Information Architecture

1
Information Architecture Design

• Week 5 Schedule
• Planning IA Structures
• Other Readings
• Class Work User Analysis
• Project Plan Review
• Group Work Planning the Project Site

2
Class Work Planning a Site

• What kind of site will you build?
• Informational
• Entertainment
• Portfolio
• Content display
• Context with links
• What resources do you have?
• Content
• Ideas
• Circumstance
• Discuss up your ideas (10 min)

3
Group Work Building a Site Plan

• Discuss your ideas with your neighbor
• Do you have too much initially planned?
• Who is your user audience?
• What will the site be used for?
• Why would someone want to use your site?
• What are the goals of the site?

4
Thesauri, Vocabularies Metadata

• The Structure of Your Content (Part of the Plan)
• Models the Information for the User (Content
  Modeling)
• What Do You Do With Your Project Data (Content)?
• Context
• Descriptive
• Prescriptive
• Quality
• Accuracy
• Recency
• Characteristics
• Media / MIME type
• Uses
• Represent the Relationships Between Systems

5
What do we mean by Metadata?

• What are some examples of metadata?
• descriptive information about the context,
  quality and condition, or characteristics
• Variability (does it depend on the situation?)
• Intended uses?
• Is there a ideal world of (forms) metadata out
  there?
• Metadata can define the context

6
Controlled Vocabularies

• Establish Consistencies
• For the Content
• For the Developers
• On the Site Apparent to the Users
• Just Synonyms?
• Lists of Equivalents (Index)
• Aliases (Authority File)
• Also an Implied or Overt Hierarchy
• Synonym Ring (which isnt) p178
• Based on Users Understanding
• Improved Upon by IA
• Iterative Process to Discover Alternate Words
  Concepts
• Not Just for Search

7
Building Your Authority File

• List of preferred terms or acceptable values p180
• The Mission Statement for your Content
• Acronyms, Abbreviations
• Multiple terms (term rotation?)
• Cases (Upper, Lower and Mixed)
• Labels for Button Graphics too
• Use a Central File to Keep Current
• Authority.txt
• Keep updated throughout the project

8
Classification Schemes

• Taxonomy (more than one?)
• Front End
• Users (Personalized)
• Interface (Browse)
• Back End
• Information Architecture
• Content Management
• System (Search)
• Technical Approaches
• LIS CS
• Top-Down Bottom-Up
• Content Task
• All of the above?

9
Semantic Relationships

• Equivalence (Alternate Names)
• Derived (Rules)
• Vocabulary (Uses)
• Hierarchical (Relationships)
• Strong (Inherited)
• City - Austin
• Instance (Classes)
• Texas - Austin
• Associative (Checklist for Approval)
• Based on Understanding of Content
• Based on Understanding of Users

10
Thesauri - What kind do you need?

• Hierarchical Relationship
• Equivalence Relationship
• Associative Relationship
• Preferred Term
• Varian Term (synonyms)
• Broader Term (preferreds parent)
• Narrower Term (preferreds child)
• Related (see also, synonyms)
• Use (rules for where and when)
• Scope (restricts meaning)

11
Thesaurus Types

• Classic
• Links
• Keywords
• Subject Index
• LoC
• Index
• Browsable
• Appearance
• Ordering (Multiple orders)
• Relational
• See also
• Hierarchy
• Document versus Site

12
Faceted Classification

• Multiple Dimensions
• Now More Applicable to Digital Information
• Personality, Matter, Energy, Space, Time
• Topic, Product, Document Type, Audience,
  Geography, Price
• Commerce Examples
• What other kinds of views?
• Flamenco

13
Taxonomy of Decisions Actions

• Now not just the taxonomies of content, but how
  people work
• Purpose of the Search
• Method to Find Information
• Content of the Information Being Searched
• GVU Survey Question
• Recent instance of important information found
• Critical Incident Technique
• Complete Instances
• Known Consequences (Results)
• Morrison 2001

14
Taxonomy pt. 2

• Taxonomies of Web Activities
• Why people searched the Web
• How search the Web
• What information searched
• Analysis of Responses from Survey into Experiment
• Purpose Taxonomy
• Method Taxonomy
• Content Taxonomy

15
Human Information Behavior

• Information Seeking (Strategies)
• Information Searching (Strategies)
• Information Use
• Physical Actions
• Mental Actions
• Focus on the User
• Wilson 2001

16
New Models of Info Behavior pt. 2
17
New Models of Info Behavior pt. 3

• Problem Solving
• System Actions
• Integration of Actions

18
Rapid Ethnography

• Like Rapid Prototyping Usability Inspection
• Field Work (is being there half the work?)
• Wide-angled lens
• Ethnography
• People (Practice)
• Environments (Native)
• Activities (Context)
• Cultural Observation and Analysis
• Elicit User Requirements
• More Focused (Decisions)
• Millen 2000

19
Rapid Ethnography pt. 2

• Short Studies
• Comparisons to Other Studies
• Zoom in On Key Activities
• Multiple Datasets (Critical Incidents)
• Observations
• Recording
• Activity Walkthroughs
• Interviews (Structured)
• Selection of Instances that Yield Incidents
• Key Times
• Key Users

20
Rapid Ethnography pt. 3

• Automated Data Analysis
• Team Data Analysis
• Scenario Analysis (storyboards)
• Pictorial Storytelling (metaphors)
• Lightweight Deliverables
• Drawings (Sketches)
• Notes (not Reports)
• Incomplete
• Prototypes
• Cognitive Mapping (assumptive)
• Substitute for Full or Complete Studies

21
How Do We Really Use the Web?

• Reading vs. Scanning
• Quality of Elements
• Quantity of Elements
• Purpose of Pages
• Satisficing
• Guessing with Speed
• Low Penalties (Back)
• Testing Boundaries
• Muddling and Forging Ahead
• Stick with what works
• Not concerned with understanding
• Krug 2000

22
Design vs. Practice
23
Semiotics of the Web

• Site Structure and Cognitive Design
• Typography
• Medium use
• Browsers
• Message content
• Paper
• Web
• Appeal
• Attention (interest)
• Relevance (needs and motives)
• Confidence (expectation achievement)
• Accessibility
• Culture
• Physical
• Smart, et al. 2000

24
Learning and Interests (Users)

• Learning is Remembering What Youre Interested In
• Cultivating Interest
• Relevance
• Interests vs. Obligations
• Examples for Understanding
• Metaphors
• Content Presentation
• Architecture is Making Connections

25
Designing for Users

• Permutations
• Connections
• Facts vs. Ideas
• Discovery vs. JITI

26
Class Work Who Will Use the Site?

• Who are your target users?
• All of the possible users?
• What do you want users to get from your site?
• Is the site a Searching (JiTi) site?
• A Browsing and Learning site?
• Do you need different taxonomies for each type of
  user?
• Whats the best general taxonomy for describing
  and organizing your site?

27
Group Work User Analysis

• What do your users have in common?
• What are their differences?
• What design decisions need to be specifically
  planned for as essential for your users?
• What will the information on your site be used
  for? (Wilson)
• Rapid Ethnography take on the role of some of
  your users and ask questions.

28
Deliverables for Next Week

• Sitemap diagram of your proposed project
• One page, printed
• Include your name and email address
• User model (scenario starter)
• One page, printed
• Include your name and email address
• What the site is about
• In two sentences (at most)
• Briefly describe
• Who will use the site
• Why?
• When?
• Save this digital document for part of your class
  project portfolio
• Due at the beginning of class next week
• Start thinking about the controlled vocabulary
  for your site