The use of faceted analytico-synthetic theory as revealed in the practice of website construction and design.

摘要

Information architects seemingly re-discovered a legacy form of information organization and access: faceted analytico-synthetic theory (FAST) consisting of a set of principles and techniques to organize information. This exploration of connections between the intellectual foundations of information organization and current practices of Web design looks to past heritage for guidance and to current practices for evidence. Two hundred websites were examined for website components related to two basic functions: website searching and navigation. Basic and advanced search features occurred most frequently. Site examination revealed the integration of search and navigational features in one third of the sites. Interviews with 18 information architects indicated that this is an area of increasing interest and that FAST is considered a viable solution to enhance integration of searching and navigation features on websites. The features observed were simple in nature, not full implementations of FAST techniques. Guidelines for creating more robust integrations with theoretical underpinnings are proposed.