Information Architecture

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Information Architecture Strategy

• In strategy, surprise becomes more feasible the
• closer it occurs to the tactical realm.
• Carl Von Clausewitz, On War, 1832

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information architecture n.

• The structural and semantic design of an
  information space to facilitate task completion
  and access to content.

• The Many Facets of IA
• A Site Component
• A Phase
• A Job / Role
• A Discipline / Degree
• A Community

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business strategy n.

• Defining how an organization will use its scarce
  resources to achieve sustainable competitive
  advantage.

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A Strange Connection?
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The Origins of Strategy

• That general is skillful in attack whose
  opponent does not know what to defend and he is
  skillful in defense whose opponent does not know
  what to attack. circa 500 BC
• Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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What is Strategy?

• strategy
• The science and art of using all the forces of a
  nation to execute approved plans as effectively
  as possible during peace or war.
• The art or skill of using stratagems in endeavors
  such as politics and business.
• strategem
• A clever, often underhand scheme for achieving an
  objective.

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What is Business Strategy?

• Strategy is the creation of a unique and
  valuable position, involving a different set of
  activities.
• But the essence of strategy is in the
  activities choosing to perform activities
  differently or to perform different activities
  than rivals.
• Michael Porter, Harvard Business School
• in his book On Competition

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Strategy Formation
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Strategic Fit at Vanguard

• Early in its history, Vanguard established a
  mutual structure without precedent in the
  industry a structure in which the funds would
  be operated solely in the best interests of their
  shareholders.
• Since strategy follows structure, it made
  sense to pursue a high level of economy and
  efficiency operating at bare-bones levels of
  costfor the less we spend, the higher the
  returns dollar for dollar for our
  shareholders/owners.
• John C. Bogle, Founder of The Vanguard Group
• http//www.vanguard.com/bogle_site/october192000.
  html

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• Vanguards Activity System Map (partial view).
  Adapted from On Competition
• Featured in Information Architecture for the
  World Wide Web
• http//webword.com/download/chapter18.pdf

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• Why do we have so many unusable things when we
  know how to make them usable? I think it has to
  do with the fact that the usability advocates
  don't understand business.
• Don Norman
• recent interview on NewScientist.com

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• There's a gigantic gray area between good moral
  behavior and outright felonious activities. I
  call that the Weasel Zone and it's where most of
  life happens.
• Scott Adams

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management theory and practicemove on
tragically separate pathsbetween 1988 and 1994,
I followed a group of visionary top managers and
watched each one fall prey to corporate politics,
self-interested boards, and the whims of
financial analysts. Companies invest billions
in endless cycles of quick fixes to rediscover
their end consumers. Organisms that confront
system-threatening challenges tend to keep doing
what they know how to do successfully, only with
more vigor.
transaction crisis, mass production, enterprise
logic, deep structures, consumers, employees,
chronic stress, organizational narcissism
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People have changed more than the business
organizations upon which they depend. In the
late 1990s pent-up demand for sanctuary, voice,
and connection exploded upon the new digital
medium called the Internet, driving a frenzy of
innovation. Todays individuals have new
dreams Dreams make markets. When we face
discontinuity, the answers we seek cannot be
found under the light from the lamppost.
new enterprise logic, deep support, relationship
value, federated networks, complexity, fractal
geometry, feedback, adaptation
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Strategy for the IA Community

• Understand the context.
• Turn weaknesses into strengths.
  (see also embrace your weasel nature)
• Leave the lamppost.

What is our aim? I answer in one word. Victory
victory at all costs, victory in spite of all
terror, victory however hard and long the road
may be, for without victory there is no
survival. Winston Churchill
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Organizational Context

• Compensation
• Incentives
• Mission, Vision, Goals
• Strategy
• Value ROI Metrics
• Politics Culture
• Human Resources
• Governance
• Staffing

• Content Management
• Knowledge Management
• Technology Infrastructure
• Processes
• Project Management
• Scope
• Schedule
• Budget
• Society, Markets, Culture

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• It is a common mistake in going to war to begin
  at the wrong end, to act first and to wait for
  disaster to discuss the matter. Thucydides

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• Most of the complaints we get are due to the
  way users search they use the wrong keywords.
• - manufacturing company manager
• On a scale of 1 to 4, I would rate our search
  as a 4 its excellent. If it wasnt good, then
  Id expect a higher of people calling our
  toll-free number.
• - telecommunications manager
• Forrester Research, Must Search Stink?

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• The Fortune 1000 stands to waste at least 2.5
  billion per year due to an inability to locate
  and retrieve information.
• While the costs of not finding information are
  enormous, they are hidden within the enterprise,
  andare rarely perceived as having an impact on
  the bottom line.
• The High Cost of Not Finding Information
• An IDC White Paper, July 2001.

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Invisible Strategy
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• Sorting Things Out
• Large information systems such as the Internet
  or global databases carry with them a politics of
  voice and value that is often invisible, embedded
  in layers of infrastructure.

