Information Architecture - Blueprints for the Web Review

Having read a number of glowing reviews on Facebook, I decided to pick up a copy of Christina Wodtke's book Information Architecture - Blueprints for the web. 

I had expected something a bit intellectual judging it by its cover (I know you should never do this, but it is the way with books on the web unfortunately - even the excerpt from Amazon's "Look Inside" feature didn't do much good), but it turned out to be quite different to my expectations.  With plenty of time over the Christmas break I was able to power through it.  I was suprised to find that the tone early in the book.  Initially I found the introduction laden with cartoons and little text to be a breath of fresh air compared to alot of the textbook approaches other books take.  However the book changes tone several times and through it Christina begins to rattle off a number of principles without much substance to back them up.

But pretty soon the book goes off on a tangent, and although it is easy to read, I found it difficult to get through.  For quite some time, the topics jump around the place and don't seem to head in any real direction and I didn't find the humour that funny.  Blueprints borrows heavily from Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.  It is obvious that this book is an attempt at a "Dummies" version of IA for the World Wide Web.  Although Blueprints contains some real gems that you can't find elsewhere, comparisons will ultimately favour Rosenfeld and Morville's more in depth book.

The last few chapters Blueprints for the Web degrades into a spiel personal advice and open ended commentary on the direction of the industry.  This is fine, but probably best left to follow up in a blog, as it has the appearance of filler content.

On a positive note, the book, written in 2003 manages to hold it's age quite well, avoiding falling into the traps of specific technologies and techniques which causes many other paperbacks to become dated quickly.

Although the book claims to be useful for designers, programmers, consultants and information practitioners, it is almost solely written from the perspective of a project manager.  So while the early parts of the book could apply to most roles, anyone who isn't in an over-arching project management role might not find too much in worthwhile in the rest of the book.