Designing Structure Part II: Information Archtecture
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The document discusses information architecture (IA) as a critical discipline focused on organizing and labeling digital information to enhance usability and findability. It highlights the importance of understanding audiences, employing metadata, and creating controlled vocabularies to facilitate better access to information. Additionally, it explores the impact of effective IA on branding and user experience, drawing parallels between physical and digital findability.
![Product Quality = Brand Loyalty
why Apple's customers
I get asked a lot
are so loyal. It's not because they belong to the Church of
Mac! That's ridiculous.
It's because when you buy our products, and three months later you
get stuck on something, you quickly figure out [how to get past it].
"Wow, someone over there at
And you think,
Apple actually thought of this!" And then
three months later you try to do something you hadn't tried before,
and it works, and you think "Hey, they thought of that, too." And
There's almost
then six months later it happens again.
no product in the world that you have
that experience with, but you have it
with a Mac.
And you have it with an iPod.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/designingstructureia-121019073546-phpapp01/85/Designing-Structure-Part-II-Information-Archtecture-33-320.jpg)
Designing Structure Part II: Information Archtecture
- 3. Information Architecture Find Me 3
- 4. We design for movement Data, Information, Knowledge From data To information To Knowledge
- 5. The Goal • To go from fact Estimated portion of all U.S. nuclear waste that Nevada's Yucca Mountain dumpsite will hold when it is full in 2046 : 3/5
- 6. The Goal • To meaning Estimated portion of all U.S. nuclear waste that Nevada's Yucca Mountain dumpsite will hold when it is full in 2046 : 3/5 Richter-scale magnitude of an earthquake last June twelve miles from the Yucca site : 4.4
- 7. Classification and Consequences • A physician who doesn’t see a new cure • A poor student who can’t find financial aid • A store where a product isn’t found
- 8. From fact to meaning The right information at the right time in the right way – Find information – Understand information – Use information
- 9. Special skills • Information Architecture for Findability • Information Design for Understandability • Interaction Design for Usability
- 10. Information Architects specialize • In Information Architecture– duh!
- 11. Unfortunate Seperation Why the separation? Little IA Big IA
- 12. Better model Are they closer? Big IA Little IA
- 13. Best model?? A new shape Big IA Little IA
- 14. Information Architects • What is IA? • IAI definition 1. The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability. 2. The structural design of shared information environments. 3. An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.
- 15. Findability
- 16. In the physical world • Things that have fixed locations – We find with maps and signs- - wayfinding • Things that don’t – We find with organization and wayfinding
- 17. In the digital world • Nothing is fixed • Wayfinding and organization is the two keys to findability • Role of IA is to shape the digital space to enable findability.
- 18. Make things findable • Organization – Build on Metadata – Browse systems – Search systems • Wayfinding – Labels – Visual cues
- 19. Make things appear • Serendipity systems – See also – Related – Popularity relationships – Also built on metadata
- 20. Definition The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content. Information Architecture for the World-Wide Web Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville
- 21. Who cares? Once there were people with cows And people without cows The people with no cows were hungry
- 22. They took to the road And met at the market And the people with no cows bought cows The people with cows had fewer cows, but money for other things
- 23. Now there are people with information And people with no information The road is the computer And the market is the web
- 24. But the market is really big And the people can’t find each other So we have ignorant people And people with no money The cows are okay with this Business is not.
- 25. The Goal The players – Users, seeking information (cowless) – Businesses with information (with cows) – Intermediaries such as search engines and directories, profiting on the exchange (marketplaces) The goal is to get the users seeking the data to the businesses offering the data
- 26. Missing information Lost sales - Expensive support - Duplicated effort - Lost trust - Lost lives?
- 27. Classification has Consequences • A physician who doesn’t see a new cure • A poor student who can’t find financial aid • A store where a product isn’t found
- 28. IA has consequences Information Architecture manages information to make it findable – Tagging with metadata – Organizing with CV’s – Creating navigation systems – Optimizing search
- 29. And IA can build brands.
