Information architecture: What is it?

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Information architecture What is it? I. What is
information architecture? Defining the field
II. The domain of IA What does an
IA have to know? What does an IA do?
III. Basic concepts and practices of IA
Working with information and people
Designing and building
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Information architecture What is it? I. What is
information architecture? Defining the field
It is a
Way of thinking
Process
Job title
Discipline
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Way of thinking
Information architecture is a way of thinking
about information and information design It
involves information organization, design,
display and access It is a solution to a
communication problem IA is a collective process
used in projects where the goal is to develop a
container for information IAs design
organization and navigation systems to help
people find and manage information more
successfully This process necessarily involves
working with people in a variety of related
specialties
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Richard Saul Wuhrman introduced information
architecture in the 60s He was thinking about
the role of information in urban planning and
design Used an architectural metaphor
Information as instructions for organizing
space It involves the creation of systemic,
structural, and orderly principles to make
something work The thoughtful making of either
artifact, or idea, or policy that informs
because it is clear Wyllys, R.E. (2000).
Information Architecture. http//www.gslis.utexas.
edu/l38613dw/readings/InfoArchitecture.html
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From a speech in 1976 Information
architect 1) the individual who organizes the
patterns inherent in data, making the complex
clear 2) a person who creates the structure or
map of information which allows others to find
their personal paths to knowledge 3) the
emerging 21st century professional occupation
addressing the needs of the age focused upon
clarity, human understanding, and the science
of the organization of information. Wurman,
R.S. and Bradford, P. (eds). (1996). Information
Architects. Zurich, Switzerland Graphis Press.
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Rosenfelds visual representation of IA
Business models and goals, politics, culture,
resources
Context
Content/ applications
Users
Information needs, audience types, expertise,
tasks, ecology
Document types, objects, structure, attributes,
meta-information
http//www.asis.org/Conferences/Summit2000/rosenfe
ld/sld007.htm
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Use of the architectural metaphor Architecture
shapes experience This is easy to understand
with physical spaces Information spaces can be
designed using architectural principles They
are constructed to provoke a reaction in you
They can be designed to allow users to carry out
tasks To help you get a job done To
entertain you To help you learn Where does
this metaphor break down?
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Process
The process of IA
Maintenance and updating
Planning and strategy predesign analysis
Feedback and redesign
Conceptual design prototyping
Information organization Content development
Launch
Production Navigation systems Search tool
Labeling systems Operations
Testing Quality assurance and usability
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IA focuses on the structure or organization of a
web site How the different pages of the site
relate to one another It involves such
activities as Content analysis and
planning Organization of the pages Providing
cues to help users orient themselves Labeling,
search techniques, and navigation design It is
rooted in database design and information
retrieval Also HCI, library science, technical
writing, and psychology (how we organize
concepts and categories)
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Job title
The evolution of the web site development has
been in the direction of greater specialization
The company
Managerial
Content developer
Graphic designer
Technical
Conceptual
HTML coder
Programmer
Information architect
Database designer
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As a job title, IA is typically associated with
web site development There is some controversy
over the relationship of IA to other positions
involved in information design
Experience architect
Interface designer
Human factors engineer
Content manager
Interaction designer
Information architect
Usability specialist
Systems architect
User experience analyst
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In typical web design project, the IA is found
between the administrative team and the
development team An important role for the
IA is as boundary spanner between these
groups The IA participates in the thinking and
strategy at the beginning of the project and is
involved the creation of the finished product
Producers, project managers, editorial staff
Graphic designers, programmers, database
designers
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An IA helps clients define Internet
strategies She designs, architects, develops and
implements solutions to execute those
strategies This involves defining and
documenting a sites structure, navigation and
interactivity This is based on translating
clients business rules and user needs into web
structures and processes This work becomes a
blueprint that provides the overall strategic
direction, vision and scope of a project The IA
works with user experience modelers to analyze
and model user tasks and usage scenarios
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A specific role is to understand the clients
business and its goals for the information design
project What does the client hope to accomplish
with the online project? Work to understand the
goals and values of the end users of the client's
products or services What they are trying to
achieve, what is important to them? Building
on this understanding, work to create a
functional interactive information structure that
can be used to realize the goals of both the
client and the end user
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An IA challenge is to design a structure that
works for more than one target user
group Research shows that for most of the
projects there is no single monolithic user
group Try to identify distinct segments within
the target user population, each with
characteristic goals and values Then design a
project that can support all segments with a
single structure An alternative is to build a
different site for each segment but this not an
efficient way to work It avoids design
challenges that can lead to creative solutions
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Discipline
It is a discipline The art and science of
organizing information and interfaces so that
people can solve information needs efficiently
and effectively IAs work primarily in networked
and web-based settings IAs design and implement
specific systems and interfaces IA design is
based on organizational and environmental
requirements and aesthetic and usability
considerations IA is similar to an architect
designing a building, using aesthetic and
functional goals and environmental factors School
of Library and Information Science, Kent State
University (2001) http//iakm.kent.edu/ia.htm
l
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A broad view of IA (in relation to web design) It
involves developing and communicating a holistic
view of a web site It includes the overall
social and technical structure of the site and
the relationships among its elements It
requires the classification of site goals and
objectives IA places the web site into a larger
social context How will it affect the work flow,
communications patterns, and distribution of
power in the organization? How will it appear to
its users?
