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Findability refers to the quality of being locatable or navigable. At the item level, we can evaluate to what degree a particular object is easy to discover or locate. At the system level, we can analyze how well a physical or digital environment supports navigation and retrieval.
Findability is not limited to the World Wide Web. The concept of findability is universal and timeless. However, with a distributed, heterogeneous collection of several billion items, the Web does present unique and important findability challenges.
Findability is not a synonym for information architecture (IA). Information architecture is a discipline concerned with the structural and semantic design of shared information spaces. Findability is a goal of IA, along with usability, desirability, credibility, and accessibility. Many people contribute to the findability of websites and intranets, including writers, designers, and developers.
External Links
- [1] (http://findability.org/): findability.org (a collection of links to people, software, organizations, and content related to findability)
- [2] (http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/002595.php): the age of findability (article)
- [3] (http://www.digital-web.com/articles/ambient_findability/): ambient findability (article)
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