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‘Information Architecture for the World Wide
Web’ (3rd Edition)
Mike KargelaMark Thompson-Kolar
SI 658 Winter 2011Peter Morville & Louis Rosenfeld2007
Polar Bear Book
• About the Authors• Overview of the Book• Key IA Terms and Concepts• IA and Content• IA in the Field• Wrap Up• Questions
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 2
Peter Morville & Lou Rosenfeld
• School of Information Alums
• Considered inventors of Information Architecture field
• Worked together at Argus Associates
• Currently have their own consulting businesses
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 3
Overview of Book
• Part I: Introducing Information Architecture (IA)– Overview of IA
• Part II: Basic Principles of IA– Fundamental components of an architecture
• Part III: Process and Methodology– Tools, techniques and methods
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 4
Overview Continued• Part IV: IA in Practice– Practical tips and advice for those working in the
field
• Part V: IA in the Organization– Practicing and promoting IA within a business
context
• Part VI: Case Studies– The evolution of two large architectures and best
practices used in their developmentInformation Architecture for the World
Wide Web (3rd Edition) 5
Key IA terms and concepts (Ch.1)
• Findability – Ability for users to find what they need• Browsing | Searching | Asking paradigm
• Managing– IA must balance needs of users with goals of
business• Content management• Policies & procedures
6Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
Key IA terms and concepts• Granularity
– Degree of specificity or coarseness of information chunks– Example: Journal issue, article, paragraph, sentence
• Structuring– Determining best level(s) of granularity– Determining best relation among items in site 7Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
Key IA terms and concepts
• Organizing– Grouping those components into meaningful &
distinctive categories
• Labeling– What to call the categories– What to call navigation links
8Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
Label Label Label
Key IA terms and concepts
• Components– What constitutes a medium (e.g. web sites)
• Main page, navigation bar, links, content pages, site index, search
• Dimensions– How the components exist in space
• Multidimensional, hypertextual
• Boundaries– Fairly intangible, fuzzy borders– Information “bleeds” into other sites
9Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
Key IA terms and concepts (Ch. 2)
• Information Ecology– Complex dependencies involving users, content &
context– “Oversimplified” model tool for addressing issues
10Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
Key IA terms and concepts
• Users– Who’s using the site?– How are they using it?– What information do they want?– IAs must address this in decision making
11Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
Key IA terms and concepts
• Context– Site exists within organization’s goals, strategy, technology, budget,
culture, and other factors– Vocabulary & structure conversation w/customers – What is today’s business context? Tomorrow’s?– How will users view your site/message/values distinct from
competition?
12Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
Key IA terms and concepts
• Content– The “stuff” that makes up your site– Incl. documents, applications, services and
metadata of your site
13Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
IA and content: Facets (Ch. 2)
Content facets = Key questions IAs must address:
• Ownership• Format• Structure• Metadata• Volume• Dynamism
14Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
IA and content: Facets
• Ownership– Who creates and maintains
content on the site? – How will this be handled?– How is responsibility distributed?– How much content originates inside organization?– How much from outside?
15Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
IA and content: Facets
• Format– Kinds of documents,
databases, applicationsused on site. Examples:• HTML “pages”• XML files• Oracle or MySQL databases• Word documents• PDF brochures• Video or audio clips
16Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
IA and content: Facets
• Structure– Specific granularity of
documents:• Structural mark-up (XML)• Whole document (Word)• Discrete db fields provided (Product catalog)
17Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
IA and content: Facets
• Metadata– Data about information:• How much already exists?• What gaps are there?• Manual or auto tagging?• Level of quality / consistency?• Controlled vocabulary / folksonomy / both?• How important IS metadata to the site?• Expertise in evaluating quality & work ahead ($$$)
18Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
IA and content: Facets
• Volume– How much content
are we talking about?• 100 applications?• 1,000 HTML pages?• 1M documents?• An ever-growing product
catalog with 2B fields?
19Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
Flickr / jepoirrier
IA and content: Facets
• Dynamism– Degree of change,
throughput, update• Speed of growth expected• Rate of turnover• How much added next
week/month/year?• Freshness factor• Can our tools handle this?
20Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
IA and content: Planning (Ch. 10)
• 3 initial meetings IAs should hold– Strategy team– IT team– Content owners/managers• Huge part of site success!• What content does each owner handle / maintain?• Purpose of each type of content?• Where does it originate? How “weeded”?• Who is the audience?• How is content entered into system?
21Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
And many more
questions (p. 237)
IA and content: Analysis (Ch. 10)
• Gather content– Noah’s Ark: Two of every kind– Get a diverse and useful sample• Formats: Text, video, apps, email
messages, records …• Document type: Marketing reports, product catalogs,
press releases, annual reports, forms, ...• Sources: Departments, business units, third-party …• Subjects: Range, look for existing taxonomy• Other possible categories:
– Dynamism, language, intended audience, size/length
22Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
Edward Hicks
Questions
• What is this object?
• How can I describe it?
• What distinguished it from others?
• How can I make it most findable?
• Patterns or groups emerging?
• Hierarchies?
• Linkage in common business practice?
IA and content: Analysis
• Analyze content– Think about metadata as way
to categorize:• Structural – How is it divided?• Descriptive – Format?
Audience?• Administrative – Who owns?
Who created? How does it relateto business concept?
23Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
IA and content: Design (Ch. 12)
• Content Inventory– Describes what
content exists and where it can be gotten:• page by page• section by section• document by
document
– Identifies gaps – Intensely detailed
24Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
IA and content: Design
• Content MappingBreak down or combine existing content into content chunks.Content chunk = most finely grained content piece that requires individual attention.
25Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
IA and content: Design
• Content Modeling– Content model =
“Micro” info architectures of small chunks of interconnected content. • Depends on consistent
parts and logical connections
• Focus on most high-value content on site
– Improve cross-site navigation by linking
– Find gaps (not yet exist)– Deal with scale
26Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
Need
Need
Need
IA and content: Design
• All these steps lead to :
27Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
good content, but even better
navigation & user satisfaction
IA and content: Comment
• Content is crucial in IA– Most thorough treatment of content we have
seen yet in Information Architecture books:• Concepts• Purposes• Research• Design• Implementation & management
28Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)
IA in The Field
• Lot of potential obstacles loom for the IA:– Lack of understanding of IA– Budgets– Organizational Politics– Technology
• Getting the right people on board as early as possible is key
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 29
IA in The Field
• Selling is major part of an IA’s job– Change perceptions– Help clients understand what IA is and how a good
IA can help them meet their goals and objectives– Before and after the sale
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 30
Selling IA
• Two Kinds of People– By the Numbers• Need data to make their decisions• Want to know what they’re going to get in return for
their investment
– Gut Reactionaries• Make decisions based upon what feels right• Rely less on hard data, more on intangibles
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 31
Putting a Value on IA (Ch. 17)• Calculate Return On Investment (ROI)– For intranet portals• Employee time savings
– External Sites (E-Commerce)• Recouping lost sales
• Challenges associated with ROI– Benefits of a complete IA are difficult to quantify– Benefits of many IA components can’t be
quantified – Most claims for IA benefits can’t be validated
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 32
Talking to The Gut Reactionaries
• These people go with what feels right/what’s in line with their experiences
• If they don’t have direct experience with IA, use first hand success stories
• Communicate roles and scenarios that the client can understand and/or relate to
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 33
Other Techniques
• User sensitivity “boot camp sessions”• Expert site evaluations• Strategy sessions• Competitive analyses• Comparative analyses• Ride the application salesman’s wake• Be aggressive and be early
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 34
Three Pieces of Advice• “Pain is your best friend”– Be able to identify pain points and help clients to
understand or “feel” them
• “Articulation is half the battle”– Help clients articulate the information problems
they are experiencing
• “Get off your high horse”– Avoid too much IA jargon and use terms client
understands
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 35
The IA Value Checklist• Reduces cost of finding information
• Reduces cost of finding wrong information
• Reduces cost of not finding information at all
• Provides competitive advantage
• Increases product awareness
• Increases sales
• Makes using a site more enjoyable
• Improves brand loyalty
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 36
• Reduces reliance upon documentation
• Reduces maintenance costs
• Reduces training costs
• Reduces staff turnover
• Reduces organizational upheaval
• Reduces organizational politicking
• Improves knowledge sharing
• Reduces duplication of effort
• Solidifies business strategy
Wrap Up
• Excellent book that provides many helpful tools and techniques
• Annotated with real world experiences, useful advice and practical considerations
• Can serve as a great on the job resource that the practicing IA can go back to repeatedly
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 37
Questions?
?
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 38
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