Information Architecture

Definitions:

From Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (Rosenfeld & Morville; 2nd Edition):

1. The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation schemes within an information system.
2. The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content.
3. The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and intranets to help people find and manage information

The keywords are "information", "structuring, organizing and labeling", "finding and managing", "art and science".

From CNet - Shel Kimen (http://builder.com.com/5100-31-5074224.html)

"...information architecture is a combination of organizing a site's content into categories and creating an interface to support those categories."

Process

From http://www.unimelb.edu.au/webcentre/training/trainingfiles/IA_training_notes.pdf :

8-step process (p. 8)

Generally speaking:

Mission, objectives, stakeholders

Identify audiences

Contents and organizations

Navigation patterns

Usability

Accessibility