Goals

Established in March 2001, the Support Group for Information Architecture (SGIA) is an organization of students from a variety of academic disciplines at the University of Hawaii. Members are generally interested in Web design and building a positive user experience for their audiences. SGIA sought to invite students from a broad range of academic disciplines to discuss how information architecture (IA) might add value to their repertoire of design skills.

Immediate goals of SGIA include building a local information architecture community on campus with the hope that the University of Hawaii would recognize, at the student level, their passion and enthusiasm for the emerging field of interaction design. SGIA also hoped that the University of Hawaii would see this open collaboration among students from diverse academic disciplines and develop a curriculum offering information architecture courses in the classroom.

To initiate its call to action SGIA established an online presence, allowing an interested audience access to general information about information architecture. An online mailing list was also desired to further build online community.

Solution

A tool for connecting

SGIA believed that the Web site should primarily educate and serve as a learning tool for university students, faculty, and the general design and development community in Hawaii. SGIA had a very clear message: to inspire students to ask themselves "How can my academic background and specific skill sets contribute to the field of IA and the online information retrieval process?"

The Web site was divided into four acute sections: general information about IA, tools for learning more about it, interviews with people practicing it, and the group's own local activities page. A mailing list was also created allowing students to network and exchange ideas, tech-tips, and even possible web projects that students and SGIA could to participate in.

Results

Collaborate and network

SGIA allowed students from diverse academic disciplines to come together and exchange ideas about information architecture and to learn how their respective fields of study could contribute not only to IA's growth and momentum but to their own academic and professional goals. The SGIA electronic mailing list and Web site allowed students the opportunity to network and build friendships outside of their traditional academic environment.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa offered its first information architecture course in the fall of 2002.

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