IDIA630'185 Information Architecture

1
Organizational, Labeling, and Navigation Systems

• IDIA630.185 Information Architecture
• 2.5.2007
• Shannon R. Tucker

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Wayfinding Explained

• Finding your way through the world and web

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The Orgins of Wayfinding

• Originated in built environments
• Series of things people know and do in order to
  get from one place to another
• Where you are
• Knowing your destination
• Following the best route
• Recognizing your destination
• Finding your way back

Longleat Hedge Maze
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Wayfinding in Nature

• Visual Landmarks
• Echolocation
• Scent
• Magnetic Maps
• Waggling

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Human Wayfinding
Lighthouse
Compass
Sextant
Chip Log
Chronometer
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Mapping Our World

• Maps defined the elements and edges of the known
  world
• Maps reflect and shape beliefs of communities and
  civilizations
• Our experiences in wayfinding are based largely
  on our own built environments

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The Importance of Wayfinding Design

• We dont always care about wayfinding
• Buildings lack legible numbers or signs at all
• Street signs arent illuminated
• Man hours devoted to redirecting and rerouting
  people hospitals, office buildings, campuses
• Lack of attention to user impairments

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Wayfinding and the Web

• Spatial metaphors to define/explain the web
• Superhighway
• Breadcrumbs
• Home pages
• Site maps
• Are these useful/practical?
• Where do spatial metaphors fail?
• Where do they have value?

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Beacons and Signposts

• Laying the Path for your users

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Browsing Aids

• Organizational Systems
• Side-wide Navigation Systems
• Local Navigation Systems
• Sitemaps/Tables of Contents
• Site Indices
• Site Guides
• Site Wizards
• Contextual Navigation Systems

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Organizational Systems

• Information architects Closet librarians of
  the web

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Ambiguity Abounds

• Words have multiple meanings, establishing a
  common language and classification is vital
• Heterogeneous nature of web sites makes it
  difficult to classify a broad range of content
• Personal perspective influences organizational
  and labeling systems to a high degree
• User research and analysis are VERY important

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Political Pitfalls

• Politics exist in every organization
• Balancing potential serious political conflict
  and what is best for the user is important to
  success.

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Organization Systems

• Exact Organization Schemes
• Alphabetical
• (http//www.umbc.edu/chem/faculty/faculty.php)
• Chronological
• (http//www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/default
  .mspx)
• Geographical
• (http//www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/)

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Organization Systems

• Ambiguous Organization Schemes
• Topic
• (http//www.washingtonpost.com)
• Task
• (http//www.ebay.com)
• Audience
• (http//www.hshsl.umaryland.edu/)
• Metaphor
• (http//www.redmaps.com)
• Hybrids
• (http//www.loc.gov/index.html)

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Organization Structures

• Hierarchy Top down approach

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Organization Structures

• Database Model Bottom up approach

http//www.utexas.edu/its/windows/database/datamod
eling/rm/rm1.html
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Organization Structures

• Hypertext

www.eastgate.com/HypertextNow/archives/Maps.html
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Social Classifications

• Free tagging
• (http//www.flickr.com/)
• (http//del.icio.us/)

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Labeling Systems

• Speaking the same language

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Whats in a name?

• When direct feedback is not possible,
  establishing a common language is important.
• Establishing a common language is important

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Contextual Links

• Describe links within a body of a document or
  chunk of information and occur naturally within
  descriptive content.

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Labels as Headings

• Help establish a hierarchy
• Differentiate categories from subcategories
• Are flexible
• Consistency in usage is KEY

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Labels within Navigation Systems

• Smaller number of options
• Usually repeat throughout a site
• Should behave rationally
• Common varients exist (No Standards)
• Main, Main Page, Home
• Search, Find, Browse, Search/Browse
• Site Map, Contents, Table of Contents, Index
• Contact, Contact Us
• Help, FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions
• News, News Events, News Announcements,
  Announcements
• About, About Us, About ltcompany namegt, Who We ARe

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Labels within Navigation Systems
http//www.janus.com
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Labels as Index Terms

• Referred to as keywords, tags, descriptive
  metadata, taxonomies, controlled vocabularies,
  and thesauri
• Can be used to describe any type of content

http//www.siggraph.org/sitemap
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Iconic Labels

• Most frequently used as navigation system labels
• Occasionally as heading labels
• Much more limited than text
• Risky does the image really represent meaning?

Priceline.com Iconic Navigation
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Creating New Labeling Systems

• Sources of Information
• Content Analysis
• Content Authors
• User Advocates and Subject Matter Experts
• Directly From Users
• Card Sorting
• Free-Listing
• Indirectly From Users
• Search-log Analysis
• Tag Analysis

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Some Rules to Live By

• Content, users, and context affect labels
• Narrow your label scope whenever possible
• Modular approaches are sometimes good (separate
  labeling systems for different sections of a
  site)
• Develop a consistent labeling SYSTEM
• Consistency is affected by
• Style
• Presentation
• Syntax
• Comprehensiveness
• Audience

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Navigation Systems

• finding the right path

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Types of Navigation Systems
Redmaps.com
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Embedded Navigation Systems

• Global Navigation (site wide)
• Some reinforce site structures
• Others are obscured on their home pages
• Instead users find out what is the global
  navigation when they navigate to subsidiary pages

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Embedded Navigation Systems

• Local Navigation
• Complements global navigation by providing
  navigation options for a specific topic/area
• Sometimes the treatment is consistent
• Sometimes local navigation systems are radically
  different (Subsites are born)
• (http//www.microsoft.com)
• Subsites are most effective when the navigation
  system is aligned with user needs and local
  content.

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Supplemental Navigation Systems

• Site Maps
• Reinforce information hierarchy
• Facilitate fast direct access to content
• Avoid overwhelming users
• Site Indexes
• Facilitates known-item finding
• Term rotation / permutation
• Guides (http//online.wsj.com)
• Guide should be short
• Easy to exit
• Consistent navigation
• Clear screen shots with enlarged key features

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Supplemental Navigation Systems

• Wizards and Configurators
• Another type of guide
• Blur the lines between software application and
  web site
• (http//www.miniusa.com/)
• Search
• Allows high level of specificity
• More on this later

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Advanced Navigation Approaches

• Personalization
• Tailor the users experience
• (http//www.amazon.com)
• Customization
• Gives user direct control over some combination
  of presentation, navigation, content options
• (http//www.myspace.com)
• Audiences may not want to spend time customizing
  sites.
• Visualization
• Looks cool!
• But how useful is it?

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Advanced Navigation Approaches

• Social /Popularity Organization

amazon.com
cnn.com
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Site Accessibility

• Accessibility helps everyone
• Accessibility is still a work in progress
• More information on accessibility and developing
  guidelines can can be found through the World
  Wide Web Consortium
• (http//W3.org/WAI)
• Various disabilities impact web site usability,
  including
• Physical
• Auditory
• Visual
• Color
• Cognitive