- 30. Branding in 10 seconds Brand managers create brand promises fullfilled by brand experiences Brian Collins’ Model of Brand
- 31. Brand and the User Experience Creating a good customer experience is the essence of good branding Hugh Dubberly’s Model of Brand
- 33. Product Quality = Brand Loyalty why Apple's customers I get asked a lot are so loyal. It's not because they belong to the Church of Mac! That's ridiculous. It's because when you buy our products, and three months later you get stuck on something, you quickly figure out [how to get past it]. "Wow, someone over there at And you think, Apple actually thought of this!" And then three months later you try to do something you hadn't tried before, and it works, and you think "Hey, they thought of that, too." And There's almost then six months later it happens again. no product in the world that you have that experience with, but you have it with a Mac. And you have it with an iPod.
- 35. Benabar n’est pas jazz?
- 36. What is this? 36
- 37. What is this? 37
- 38. What is this? 38
- 39. What is this? 39
- 41. They are all birds (ornithologist) 41
- 42. The Cassowary is not a bird! (the Karam) 42
- 43. From “Why the Cassowary is not a bird”, R. Bulmer, Man, Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967) 43
- 44. From “Why the Cassowary is not a bird”, R. Bulmer, Man, Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967) 44
- 45. Who Cares? • Ornithologists • The Karam • Information Architects 45
- 46. Dewey Decimal System • 200-299 – Religion Categories • 40+ categories related to Christianity • 1 for Judaism • 1 for Islam (& related) 46
- 47. Who Cares? • Religious Scholars • Librarians • Information Architects • Jews and Muslims 47
- 48. Context is King • Classification reflects social and cultural organization • Information Architect must understand this context 48
- 49. Get to know your audience… 1. Who are they? Football Fan 49
- 50. Get to know your audience… 1. Who are they? Football Fan? 50
- 51. Get to know your audience… 1. Who are they? Show me 2. What do they care about? photos! Are the Patriots going to make the playoffs? What happened in the last game? 51
- 52. Get to know your audience… 1. Who are they? 2. What do they care about? 3. How do they think of the information and content? Conference, division… Schedules, standings… 52
- 53. Get to know your audience… 1. Observe others 2. Study Competitors and similar sites 3. Review your search logs 4. Do a card sort 53
- 54. Now what? • Organize your information so it makes sense to your audience • Structure your information to help users find it • …using metadata 54
- 56. Metadata: what is it? ―metadata is data about data" 56
- 57. Metadata: what is it? ―Metadata tags are used to describe documents, pages, images, software, video and audio files, and other content objects for the purposes of improved navigation and retrieval‖ ‘Information Architecture for the World Wide Web’, 2nd ed., (2002) Rosenfeld, L. & Morville, P. 57
- 58. Types of Metadata • Descriptive: the nature of the thing, what is it related to?… • Intrinsic: composition of the thing, size, shape… • Administrative: how can the thing be handled? Workflow… 58
- 60. Types of Metadata Web Page: New England Patriots • Descriptive: Patriots, NFL, AFC East… • Intrinsic: HTML page, 40k… • Administrative: update daily with news feeds, update when new game… 60
- 62. Types of Metadata Logo: New England Patriots • Descriptive: Patriots, NFL, AFC East… • Intrinsic: jpg file, 4k… • Administrative: rights owner-NFL, replace when logo changes… 62
- 63. Yahoo Travel <!-- Meta Data --> … <META NAME="description" CONTENT="Plan your vacation using Yahoo! Travel's Paris Vacations and tourism …” <!-- /Meta Data --> http://travel.yahoo.com/p- travelguide-191501740- paris_vacations-i 63
