Acknowledgments (Information Architecture for the World Wide Web)

0.7. Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments are both the most enjoyable and most treacherous part of writing a book. It's a wonderful feeling to reach the point where thanks are in order and to recognize the many people who participated in the experience, directly or indirectly. Yet it's awfully frightening to consider the strong possibility that we've left someone out. So we'd like to offer our apologies to anyone we have forgotten, and thank the rest:

Linda Mui and the rest of the editorial staff for their availability, high standards, and professionalism. The production team, which included Jane Ellin, the production editor; Mike Sierra, who converted the book and provided Tools support; Seth Maislin, the indexer; Robert Romano, the illustrator; Nancy Priest, the interior designer; Edie Freedman, who designed the cover; Elissa Haney and Claire Cloutier LeBlanc for production support; and Madeleine Newell, Nicole Gipson Arigo, Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary, and Sheryl Avruch for quality control. We now know firsthand why O'Reilly & Associates enjoys its reputation.

Lorrie LeJeune, O'Reilly's Product Marketing Manager, who got us into this mess in the first place, but kept prodding good-naturedly throughout the process. Without her this book would never have been written.

O'Reilly & Associates, for its willingness to delve into the risky waters of publishing a book on the slippery topic of information architecture. We also really appreciated the free books and tee shirts.

Our reviewers, Steve Champeon, Jennifer Fleming, Andrew Gent, David Golumbia, Peter Mahnke, Paul Morville, Jeff Stuit, and Roy Tennant. It was our dumb luck that such a cast was available and willing to provide us with their expert feedback.

The sponsors of the many sites profiled in this book. We greatly appreciate their granting permission to allow us to use images of their sites to give information architecture a more tangible treatment.

Our colleagues at Argus Associates, Samantha Bailey, Stephen Toub, and Christopher Farnum. They read our drafts, gave us critical feedback and ideas, kept the Argus ship afloat, humored us, and put up with our crankiness while we worked on this book.

Our colleagues at Allied Studios, who have taught us volumes about interdisciplinary design and teamwork: John Bidwell, Jeff Callender, Hans Masing, Tom Rieke, Peter Wyngaard, and all the other creative people at Q LTD and InterConnect of Ann Arbor.

Our teachers and mentors from the University of Michigan's School of Information: Dan Atkins, David Blair, Michael Cohen, David Hessler, Maurita Holland, Joe Janes, Dave Rodgers, Victor Rosenberg, Amy Warner, and the late Miranda Pao.

Our friends in the Internet and library communities for their good works and generous help: Scott Brylow, Abbot Chambers, Larry Coppard, John December, Andrea Gallagher, Tony Grant, Charles Harmon, Randy Horton, Keith Instone, Jakob Nielsen, Anna Noakes, Pat Schuman, Phil Sutherland, Heidi Weise, Ed Vielmetti, and Rich Wiggins.

Finally, we'd like to say a special thanks to our families for their love and support, and to our respective partners, Mary Jean Babic and Susan Joanne Morville, who put up with us during the whole ordeal. Thanks to all!

Louis Rosenfeld

Peter Morville

January, 1998