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How IA can help As corporate sites grow, IA
becomes more critical Deeper understanding of
the people who routinely use the
site Organizing content so that people can find
it easily Provide consistency for branding and
visual design Developing intuitive navigation
schemes Create a scalable structure for growth
and change Align site with business
strategy Clarify costs Dynamic Diagrams. (2002).
Why Your Web Site Needs Information Architecture
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Information architecture What is it? I. What is
information architecture? Defining the field
II. The domain of IA What does an
IA have to know? What does an IA do?
III. Basic concepts and practices of IA
Working with information and people
Designing and building
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II. The domain of IA What does an IA have to
know? Information science Information
organization and access Computer
science Programming, scripting, and
databases Usability engineering Conducting tests
to understand how people use the site Social
science Conducting organizational research
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What else does an IA have to know? Graphic
design Developing imagery that supports the
sites mission Writing and communication Explain
ing the work to peers and decision
makers Explaining complex technical ideas to a
non-technical audience Psychology Understandi
ng the intended audience Marketing Developing
the site so that it can be sold to its intended
audience
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What does an IA have to do? Conceptualizing Wha
t are the relevant content domains? Given the
constraints what can be done? Planning How are
these domains related to each other? What is the
structure of these relationships? Designing What
arrangement best supports the structure and
organizational requirements?
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What else does an IA have to do? Managing What
people, tools, and resources are available? What
is the best way to move the project
along? Research What is the role of the web site
in the organization? What to the major
stakeholders think of the site? How do people
use the site (task analysis)? Testing How well
does the site do given the organizational goals?
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Information architecture What is it? I. What is
information architecture? Defining the field
II. The domain of IA What does an
IA have to know? What does an IA do?
III. Basic concepts and practices of IA
Working with people and information
Designing and building
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III. Basic concepts and practices of IA Social
Doing the research What are the mission, vision,
and goals for the site? What will be the central
metaphors for the site? How will the site grow
and change over time? What will be the impacts
on the organization? Technical Design and
build How will the site be organized ? What
content and functionality will the site contain?
What types of navigation, labeling, and
searching will be used?
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Working with people User centered research It
is a set of theories, methods, and strategies for
investigating IA problems from the users point
of view It takes into account how people
perceive and use information and its
containers It assumes that peoples
information needs and uses depend on their
backgrounds and experiences And that people
construct mental models used in their
information behaviors It uses a range of
methods mostly involving watching and talking to
people
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• IAs want to understand what people want when they
  use the web
• User centered research is a good way to get at
  this
• Peoples activities tend to be goal directed
• They use information for problem solving
• They want useful information that matters to
  them
• They want it to help them resolve problems/needs
• They want it to help them with their work or
  life
• They want cues throughout the site
• They want reasonable and intuitive navigation

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Site design begins before the first page is ever
coded This early stage requires considerable
research First understand the goals of the site
owners How well do you understand their
business? What are their main products and
services? What are their business rules? Then
work to understand the organizations
audience Who are they selling to? Write user
profiles and scenarios Conduct needs requirements
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Determining the goals for the site Can be done
informally talking with key stakeholders Can be
done formally at meetings with clear
agendas Questions to consider Who should you
talk to or include in the meeting? Who has to
buy in to the concept? Goal To achieve a group
consensus
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Gather the data and begin analysis This involves
sorting and categorizing Goals,
activities/tasks, main content areas Prepare a
preliminary listing and use member checking Be
prepared for conflict, disagreement, and
compromise There should be a deliverable (a
design document) It summarizes the key points of
the site and acts as an initial blueprint The
major stakeholders should all sign off
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Learn about the audience by defining the user
experience This establishes a clear definition
of the audience It helps in understanding how
users will react to the site This involves
another round of conversations and/or
meetings Get them to rank the range of potential
audiences Ask them to describe the needs and
goals of the most important audience
members Use these results to create user
scenarios These are stories about how people
will use the site
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Learn about the competition Find out who the
main competitors are Analyze their sites
Criteria 1 2 3 4 Design Navigation Look
and Feel Search Personalization Scripting Currency
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Card sorting is a low-tech approach that can help
with the development of taxonomy It is a
technique for understanding how people group
items Allows you to develop structures that
maximize the chances of users being able to
find what they want It is Is easy and cheap to
conduct Identifies items that can be difficult
to categorize and find Identifies terminology
that is likely to be misunderstood Infodesign.
(2002). What is Card Sorting? http//www.infodesig
n.com.au/usability/cardsorting.html
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Working with information One challenge is to
develop the optimal structural and organizational
systems for a site What are the different ways
in which digital content can be
organized? What are the relationships among the
chunks or containers? What kinds of
structural arrangements facilitate access and
use?