- 64. Yahoo! Travel: Homepage <meta name='description' content="Yahoo! Travel is a comprehensive online travel destination, where you can reserve flights, rental cars, hotel rooms, cruises and vacation packages, all in one place. Research trips from a wealth of planning resources including destination and city guides, user and expert reviews, local weather and currency information, and much more. Yahoo! Travel has competitive prices on everything from airfare to lodging, it's easy to find great deals and special offers"> <meta name='keywords' content='online airfare airfares hotel car reservations travelocity airlines tickets airplane air line air fares arifares airline low fairs fares cheap tickets flights book information flight itinerary itineraries online reservations online tickets online travel agents vacations cruise cruises cruiselines business travel busines corporate hotels discounts car cars rental lasvegas tickets travel reservations online travel travel bookings online bookings book airfare fare wars discount fares sales lowest vacation planning information travel agencies travel sites disney world florida orlando miami atlanta ATL Dallas DFW DCA LAS LAX NYC ORD SFO atl dfw dca las lax nyc ord sfo Washington D.C. washington dc los angeles Los Angeles new york New York new york city New York City San Francisco sanfrancisco family trips family vacation family vacations'> 64
- 65. Yahoo! Travel: Successful Meta Data • Added Meta Data to page (descriptive meta tags, urls, titles in page) • Was 2001: result # 300+ in Google/Yahoo Search • 2002: result # 2 • Users can find the content! 65
- 66. Not all Metadata is equal • What are users interested in? • What do you want users to be able to find? • What metadata makes management easy? • Tag content for findability • Tag content for management 66
- 67. Exercise • Listen • Write five descriptive words (or short phrases) on your post-it • One word (or phrase) per post-it • Don’t share– yet! Hold on! 67
- 68. Next Content Architecture Part II 68
- 70. Controlled vocabularies Master of your domains 70
- 71. Cardinal Richelieu Grandfather of controlled vocabularies 71
- 72. The French Academy • Founded in 1635 • Multiple dialects • Goal: purify the French language • Goal: unify the nation (ensure that the State and all citizens speak the same language) 72
- 73. The French Academy today …but… 73
- 74. So what? • So what are your goals? • How will you ensure that your users and your system speak the same language? • How will you ensure they continue to do so? 74
- 75. When humans and computers interact I want I’ve got music. music 75
- 76. Humans are good at figuring things out Rap. Hip Hop Rock. Dance. 76
- 77. Most of the time Jiggy ? tunes 77
- 78. But computers are literal Acid ? reggae No matches found 78
- 79. And need help Acid ? Reggae? IA Let’s give them “Dance and DJ” 79
- 80. Of course, the IA can’t always be there… Thus Controlled vocabularies (CV) Amy Warner defines a controlled vocabulary (CV) as “organized lists of words and phrases, or notation systems, that are used to initially tag content, and then to find it through navigation or search.” 80
- 82. Controlled Vocabularies I define them as Documented relationships of words and concepts to assist people finding stuff. Same dif. 82
- 83. Controlled Vocabulary Types • Levels of control (Vocabularies) Synonym Authority Classification Thesauri Rings Files Schemes Simple Complex Equivalence Hierarchical Associative (Relationships) 83
- 84. Controlled vocabularies • Relationships B A=B A A B Equivalence Hierarchal Associative Christmas= Winter Holidays > Christmas | Xmas Christmas Santa Claus 84
- 85. Synonym rings • Simplest type • Helps with search, indexing • Simplifies maintenance 85
- 86. Synonym rings include • Acronyms: BBC, British Broadcasting Company; MPG, miles per gallon • Variant spellings: cancelled, canceled; honor, honour • Scientific terms versus popular use terms: acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin; lilioceris, lily beetle – From Synonym Rings and Authority Files by Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel 86
- 87. Why Bother? I’m tired of typing “Controlled Vocabulary--- CV is shorter. • Sometimes on intranets, CV’s are skipped • You think you can force people to use proper terms • But people are lazy 87
- 88. Why Bother? I want a cannon camera. • On the internet you want to be found • You’ve got cows • But people can’t spell “cows” • Plus users use short queries – Average queries are 2.5 words– 30% of searches are one word queries 88
- 89. Bizrate takes good advantage It may be the Canon PowerShot S30 89
