DB_Assgn 3
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This document outlines a proposal for an e-grocery website design. It discusses conducting research in three domains: context, content, and users. Research techniques are described like stakeholder interviews, content inventory, card sorting, and usability testing. The document then provides details on the website business context, content that will be included, primary and secondary user groups, and user personas.
DB_Assgn 3
- 1. Dezirae N. Brown, Information Architect I November 5, 2015 PROPOSAL FOR EGROCERIES WEBSITE DESIGN An e-commerce company This report contains the information architecture research plan overview, website information environment and user strategy, and bottom-up website organization strategy.
- 2. 1 IA RESEARCH PLAN OVERVIEW Research is the initial phase for every project in which you review and become aware of existing background materials as well as conduct meetings with your strategy team. A particular research framework for information architecture (IA) exists which I will reference throughout this report for the purpose of enlightening the team on how to maintain a balanced approach for successful research practices. This framework consists of three intertwined domains: Context, Content, and Users. The Context domain focuses on the organization itself. It involves learning and comprehending business goals, funding, politics, culture, technology, and human resources. The Content domain focuses on the information within a website, including its condition and development. This content includes documents and other data types, content objects, metadata, volume, and existing structure. The Users domain involves understanding your intended audience and their tasks, needs, information seeking behavior, experience, and vocabularies. Each of these factors influence information architecture strategy and design. The following research techniques are components of this research framework: stakeholder interviews, content inventory, competitive analysis, card sorting, and user usability testing. Stakeholder Interviews Stakeholders are anyone invested in the mission and success of your company as well as its website. For this technique, interviews are arranged with executives, managers, and stakeholders from a variety of business units within a business. The purpose is to gather opinions, ideas, and potential resources for the project. Open-ended questions are used to stimulate informal discussions about their assessments of the current information environment plus their vision for the organization and its website plus the role of the website in the organization along with any priorities and expectations. This research falls under the Context domain. Content Inventory Varying structured and unstructured content exist on a single website. Inventory of these items must take place in order to determine the condition of this information, which content users are primarily retrieving, necessary improvements, and so forth. For this technique, one directly clicks through every web page and records what he or she finds. Findings may list major web page sections, links, link IDs, document types, owners/maintainers of web page, keywords, issues, and redundant, outdated or trivial information. This research falls under the Content domain. Competitive Analysis Borrowing IA features from competitors is valuable, however it must be done carefully. This technique involves the systematic identification, evaluation, and comparison of IA features of competitor websites; data may be qualitative or quantitative. We want to avoid misdirected copycatting (false assumptions) from your competitors’ website. With this
- 3. 2 technique, new ideas are brought to the table, a transition from broad generalizations to specific, actionable definitions are encouraged, and a point of reference for measuring speed of improvement is created. In my two previous reports, I utilized this analysis technique for one of your competitors. This research falls under the Content domain. Card Sorting Gaining insight into your users’ mental models is vital for developing successful architecture of a website. This technique involves the following procedures assigned to users: 1) Users categorize index cards labeled with headings from categories, subcategories, and content within your website. 2) Users sort this pack of index cards into piles that make sense to them. 3) Users label the content of each pile. This is the quickest and most inexpensive research technique. We can easily gather input on both preferred labeling systems and hierarchical taxonomy for the site. This research falls under the Users domain. User Usability Testing Usability can be defined by five quality attributes: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction. Each of these attributes impact the evaluation of exactly how easy your user interface is to use. The bottom line is does the website do what users need it to do? Users want to be able to accomplish their own tasks within a reasonable amount of time to their expectations. This technique involves observing natural behaviors of users and listening to their comments about your website. A mixture of audience types who are familiar and unfamiliar with your website should be present, however the importance of recruiting representative users is overrated. Users try to perform pre-defined tasks on a website or application while a facilitator observes and asks questions to understand users’ behaviors; focus groups are not usability tests. Best practice is to conduct this research as early as possible and frequently; testing one user early in the project is better than testing 50 near the end. Observations and recordings from these sessions can be used to strategize and prioritize redesign and to test redesign ideas along the way; the more versions and interface ideas tested, the better. This research falls under the Users domain. There are multiple ways to execute usability testing based on your budget and resources. Large budgets are more likely to afford traditional usability testing in which a professional is hired, recruitment is done more carefully, usability lab facilities are utilized, and complex metrics are used to report more detailed usability results. Mid-sized budgets may find Jacob Nielson’s discount usability testing more useful as it involves less lengthy and formal recruitment and testing. Tight budgets may consult Steve Krug’s do-it-yourself usability testing which involves loose recruiting and frequent informal testing in an office or conference room once a month, non-professional facilitator, and debriefing over lunch.
