systems
Information architecture (IA)
The pre-visual work of deciding what a product contains and how it's organised, named and related – settled in lists and diagrams before any screen is drawn.
The invisible skeleton: what content and functionality exist, how they’re grouped, what they’re called, how they relate. Per Nielsen Norman Group, IA lives in spreadsheets and diagrams – deliberately not in wireframes or comps – because structure decided while drawing screens ends up shaped by the drawing.
Get it wrong and no amount of beautiful screen design compensates, because users can’t find things organised around how the company thinks about itself. The discipline worth naming out loud in any review: structure before screens.