- 90. But what do people call it? Canon S30 Cannon S30 S30 Powershot S30 90
- 91. A page for each synonym 91
- 92. And they can be number one 92
- 93. Authority File • Addition of preferred terms and variants • Preferred terms – Protects brand – Sensitivities – Educates Christmas | Xmas, X-mas, Nöel, 93
- 94. There is a right spelling 94
- 95. Classification schemes • Includes non-equivalent relationships • Includes hierarchal informal • Useful for navigation • Useful for helping people broaden their search 95
- 96. Classification schemes • Types of relationships • Sibling: Gap.com directories » Men » Women » Maternity » Body » Boys » Girls » Baby boy » Baby girl 96
- 97. Classification schemes Parent / Child (amazon.com) 97
- 98. Classification Schemes Other Relationships Alphabetical (administrative metadata) Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Moore, Alan Chronological (administrative metadata) New for You > New Releases > Books Topic (descriptive metadata) Comics > Graphic Novels > Horror Amazon uses all of these, and more…. 98
- 99. Thesauri • Cadillac of Controlled Vocabularies • Includes associative relationships Preferred Variants Siblings Parent Associated term Christmas X-mas, Hanukah, Winter Santa Claus Nöel Kwanzaa holidays 99
- 100. Associations 100
- 101. Associations • Amazon uses buying patterns to determine associations 101
- 102. Associations 102
- 103. Exercise Card sort Take your keywords Open your packets Sort the items into similar piles. Label the piles with post-its Discuss 103
- 104. Building your own 1. Understand requirements 2. Harvest terms 3. Create groupings 4. Implement 5. Test 6. Maintain 104
- 105. What kind of CV do you need? • What do you want your CV to accomplish? • To integrate with your navigation system? • To improve searching? To improve browsing? Both? • How much vocabulary control do you want to provide? Synonym ring? Facets? What level of vocabulary control is appropriate? • What can your technology support? 105
- 106. Getting answers • Content - specificity and stability • Technology - tools and integration. • Users – who are they • Maintenance- who will do it? 106
- 107. Content Inventory Identify all content and attributes • Link ID • Maintainer • ROT • Expiration • Document type • Access • Topics/Keywords • Author • Location • Existing/planned 107
- 108. Term harvesting • Look Inward • Log harvesting – Your site – Search engines – Current keywords – Overture • Look outward • Ask people – Magazines – Interviews – Competitors – Card sorts – Discussion lists – Free Listing 108
- 109. Sorting Terms A Card Sort for Architects • Multiple Groupings – Equivalent UF cheese=fromage – Broader terms BT cheese | dairy – Narrower terms NT cheese | cheddar – Related term RT cheese | crackers 109
- 110. Sleeping Bags BT Camping NT Down Sleeping Bags NT Synthetic Sleeping Bags NT Family Sleeping Bags NT Cold Weather Sleeping Bags NT 2-Season Sleeping Bags NT 3-Season Sleeping Bags NT Back Packing Sleeping Bags NT Expedition Class Sleeping Bags NT Ultralight Sleeping Bags RT Backpacks RT Ultralight Backpacking RT Sleeping Bag Liners RT Sleeping Pads RT Stuff Sacks RT Pillows From Creating a Controlled Vocabulary by Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/creating_a_controlled_vocabulary.php 110
- 111. Sorting conflicts • Cheese goes in dairy or in sandwich materials? • A cheese basket? • String cheese? Choices fit strategy 111
- 112. Associations • What is related • What is required? • What else is interesting? Relevancy is king 112
- 113. Possible Relationships • Process/agent (camp fires/matches) • Action/product of action (baking/cakes) • Agent/counteragent (allergies/antihistamine) • Raw material/product (wool/sweater). 113
- 114. Implement • Implementation dependant on situation and tools. • May be slow painful data entry– know this and prepare. 114
- 115. Test • Test with users – did you get it right? – Browse Testing – Search Testing – Monitor quantitative – Refine, refine, refine 115
- 116. Maintain • Who maintains it? • What the rules for new terms? • Document your decisions. 116
- 117. Is that all? NO! Life beyond enumerative classification…. 117
