The definition of IA, Human Factors, Experience Design, and User Experience Design

Information Architecture (IA)
Information architecture is the term used to describe the structure of a system, i.e. the way information is grouped, the navigation methods and terminology used within the system.

Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville in1996 defined the Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites they define information architecture as:
1. The combination of organisation, labelling, 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.
4. An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

Human Factors
Human factors is the application of this understanding to the design and development of systems and services. Human factors engineering (HFE) focuses on how people interact with tasks, machines (or computers), and the environment with the consideration that humans have limitations and capabilities.

Experience Design
Experience design is the practice of designing products, processes, services, events, and environments with a focus placed on the quality of the user experience and culturally relevant solutions, with less emphasis placed on increasing and improving functionality of the design.

User Experience Design
User experience design is a subset of the field of experience design which pertains to the creation of the architecture and interaction models which impact a user’s perception of a device or system. The scope of the field is directed at affecting “all aspects of the user’s interaction with the product: how it is perceived, learned, and used.

~yuwei fu