Information Architecture

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Information Architecture

• Structure and organization of large-scale Web
  sites.
• Focuses on
• Site structure
• Relationship between pages
• Labels and navigation systems
• Page layout and design (information design)
• Inherent vs. user-centered structure

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Richard Saul Wurman

• Information Anxiety is produced by the
  ever-widening gap between what we understand and
  what we think we should understand. It is the
  black hole between data and knowledge, and it
  happens when information doesnt tell us what we
  want or need to know.

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Wurman - Info Architects

• The individual who organizes the patterns
  inherent in data, making the complex clear
• A person who creates the structure or map of
  information which allows others to find their
  personal paths to knowledge
• The emerging 21st century professional occupation
  addressing the needs of the age and focused upon
  clarity, human understanding, and the science of
  the organization of information.

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Tokyo Subway Map
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Info Architecture Concepts

• Organizational Schemes (LATCH)
• Location
• Alphanumeric
• Temporal
• Categorical
• Hierarchical
• Task-oriented schemes
• Audience-centered schemes
• Hybrid schemes

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IA Concepts (cont.)

• Hierarchies - Deep vs. shallow
• Labeling systems - taxonomies for headers and
  navigation links
• Navigation systems - global, local, utility, and
  ad hoc systems
• Navigation devices - pulldown menus, roll-over
  icons, navigation bar image maps, embedded links.

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Labeling Systems

• Why care about labeling?
• Retain attention spans
• Avoid bad impressions
• Avoid self-centered labeling
• Labels as navigation system links
• Labels as textual links within nodes
• Labels as headers within nodes

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Generating Effective Labels

• Modify current labels
• Scan other web sites
• Use thesaurus
• Derive from content
• Use those of users and experts

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Editing Label Systems

• Sort and remove duplicates
• Review for consistency in style and punctuation
• Make labels descriptive and different from one
  another
• Reduce number or separate into groups of between
  5 and 7

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Headings and Page Titles

• Page titles often displayed out of context by
  many search engines
• Microcontent must stand on its own, context-free
• 40-60 characters Pearls of Clarity
• - Source Jakob Nielsen, Alertbox, Sept. 1998

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Search Engine Results

• 1. Writing for the Web (Alertbox March 15, 1997
  (44 Characters)
• Reading from screens is 25 slower than from
  paper and we know that Web users skim rather than
  read. Web text should be short, emphasize(25
  Words/113 Characters)
• 2. forwriters.com (Avoid URL in Page Title)
• This is a full purpose writers site with
  resources on markets, agents, writers groups.
  writer conferences and forums for discussing the
  writing life(23 Words/127 Characters)
• 3. Usable Web Be Succinct! (Writing for the Web
  (38 Characters)
• Write less. (2 Words - BR _at_ ) For the online
  world, write less, be easy to scan quickly, and
  use links to break up information.
• (20 Words/91 Characters)

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Microcontent Guidelines

• Use plain language - no puns, etc.
• Avoid lead articles the and a
• Make first word information rich
• Dont use same first word in page titles
• Rules apply to web pages as well as email
  subject lines
• Source Jakob Nielsen, Alertbox, Sept. 1998

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Navigation Systems

• Global navigation
• Utility navigation
• User type navigation
• Quck access pulldown
• Featured image
• Timely or updated content
• Navigation systems for John Deere, Sun,
  Firestone

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1999 Deere Site
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2000 Deere Site
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Sun Microsystems
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Sun - Global Navigation
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Sun - Utility Navigation
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Sun - User Type Navigation
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Sun - Quick Access Pulldown
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Sun - Featured Image
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Sun - Updated Content
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Firestone - IA
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Rhetoric and IA
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Rhetorical Info Architecture

• Every information architecture is different,
  and should be. Why? Because a successful
  information architecture ties together users and
  content, all against the backdrop of what the
  sponsoring organizations goals and constraints
  are. And those thingsusers, content, and
  organizational contextall are highly variable in
  each situation.
• -- Louis Rosenfeld
• co-author of Information Architecture for the
  World Wide Web

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Info Architecture Skills

• Razorfish IA team
• Skills set