- 118. Faceted Classification was developed, prior to the existence of computers, by S. R. Ranganathan, a Hindu mathematician working as a librarian. 118
- 119. S. R. Ranganathan 1892-1972 My dream: • to systematically describe, in detail, the contents of complex documents discussing compound subjects, and to • codify those descriptions into a sequenced numerical form that would • make it possible to retrieve exactly what was needed from wherever it was located in the library • in order to save the time of the reader. 119
- 120. And ... describe the entire universe of ideas using classification and notation. 120
- 121. S. R. Ranganathan 1892-1972 The Five Laws of Library Science 1. Books are for use. 2. Every reader his or her book. 3. Every book its reader. 4. Save the time of the reader. 5. The Library is a growing organism. 121
- 122. Colon Classification System Describing life, the universe, & everything, it used facets to classify. It affected the world of • classification, • categorization, • information retrieval & • information architecture. 122
- 123. Ranganathan’s 5 Facets • who: personality • what: matter • how: energy • where: space • when: time Sound familiar? 123
- 124. Ranganathan’s 5 Facets Imagine a book about ―the design of wooden furniture in 18th century America.‖ Personality—furniture Matter—wood Energy—design Space—America Time—18th century 124
- 125. Essential Qualities of a Facet • Mutually exclusive; represents a characteristic of division not found in any other facet • Cannot be further sub-divided • Relationships between facets are non- hierarchical (though within facets…) 125
- 126. Facets The broad categories into which the subject area is divided. A facet consists “... of a group of terms that represents one, and only one, characteristic of division of a subject field....no two facets may contain terms that could represent the same concepts.” —Louise Spiteri 126
- 127. Heady stuff? What does all this philosophical mumbo jumbo mean? 127
- 128. Heady stuff? Yahoo! Shopping uses facets to help users select a camera 128
- 129. Ordinary stuff? Epicurious uses facets to help users find recipes 129
- 130. Yahoo! Personals • Faceted classification by Yahoo! Personas • Content by the users 130
- 131. What’s the difference? Electronics Camera facets Camera Pixels Digital Zoom Film Price PDAs Televisions 131
- 132. Our Music example Enumerative Faceted • Modern • Mood – Rock • Tempo • Alternative – Seattle • Artist – Atlanta • Use 132
- 133. Mix and match? In Yahoo Shopping • Electronics > Cameras > Digital • Then choose by pixel, zoom and price • Then offer camera bag, flash card, batteries? 133
- 134. Facets, anyone? What facets would you use to describe the qualities of a song? 134
- 135. Making Facets 1. Consider the universe of documents to be indexed. 2. Consider user finding strategies. 3. Analyze each document to identify the facets. 4. Group isolates (simple-concept subjects) into the facets. 5. Apply the notational system. (I skipped some steps, to avoid wonking out….) 135
- 136. Are Facets Hard? Consider: – Facets for a knife store? – Facets for a kitchen store? – Facets for a book store? 136
- 137. Before jumping in… Consider: • How various is your content? • How complex is your subject? • How do people find your content? • How much time do you have? 137
- 139. Is this all there is?
- 140. Information Architecture is: Architecture in Information Spaces.
- 141. Dan Klyn (and TUG) is bringing Richard Saul Wurman’s and other architect’s views back to make better digital products http://understandinggroup.com/
- 148. “Less is more.” ~ Mies
- 155. What does a digital product want? • A librarian? • An urban planner? • An architect?
- 156. ―Modern Systems! Yes indeed! To approach everything in a strictly methodical manner and not to waver a hair’s breath from preconceived patterns, until genius has been strangled to death and joie de vivre stifled by the system– that is the sign of our time.‖ Camillo Sitte
- 157. Homework • Content inventory: what’s in your site? • Organizational Scheme – Hierarchal? – Faceted? – Combination? • Portfolio: Site map (a la Dan Brown’s Communicating design Chapter 5)
Editor's Notes
- #139: Five Hats