- 4. 3 WEBSITE INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT AND USER STRATEGY Acknowledging the information ecology of the Context, Content, and Users domains sets the foundation for practicing effective information architecture design. The vocabulary and structure of your website and your intranet. if applicable, is a major component of the evolving conversation between your business and your customers and employees. The following sections demonstrate this ecology. Website Business Context CTJ Enterprise has hired Dezirae Brown to design a website for eGroceries, their new e- commerce platform for facilitating physically disabled customers, audio impaired customers, and elderly customers buying groceries in the convenience of their home. The mission of CTJ Enterprise is to provide safe and convenient spaces for residents who have officially been diagnosed with having at least one of the disabilities highlighted in the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Website Content The primary type of content customers seek from eGroceries are perishable and non- perishable foods, delivery service, payment methods, customer hotline, order history, and discounts. Mostly this content refers to the process of grocery shopping virtually and the relevant information customers need to know in order to complete this task. Subject matters include food items, delivery areas, payment, customer account, coupons/specials, and contact us. Resource types include informational web pages, product descriptions, event descriptions, and video files. Product descriptions will be predominant as specific federal guidelines for food descriptions from the Food and Drug Administration must be followed. Video files would be the next most important format as this e-commerce platform serves customers with varying disabilities, including audio impairments. These video files would mostly be tutorials on how to use the different services offered on this site. Digital file types consist of HTML web pages, JPEGs, and .avi files. Website Users and User Model A user model represents a collection of personal data associated with a specific user which is then categorized based on similarities. Its goal is to customize and adapt systems to user’s specific needs. Primary User Groups depict the most important users to the organization; they are usually the neediest in terms of website design. Secondary User Groups are less needy and of lesser importance whereas Complementary User Groups are atypical or infrequent users but still valuable. Below is a list of pertinent user groups for the design of eGroceries website. Primary Users Disabled Customers (according to disability descriptions within ADA) Elderly Customers/Senior Citizens
- 5. 4 Secondary Users Caregivers of Customer Home Care Nurses of Customer Employees – Delivery Service Complimentary Users Family Members Job Seekers User Personas Effective user personas express and focus on the major goals of the most important user groups, provide clarity of user expectations, and how they are likely to use the site. They personalize user types for IA designers by making them more relatable. Below are 2 user personas that reflect one of your primary and secondary user groups. These are fictional personifications that represent all members of each particular user group. User Persona #1 Beatrice Jordan: Disabled Customer (hearing impaired) Age: 56 Gender: Female Relationship/Family Status: Widow with 6 adult children Location: Des Moines, Iowa Occupation: Retired Technical/Web know-how: Reads Kindle and checks emails weekly; children buy her gadgets and demonstrates how to use them Technology Owned: Smartphone, Desktop, and Kindle E-commerce knowledge: Moderate (shops every now and then online for clothing and holiday gifts) Personal Background Beatrice is a well-known advocate of her community. She volunteers regularly at different non- profit and church events. She retired after 30 years of teaching middle school students in a parochial school. She developed an audio impairment 6 years ago and now uses a hearing aid among other care services. Goals Purchase food items online. Get groceries delivered to home. Read information on payment types. Create an account to view previous orders and gain access to other tools. Call customer hotline for tech support and other inquiries. View weekly specials and discounts. Receive and use coupons.