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Structural systems Creating the high level
information architecture of a site Developing
the major categories of information and
creating relationships among them One technique
for representing a structural system is a
wireframe This is a skeletal rendering of
every click-through possibility on your
site It is an action, decision, or
experience model It depicts the flow of
specific logical and business functions and
identifies entry and exit points users see on
the site
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This process should be done before the design
work begins It is not concerned with design,
navigation, content or developers and
designers concepts of how to produce the site A
wireframe begins with what and action
questions What is the purpose of this
page? What does a visitor do at this
point? Where can a visitor go from here? You
ignore questions about what the site looks like
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The wireframe provides a complete, content-free
overview of the site It displays the business
logic and user functionality efficiently This
is kept separate from all other issues It makes
the development of the prototype much easier It
can be done on paper It can also be done on the
web People can easily see the organization and
structure
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A wireframe for SLISWeb Site view
Home
A1
A3
A4
A6
A2
A5
A7
A8
A9
A10
A11
Key Home A3 Programs A3.1 MIS A3.1.3 Current
curriculum A3.1.3.1 New curriculum
A3.1
A3.3
A3.4
A3.5
A3.2
A3.1.1
A3.1.3
A3.1.4
A3.1.5
A3.1.2
A3.1.3.1
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A wireframe for SLISWeb Page view
Branding logo
Nav links
News links
Graphic Nav links
Search
Address footer
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What type of structural scheme will you use?
Hierarchical (flat and broad)? Hierarchical
(narrow and deep)? A wheel? Sequential (an
entry way into and an exit from a core)? An
organic hypertext structure? Frames? Sub-sites?
Database model?
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Hierarchical Flat and broad
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Hierarchical Narrow and deep
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The wheel
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Sequential Entry way, core, exit
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Hyperlinked structure
Home
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Frames
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Sub sites
Home
Sub site
Home
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Database model
Home
DB
DB
DB
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Labeling and navigation The way the information
is organized will affect the way that people
understand it Organization is also important
because it affects labeling and navigation The
basic task is to classify the sites content into
categories and develop links among the
categories What are the shared characteristics
of sites content? How are sets of
characteristics related? What is the best way to
represent these sets?
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Navigation depends on what people want to
accomplish Models Perfect knowledge Optimal
rationality follow the highest probability
path Based on information scent or imputed
meaning of content/labels Satisficing
following what looks like the best path and
stop when the content is a close enough
match Mental map model of site structure Rote
memorization Information foraging consuming
local resources and moving on
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Types of navigation systems Hierarchical The
navigation follows the tree structure This is a
rigid system without linking across
branches Global navigation Can reach any page
from any other page This has limits depending on
the size of the site Local navigation Can reach
any page from any other page in the sub site Site
map
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Representing navigation schemes Text-based links
not in the body of the main text Embedded links
in the text Graphical links Pull down
menus Remote window menu Navigation
issues Location Where should the links be
placed on the page? Representing current
location Representing location in the site
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Search functions Good search tools help people
resolve problems with navigation, labeling and
organization It provides an alternative to
browsing It allows users to easily access
dynamic content It is important to understand how
we search Known-item searching clearly defined
information need Existence searching unclear
information need Exploratory searching clear
need but unclear goal Comprehensive searching
research Search tools should support different
modes of searching
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Technical Design and build
Code
Presentation visual display
Scripts
Structure organization of content
lthtmlgt ltheadgt lttitlegtWeb pagelt/titlegt ltscript
languagejavascriptgt lt/scriptgt lt/headgt ltbodygt Text
ltIMG SRCimage.gifgt lt/bodygt lt/htmlgt
Words
Behavior What people do on the site
Images
Basics of web architecture
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Site design and basic questions
Where am I?
Where can I go?
What can I do here?
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What do IAs deliver? Site map This is a
visualization of the taxonomy and structural
relationships among content domains It also
provides an overview of the navigation
scheme Content maps These are detailed
depictions showing what is on each page and how
content on some pages is linked to content on
other pages Page view A drawing or block diagram
showing what information, links, content,
promotional space, and navigation will be on
each page
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What else? Prototypes An outline or storyboard
of a functional prototype Could also be a
working prototypes with HTML, Flash, Director,
or PowerPoint Written reports A narrative
description of the site linking it to
organizational mission, messages, and
marketing constraints Change management How
will the site grow and change over time? What
will be involved in maintenance?
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Test results Track down participants through
customer lists, related organizations,
discussion lists, conferences Pay them if you
can afford it What should you ask? Get their
name and use it Find out their web skill level
and familiarity Ask other questions essential to
viewing the results What should they do? Give
them tasks, watch, and listen Let them browse,
watch, and listen
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The process Review prior art Evaluate your
content Create and evaluate your core
structure Add shortcuts, redundancy, and
supporting pages Develop and evaluate navigation
scheme and orientation cues Create final design
specifications Implement the architecture and
verify its implementation Train site maintenance
staff