# What does IA stand for?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539
**Category:** Community Building
**Created:** [May 13, 2019, 1:17am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539 "2019-05-13T01:17:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@John\_Lehmann](https://meta.discourse.org/u/John_Lehmann)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 1:17am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539/1 "2019-05-13T01:17:15Z")
Noob question for sure. I’ve seen @HAWK use it multiple times.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539/2 "2019-05-13T01:18:55Z")
Not at all. It’s a UX term and I should have expanded on it. 🙂
Information Architecture.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 3:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539/3 "2019-05-13T03:08:20Z")
A bit jargon-y for my tastes, personally.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 5:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539/4 "2019-05-13T05:12:15Z")
Perhaps in CM circles but in UX it’s a very standard and frequently used term. Def not jargon.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 5:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539/5 "2019-05-13T05:13:43Z")
I would say via programming circles it is a bit jargony and should be avoided. UX for example is wayyy more common. And UI is well understood as an abbreviation.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 5:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539/6 "2019-05-13T05:16:05Z")
A quick Google turn info architecture up as the first result. 😛
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 5:18am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539/7 "2019-05-13T05:18:08Z")
Right but nobody _needs_ to google “UI” or “UX”, that is kinda the point. They are in wide usage.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 5:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539/8 "2019-05-13T05:22:20Z")
Like any abbreviation, I suspect this started because it was being repeatedly written. I write it frequently so I tend to use the abbreviation. I’m not sure why we’re actually debating this… 🙂
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 7:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539/9 "2019-05-13T07:34:01Z")
I’ve a few books with this title in my library and .. I’m not fond of the genre as a whole. 🤷♂️
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### Author:  [@John\_Lehmann](https://meta.discourse.org/u/John_Lehmann)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-ia-stand-for/117539/10 "2019-05-13T18:15:43Z")
> [@HAWK](#):
>
> A quick Google turn info architecture up as the first result
Before asking, I googled a few queries like `community IA` and got nothing useful. Ironically just searching for bare `IA` would have been better.