Redesigning a Website Using Information Architecture Principals
- 1. Resources Covering Various Aspects of Information Architecture Information Architecture in General: www.iawiki.com The IA wiki/knowledge base. It is best for looking up definitions of an IA term. http://www.usability.gov/methods/analyze_current/index.html Yes, the government has an interest in usability. This site gives lots of ways you can learn about your users and help you evaluate your current site. Morville, Peter and Rosenfeld, Louis. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites. 3rd Edition, 1996. This is the sloth book and is a good book about the process of redesign and IA. Peter Moville has a library degree, so some examples are very applicable, though most of the case studies are for big business. Wodtke, Christina. Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web. 2nd Edition, 2009. Great topical book on various areas of IA and designing good websites. Very easy language and a fun read. Accessibility: http://www.dhs.state.il.us/IITAA/IITAAWebImplementationGuidelines.html Technology accessibility from the state of Illinois. All Illinois entities must abide by these. In 2008, ALA Council passed a resolution requesting that library and library vendors abide by these same guidelines. Assessment: Kreuger, Richard and Casey, Mary Anne. Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research. 3rd Edition, 2000. The textbook on conducing focus groups. This book is easy to read and can give the shyest facilitator confidence. Seidman, Irving. Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences. 3rd Edition, 2006. Great book that probably has more information than you’ll ever need for interviewing. Card Sorting: www.measuringux.com/CardSorting Links to online methods of card sorting. I personally think these are overkill, but could help if you have many users at a distance.
- 2. Process: http://news.lib.ncsu.edu/redesign/ Blog created by NCSU web team during their recent redesign. Shows their process and how they communicated the process to their stakeholders. Structure: http://www.jjg.net/ia/visvocab/ Very detailed site on diagramming the information architecture of a website. Also details many IA concepts. http://www.gliffy.com/ Cool web baded diagramming software. Basic account is free and academic users can get 1 premium account free. Can use this for wireframes, organization charts, blueprints, and more. https://gomockingbird.com/ Somewhat like Gliffy, Mockingbird allows you to create web based wireframes (and only wireframes). Usability: Beyer, Hugh and Holtzblatt, Karen. Contextual Design: Defining Customer –Centered Systems. 1st Ediition, 1997. This is slightly dated, but it is still the gold standard for Contextual Design. It is rather scholarly, though. Krug, Steve. Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. 2nd Edition, 2005. Quick, easy, and entertaining book on why user feedback is important in web design. Krug also has a follow up companion book, “Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-‐It-‐ Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems” featuring low cost usability methods. These are probably the easiest usability books out there Kuniavasky, Mike. Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research. 1st Edition, 2003. This book provides an overview of methods used to observe users using your website (or your library for that matter). This one is more academic in it’s writing, but is filled with lots of good information. It is slightly dated, and I keep hoping for a new edition. Web Analytics:
- 3. http://www.slideshare.net/lrosenfeld/marrying-‐web-‐analytics-‐and-‐user-‐ experience Presentation by Louis Rosenfeld titled “Marrying Web Analytics and User Experience”. Not about setting up analytics, but about integrating the data into your user design. http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/ Nice way of showing browser sizes. I’m including this because I think it is cool, but I’m not sure how relevant it is with today’s changing technologies. Writing: Redish, Janice (Ginny). Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works. 1st Edition, 2007. Really good book that will change how you write web content forever. Author goes into various aspects, such as rewriting your current content for a redesign and how to organize text for better usability. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/percent-‐text-‐read.html Jacob Nielsen’s (the usability guru) take on writing/reading on the web.