Facet's iResearch series began its journey in 2015 with the aim of publishing unique titles blending theory and research on a specific aspect or an emerging topic in information science. Design and evaluation of information systems and services has remained an area of study and research in many cognate disciplines ranging from computing and information systems, information and library studies, to business management, and so on. Each discipline aims to address a set of unique challenges as they are seen from their disciplinary background and perspectives. This results in research that often fails to take a holistic view of information systems including technologies, people and context. This second title in the iResearch series – edited by Urquhart, Hamad, Tbaishat and Yeoman – aims to address this challenge by bringing together different viewpoints and perspectives of information systems design and evaluation from the contributors’ own diverse and yet complimentary areas of teaching and research interests. Quite rightly, in her introduction to the book, Urquhart points out that this title sits within the design and architecture theme of the iResearch series and it aims to encourage information researchers to think critically about the possible connections that can be made between different topics of study in information in order to design, develop and evaluate the most effective and efficient information systems and services. Hence this is not just another book on information architecture that focuses on content architecture alone; the research and development activities reported in this book also cover the other end of the spectrum concerned with service evaluation, performance management and library assessment.

This book, containing 14 chapters written by academics and researchers from different research backgrounds and viewpoints, offers a significant contribution to research and practices in the architecture, design and evaluation of online information systems and services.