Invisible Information Architecture
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• Companies need to stop their rush to adopt
  generic out of the box packaged applications
  and instead tailor their deployment of Internet
  technology to their particular strengths.
• The very difficulty of the task contributes to
  the sustainability of the resulting competitive
  advantage.
• Michael Porter, Harvard Business School
• In Strategy The Internet
• Harvard Business Review, March 2001

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Strategy Revisited

• We are the blind people
• and strategy formation is
• our elephant. Since no one
• has the vision to see the
• entire beast, everyone has
• grabbed hold of some part
• or other and railed on in
• utter ignorance about the rest.
• Henry Mintzberg, McGill University
• in his book Strategy Safari
• (written with Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel)

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Strategy Defined as 5 Ps

• Plan. A direction, guide, course of action.
• Pattern. Consistency in behavior over time.
• Position. Locating specific products in
  specific markets.
• Perspective. Way of doing things (The McDonalds
  Way)
• Ploy. Specific maneuver to outwit.
• From Strategy Safari (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand,
  Lampel)

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10 Schools of Thought Strategy Formation As Keywords
Design Conception Fit, Think
Planning Formal Formalize, Program
Positioning Analytical Analyze, Calculate
Entrepreneurial Visionary Envision, Centralize
Cognitive Mental Frame, Worry, Imagine
Learning Emergent Learn, Play
Power Negotiation Grab, Hoard
Cultural Collective Coalesce, Perpetuate
Environmental Reactive Cope, Capitulate
Configuration Selective Integrate, Transform

• Adapted from Strategy Safari (Mintzberg,
  Ahlstrand, Lampel)

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The paradigm ready, aim, fire no longer
applies it is now ready, fire, steer. Paul
Saffo
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90
90

• Adapted from The Rise and Fall of Strategic
  Planning by Henry Mintzberg (1993)

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Prescriptive Descriptive
Top-Down Bottom-Up
Planned Emergent
Stable Adaptive
Centralized Distributed

• In todays marketplace, it is the
  organizational capability to adapt that is the
  only sustainable competitive advantage. Willie
  Pietersen

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The Speed of IA
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The Yahoo Taxonomy Model

• An informal count suggests more than 67,000
  categories in Yahoo with roughly 4 to 8 levels of
  hierarchy between the main page and actual
  content.

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Search Log Analysis

• 33,000 queries (27,000 or 81 unique)

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content management n.
The organization and structuring of information
resources so they can be stored, retrieved,
published and reused.

• cms software
• information models
• content types granularity
• sgml, xml metadata
• single source strategy
• syndication
• business processes workflow

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Facets at Wine.com
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Wine.com by the Numbers
Facet of Vocabulary Terms
Type 46
Region 16
Winery 750
Price 6
Ratings 6
Total Terms 824
Total Combinations 19,872,000
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endeca.com

• Guided Navigation
• Multi-dimensional indices are both
  lighter-weight and more powerfully expressive
  than a single large taxonomy.
• The Library of Congress uses a monolithic
  taxonomy of compound subjects, and needs a five
  Volume reference catalog of over 250,000 subject
  terms

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Corporate Facets
Facets Description
Topics Enterprise-wide subject hierarchy.
Organizations Businesses, functions, departments (authors/owners).
Countries Locations Geographic indicator of intended audience.
Products Services Complete range of products and services.
Formats Content/object types that are meaningful to employees.
Roles Major employee roles (e.g., managers, admins).
Languages Language of documents.
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Management by Metadata
Enterprise Certified Metadata approved by Enterprise IA Team. Featured in Taxonomy. Featured in Searching (Best Bets).
Organization Certified Metadata approved by Information Steward. Secondary placement in Taxonomy / Search.
Author Certified Metadata provided by Individual Employee. Not in Taxonomy. Included in Search Results.
Uncertified No metadata provided. Not in Taxonomy. Not in Default Search Results.
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• Socially Translucent Systems
• Babble
• Google
• Blogdex
• Buddy Lists
• Purchase Circles

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Tools for Adaptive Web Sites

• User Interviews
• Card Sorting (e.g., affinity modeling)
• Task Performance Analysis (varied levels of
  fidelity)
• Ethnographic Observation
• Adaptive Framework (facets, thesauri, novel UI)
• Usage Logs (search, page hits, clickstream)
• Link Analysis (Google, referrer logs)
• Customer Interaction (via the web site)
• Collaborative Filtering (Amazon)
• Social Computing (Slashdot, Babble)

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Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.
When a man does not know what harbor he is making
for, no wind is the right wind. Seneca, circa
65 AD
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The End
The beginning of all understanding is
classification. Hayden White

• Peter Morville
• morville_at_semanticstudios.com
• Semantic Studios
• http//semanticstudios.com/
• Presentation
• http//semanticstudios.com/events/strategy1102.ppt

We shape our buildings. Thereafter, they shape
us. Winston Churchill