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The federal government's focus on clear and understandable writing is supported by www.plainlanguage.gov. The purposes and directives for the site have evolved since its origin, necessitating revision of the site structure. Teams of students and professionals worked through a five-phase framework to organize and manage the change process. Their strategy started with gathering data on stakeholders' priorities and what worked and didn't work on the existing site structure. The redesign team developed several personas representing various types of anticipated site users and their specific needs. They evaluated the collected data from these perspectives and identified real users' top tasks. To organize content semantically, the team developed a taxonomy with four primary facets and built out the taxonomy following standard principles of vocabulary control. Two taxonomy versions emerged, providing site navigational labels and metadata to mediate retrieval. The teams developed, tested and revised mock-ups until the final stage of the effort produced a new site design having an arrangement of text, labels, links and relationships that better supports the site's new mission as the design continues to evolve. INSET: Personified Clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government site www.plainlanguage.gov espouses the use of clear and understandable writing in documents developed for citizens. Since its inception and careful information architectural crafting in 2006, it has gone through changes, including a change in responsibility for site maintenance. Recently, a legislative mandate has created unexpected new requirements for the site that the present implementation does not meet, resulting in criticism from frustrated users. With a different purpose and audience for the site, the original information architecture--no longer effective--will be revamped to meet changing needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on how to help improve information architecture of practitioners with the help of information professionals. The author says that information professional, which need to embrace strategies that would support and influence others. It also mentions tables that would guide or direct practitioners in writing information structure.

The article offers author's insights on the Plain Writing Act passed at the 111th Congress on September 2010, which aims to improve the accountability of U.S. federal agencies by promoting clear communication. It says that the Act will allow several individuals, such as information architects, content strategists, and writers, to produce materials that best meet the needs of audiences. Moreover , the Act will encourage government writers to think differently on the information that they publish.