- 6. 5 User Persona #2 Benita Rice: Home Care Nurse of Customer Age: 33 Gender: Female Relationship/Family Status: Single mother of 2 Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin Occupation: Home Care Nurse Technical/Web know-how: Actively uses online medical databases for research, multiple social media networks, and online shopping sites Technology Owned: iPhone 4, Apple Laptop, and Kindle E-commerce knowledge: High Personal Background Benita is a full-time Home Care Nurse, working 50+ hours a week for 3 clients. Her job consists of running typical errands and fulfilling self-care tasks that her clients are incapable of doing for themselves. She is active in her children’s extracurricular activities and loves to jog early in the morning. Goals Purchase food items online for clients that abide by their recommended diets. Pick up groceries or use delivery service upon request of her client. Help client setup account if first time user. View weekly specials and discounts. Use coupons upon request of her client. BOTTOM-UP WEBSITE ORGANIZATION STRATEGY Metadata is the bottom-up approach and structure for database-driven websites. It presents structured, machine-processable data about information content. This gives users an overview of content and connects them via browsing and searching. Metadata Scheme and Controlled Vocabulary Matrix Table The metadata scheme documents the master template for the metadata records that are created for specific content items. The scheme is abstract and governs the elements and values used in each metadata record. Controlled vocabularies are often the allowable values in metadata fields; this eliminates ambiguity, controls synonyms, and establishes relationships among terms. Below is the metadata scheme specifically for grocery products. Element Name Allowable Value Repeatable? Explanatory Notes Food Type Food Type Term List No A term must be selected from the Food Type list
- 7. 6 Image URL Constrained Format No Enter entire URL of JPEG beginning with http:// Title of Product Free Text No Title of product on packaging Brand Free Text No Enter name of manufacturer or distributor as noted by supply chain log Subject Subject Thesaurus Yes Assign one or more terms from the Subject Thesaurus to distinguish product. Pack Constrained Format No If applicable, enter number of items in pack in this format: 00 Weight Free Text No Enter appropriate number and unit of weight Price Constrained Format No Enter price in this format: $000000.00. Preceding zeros can be erased if dollar amount does not extend that far Expiration Date Constrained Format No Enter date in this format MM-DD- YYYY Ingredients Free Text No Enter all ingredients mentioned in product contents Nutrition Facts Free Text No Enter entire nutrition chart and values on packaging. Language ISO 639-1 International Language Code List Yes Use a 2-character code from the ISO 639-1 international list at https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639- 2/php/code_list.php Controlled Vocabulary List Below is a flat list regarding food product types; it is just a simple, limited set of controlled terms at an equal level. Food Type Term List: Baking Bread Canned Goods Condiments Dairy Desserts Drinks Produce Metadata Record Example An individual metadata record represents a concrete object or other content unit. Below is an example of a metadata record using the metadata scheme and flat list described in the previous two sections. Element Value Food Type Baking
- 8. 7 Image URL http://www.livingrichwithcoupons.com/wp- content/uploads/6123_Large.png Title of Product JIFFY Corn Muffin Mix Brand JIFFY Mix Subject muffins Subject pancakes Subject waffles Subject Corn bread Pack 00 Weight 8.5 oz Price $0.75 Expiration Date 08/20/2016 Ingredients wheat flour, degerminated yellow corn meal, sugar, animal shortening (contains one or more of the following: lard, hydrogenated lard, partially hydrogenated lard), contains less than 2% of each of the following: baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate, salt, wheat starch, niacin, reduced iron, bht preservative, tocopherol preservative, citric acid preservative, bha preservative, tricalcium phosphate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, and silicon dioxide Nutrition Facts Language en