Information Architecture has many differnt styles and I will be talking about them in this post. A good source for the models is at Information Architure Models by Web Design From Scratch. Another good article I will be sourcing is Information Architecture 101.
All In One
All In One is one very long page with little to no links. All the information in the whole site is on the one page.
Example: Shutter Speeds
Flat
Flat structure usually only is one level deep and each page is accessible from all the other ones.
Examples: Golf Link, Neo Pets.
Index
An index page links all the subsections and can be reached by the home page.
Daisy
A daisy pattern is used for multiple linear navigation paths.
Strict Heirarchy
Strict heirarchy is similar to Flat except it has multiple levels. Different levels linking to a different subsection is usually not used.
Multi Dimension Heirarchy
Multi Dimension Heirarchy is not unlike Strict Heirarchy however links can cross from one section to another.
Examples: Livejournal, Amazon.
Search
Search engines allow for a term to be entered, and all relevent material will come up in a list.
