Russ is co-author of the book “A Project Guide to UX Design” for Peachpit Press (Voices That Matter) and is co-authoring a book on research methods due out in 2010.

For more on Russ, visit userglue.com.

Spotlight on our Partners

American Society for Information Science and Technology

The American Society for Information Science and Technology's Information Architecture SIG is the home of the SIG-IA mailing list and the ASIST Bulletin. The Bulletin's IA Column features guest writers from the field of IA. Visit their site to read the current IA Column.