Measuring information architecture quality: prove it (or not)!

This panel debates a topic that has been popping up recently as a consequence of different disciplines rubbing up against each other in a new field: can the quality of an information architecture be measured quantitatively? And if so, how can this analysis be verified?Information architects and HCI professionals already are discussing this issue regularly and at times heatedly. The need for guidance is especially pressing because information architecture is an emerging field. As in other areas of HCI, information architects are regularly confronted by clients and employers alike with the need to justify the cost of their efforts in quantitative ways.Information architects come from a variety of disciplines including HCI, library and information science, visual design, technical communications, and computer science. These fields have widely varying opinions on the validity of and techniques for quantifying information system performance. While some dispute the validity of quantification, others tend to believe that it is not only possible but the only valid means for assessing information architecture. Members of both camps may resort to traditional means of assessing information systems performance, while others feel that the new medium of the Web requires new tools, techniques, and approaches for such assessment.