Exploring the Applicability of Web Architectural-Inducing Model (WA-IM) for Information Architecture in Cultural Context: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Website Information Architecture (IA) has transcended into a discipline that is concerned with design principle and architecture of information in digital landscape. IA models in web-mediated environment however lack theoretical perspectives, empirical evidence and cultural context. In our effort to enlighten these aforementioned, we proposed the Web Architectural-Inducing Model (WA-IM) for IA. We conceptualized website IA as multidimensional
constructs and explore the applicability of WA-IM for IA. We conducted a web-based survey to 427 Muslim online user as the cultural case study and examine the expectations of using IA in culturecentred website; i.e., Islamic genre website. Construct validation of the multifactor structure of website IA was assessed via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), using structural equation modeling
(SEM). A five factor hypothesis goodness fit model
was evaluated where the CFA verified that website IA is composed of multidimensional constructs of five factors; ‘content-information’, ‘content-trust’, ‘navigation-trait’, ‘navigation-wayfinding’ and ‘context-information design’