The second job of the Information Architect is to create those signs and systems of signs that allow a user to journey through the website with ease and intuition, creating a sense of confidence in the traveler.
This is a lot harder than it sounds though. It is both the job of the Information Architect and the designer. Together they will look to the architecture superstructure as their lead to creating interface design and sign posting.
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That doesn't sound too tough.
The thing is, you don't confront a different Underground network every time you descend the stairs into the Tube station. London only has one Underground. It is a closed system. Once you've learnt how to navigate it you're away.
The WWW is an open system. We move fluidly from one website to another with ease. And each website has a unique architecture. Each website has a different way of decorating its walls, where it chooses to place escalators, the direction of its trains and the connection of its stations.
Every time a person arrives at a new website they are expected to go through that same learning curve to understand the particular structure they have arrived at. The structure they may wish to navigate.
Here are a couple of examples of how the Underground does it from around the Knightsbridge area in London:
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