Web Design and Information Architecture

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Web Design and Information Architecture

• Kenton Good
• LIS 538
• January 14, 2002

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What Makes a Good Web Site?
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What Makes a Good Web Site

• Usability
• Consistency, Simplicity
• Content
• Interactivity
• Community

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How To Tell If Your Web Site Is Usable?

• Know Your Users
• Usability Testing
• Card Sorting, Talk Aloud Exercises
• Usage Analysis
• More on these topics in a future lecture

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Web Design

• What
• Would
• Jakob do?
• www.useit.com

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Jakobs Law of the Web User Experience

• Users spend most of their time on other sites so
  thats where they form their expectations for how
  the Web works

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No Website is Seen in Isolation

• Users come to your site expecting things to work
  the same way they are already used to

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Jakob Suggests That

• If 90 or more of the big sites do things in a
  single way, then this is the de-facto standard
  and you have to comply unless 100 higher
  usability.

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What are the most popular web sites?

• AOL / Time Warner Network
• MSN Microsoft Sites
• Yahoo
• Mediametrix.com

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What are conventions used by big sites

• Blue Hypertext
• Navigation Tabs (Jakob Dislikes)
• Left-Justified Navigation Rail (also right)
• Breadcrumb Trail
• Search Boxes

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Common Design Mistakes

• Jakob Nielsen suggests the following
• Frames
• Bleeding-Edge Technology
• Scolling Text and Looping Animations
• Complex URLs
• Orphan Pages

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Mistakes cont.

• Scolling Navigation Pages
• Lack of Navigation Support
• Non-Standard Link Colors
• Outdated Information
• Slow Download Times

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I would add

• Pop Up Windows
• Pull Down Menus
• Hidden Navigation

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Library Specific Web Design
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Library Design Issues

• What does search really mean on a library web
  site
• Multiple Interfaces little consistency
• Libraries (particularly Academic) often very
  decentralized
• Library Jargon
• Politics

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Web Design Examples

• University of Toronto
• University of Calgary
• University of Saskatchewan
• University of Washington
• BYU
• Amazon
• Yahoo

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Writing for the Web

• The Web is not the same as traditional print
  publishing
• What makes the Web a different experience?

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The Differences

• Reading from computer screens is about 25 slower
  than reading from paper
• Users tend not to read streams of text fully

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What Can We Do?

• Be succinct write no more than 50 of the text
  you would have used in a hardcopy publication
• Write for Scannability
• Use hypertext to split up long information into
  multiple pages

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Make Text Scannable

• Highlighted keywords
• Meaningful Sub-headings
• Bulleted Lists
• One idea per paragraph
• Use the Inverted Pyramid Style of Writing
• Half the Word Count

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Case Study
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Promotional Writing (Control)

• Nebraska is filled with internationally
  recognized attractions that draw large crowds of
  people every year, without fail. In 1996, some of
  the most popular places were Fort Robinson State
  Park (355,000 visitors), Scotts Bluff National
  Monument (132,166), Arbor Lodge State Historical
  Park Museum (100,000), Carhenge (86,598), Stuhr
  Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (60,002), and
  Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park (28,446).

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Concise Text

• In 1996, six of the best-attended attractions in
  Nebraska were Fort Robinson State Park, Scotts
  Bluff National Monument, Arbor Lodge State
  Historical Park Museum, Carhenge, Stuhr Museum
  of the Prairie Pioneer, and Buffalo Bill Ranch
  State Historical Park.

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Scannable Layout

• Nebraska is filled with internationally
  recognized attractions that draw large crowds of
  people every year, without fail. In 1996, some of
  the most popular places were
• Fort Robinson State Park (355,000 visitors)
• Scotts Bluff National Monument (132,166)
• Arbor Lodge State Historical Park Museum
  (100,000)
• Carhenge (86,598)
• Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (60,002)
• Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park
  (28,446).

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Object Language

• Nebraska has several attractions. In 1996, some
  of the most-visited places were Fort Robinson
  State Park (355,000 visitors), Scotts Bluff
  National Monument (132,166), Arbor Lodge State
  Historical Park Museum (100,000), Carhenge
  (86,598), Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer
  (60,002), and Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical
  Park (28,446).

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Combined Version

• In 1996, six of the most-visited places in
  Nebraska were
• Fort Robinson State Park
• Scotts Bluff National Monument
• Arbor Lodge State Historical Park Museum
• Carhenge
• Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer
• Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park

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Information Architecture
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What is Information Architecture?

• On the Web, information architecture is a
  combination of organizing a site's content into
  categories and creating an interface to support
  those categories - Shel Kimen

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More Specifically

• Organizing Schemes
• Navigation Systems
• Labeling
• Controlled Vocabulary
• Search Systems
• Indexing

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Development Teams

• Project Manger
• Graphic Designer
• Programmer
• Database Administrator
• Information Architect

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How do you become an Information Architect

• Go to Library School
• Get Experience
• Applicable Classes 502, 538, Indexing,
  Cataloguing, Online Searching

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Categorization and Labeling

• Label for the User Not the Organization
• Avoid Org Speak
• Categorize into mutually exclusive categories
  Leave no doubt as to where the information will
  be found