{"rowid": 289, "title": "Front-End Developers Are Information Architects Too", "contents": "The theme of this year\u2019s World IA Day was \u201cInformation Everywhere, Architects Everywhere\u201d. This article isn\u2019t about what you may consider an information architect to be: someone in the user-experience field, who maybe studied library science, and who talks about taxonomies. This is about a realisation I had a couple of years ago when I started to run an increasing amount of usability-testing sessions with people who have disabilities: that the structure, labelling, and connections that can be made in front-end code is information architecture. People\u2019s ability to be successful online is unequivocally connected to the quality of the code that is written.\nPlaces made of information\nIn information architecture we talk about creating places made of information. These places are made of ones and zeros, but we talk about them as physical structures. We talk about going onto a social media platform, posting in blogs, getting locked out of an environment, and building applications. In 2002, Andrew Hinton stated:\n\nPeople live and work in these structures, just as they live and work in their homes, offices, factories and malls. These places are not virtual: they are as real as our own minds.\n25 Theses\n\nWe\u2019re creating structures which people rely on for significant parts of their lives, so it\u2019s critical that we carry out our work responsibly. This means we must use our construction materials correctly. Luckily, our most important material, HTML, has a well-documented specification which tells us how to build robust and accessible places. What is most important, I believe, is to understand the semantics of HTML.\nSemantics\nThe word \u201csemantic\u201d has its origin in Greek words meaning \u201csignificant\u201d, \u201csignify\u201d, and \u201csign\u201d. In the physical world, a structure can have semantic qualities that tell us something about it. For example, the stunning Westminster Abbey inspires awe and signifies much about the intent and purpose of the structure. The building\u2019s size; the quality of the stone work; the massive, detailed stained glass: these are all signs that this is a building meant for something the creators deemed important. Alternatively consider a set of large, clean, well-positioned, well-lit doors on the ground floor of an office block: they don\u2019t need an \u201centrance\u201d sign to communicate their use and to stop people trying to use a nearby fire exit to get into the building. The design of the doors signify their usage. Sometimes a more literal and less awe-inspiring approach to communicating a building\u2019s purpose happens, but the affect is similar: the building is signifying something about its purpose.\nHTML has over 115 elements, many of which have semantics to signify structure and affordance to people, browsers, and assistive technology. The HTML 5.1 specification mentions semantics, stating:\n\nElements, attributes, and attribute values in HTML are defined \u2026 to have certain meanings (semantics). For example, the
element to mark up |
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