Morville@semanticstudios.com 1 Information Architecture & Strategy Information Architecture...

morville@semanticstudios.com

Information ArchitectureInformation Architecture& Strategy& Strategy

“In strategy, surprise becomes more feasible the closer it occurs to the tactical realm.”

Carl Von Clausewitz, On War, 1832

in·for·ma·tion ar·chi·tec·ture n.

The structural and semantic design of an information space to facilitate task completion and access to content.

The Many Facets of IA

• A Site Component

• A Phase

• A Job / Role

• A Discipline / Degree

• A Community

busi·ness strat·e·gy n.

Defining how an organization will use its scarce resources to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

A Strange Connection?

The Origins of Strategy

“That general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.” circa 500 BC

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

What is Strategy?

strat·e·gy• The science and art of using all the forces of a

nation to execute approved plans as effectively as possible during peace or war.

• The art or skill of using stratagems in endeavors such as politics and business.

strat·e·gem• A clever, often underhand scheme for

achieving an objective.

What is Business Strategy?

“Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities.”

“But the essence of strategy is in the activities – choosing to perform activities differently or to perform different activities than rivals.”

Michael Porter, Harvard Business School

in his book On Competition

Strategy Formation

InternalCapabilities

ExternalEnvironment Opportunities

Strengths Weaknesses

Threats

Strategic Fit at Vanguard

Early in its history, Vanguard established “a mutual structure without precedent in the industry – a structure in which the funds would be operated solely in the best interests of their shareholders.”

Since “strategy follows structure,” it made sense to pursue “a high level of economy and efficiency; operating at bare-bones levels of cost…for the less we spend, the higher the returns – dollar for dollar – for our shareholders/owners.”

John C. Bogle, Founder of The Vanguard Group

http://www.vanguard.com/bogle_site/october192000.html

Vanguard’s Activity System Map (partial view). Adapted from On Competition

Featured in Information Architecture for the World Wide Web

http://webword.com/download/chapter18.pdf

“Why do we have so many unusable things when we know how to make them usable? I think it has to do with the fact that the usability advocates don't understand business.”

Don Norman recent interview on NewScientist.com

“There's a gigantic gray area between good moral behavior and outright felonious activities. I call that the Weasel Zone and it's where most of life happens.”

Scott Adams

“…management theory and practice…move on tragically separate paths…between 1988 and 1994, I followed a group of visionary top managers and watched each one fall prey to corporate politics, self-interested boards, and the whims of financial analysts.”

“Companies invest billions in endless cycles of quick fixes to ‘rediscover’ their end consumers.”

“Organisms that confront system-threatening challenges tend to keep doing what they know how to do successfully, only with more vigor.”

transaction crisis, mass production, enterprise logic, deep structures, consumers, employees, chronic stress, organizational narcissism…

“People have changed more than the business organizations upon which they depend.”

“In the late 1990s pent-up demand for sanctuary, voice, and connection exploded upon the new digital medium called the Internet, driving a frenzy of innovation.”

“Today’s individuals have new dreams… Dreams make markets.”

“When we face discontinuity, the answers we seek cannot be found under the light from the lamppost.”

new enterprise logic, deep support, relationship value, federated networks, complexity, fractal geometry, feedback, adaptation…

Strategy for the IA Community

1. Understand the context.

2. Turn weaknesses into strengths. (see also: embrace your weasel nature)

3. Leave the lamppost.

“What is our aim? I answer in one word. Victory – victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however hard and long the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.” Winston Churchill

Organizational Context

• Compensation• Incentives• Mission, Vision, Goals• Strategy• Value & ROI Metrics• Politics & Culture• Human Resources• Governance• Staffing

• Content Management• Knowledge Management

• Technology Infrastructure• Processes• Project Management• Scope• Schedule• Budget

• Society, Markets, Culture…

“It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first and to wait for disaster to discuss the matter.” Thucydides

“Most of the complaints we get are due to the way users search; they use the wrong keywords.” - manufacturing company manager

“On a scale of 1 to 4, I would rate our search as a 4; it’s excellent. If it wasn’t good, then I’d expect a higher % of people calling our toll-free number.”- telecommunications manager

Forrester Research, Must Search Stink?

“The Fortune 1000 stands to waste at least $2.5 billion per year due to an inability to locate and retrieve information.”

“While the costs of not finding information are enormous, they are hidden within the enterprise, and…are rarely perceived as having an impact on the bottom line.”

The High Cost of Not Finding Information

An IDC White Paper, July 2001.

Invisible Strategy

Invisible Information Architecture

Sorting Things Out“Large information systems such as the Internet or global databases carry with them a politics of voice and value that is often invisible, embedded in layers of infrastructure.”

“Companies need to stop their rush to adopt generic ‘out of the box’ packaged applications and instead tailor their deployment of Internet technology to their particular strengths.”

“The very difficulty of the task contributes to the sustainability of the resulting competitive advantage.”

Michael Porter, Harvard Business School

In “Strategy & The Internet”

Harvard Business Review, March 2001

“We are the blind people and strategy formation is our elephant. Since no one has the vision to see the entire beast, everyone has grabbed hold of some part or other and railed on in utter ignorance about the rest.”

Henry Mintzberg, McGill Universityin his book Strategy Safari (written with Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel)

Strategy Revisited

Strategy Defined as 5 P’s

Plan. A direction, guide, course of action.

Pattern. Consistency in behavior over time.

Position. Locating specific products in specific markets.

Perspective. Way of doing things (The McDonald’s Way)

Ploy. Specific maneuver to outwit.

From Strategy Safari (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, Lampel)

10 Schools of Thought

Strategy Formation As:

Keywords

Design Conception Fit, Think

Planning Formal Formalize, Program

Positioning Analytical Analyze, Calculate

Entrepreneurial Visionary Envision, Centralize

Cognitive Mental Frame, Worry, Imagine

Learning Emergent Learn, Play

Power Negotiation Grab, Hoard

Cultural Collective Coalesce, Perpetuate

Environmental Reactive Cope, Capitulate

Configuration Selective Integrate, Transform

Adapted from Strategy Safari (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, Lampel)

Adapted from The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning by Henry Mintzberg (1993)

Strategic Planning

UnrealizedStrategy

Plans Executed

EmergentStrategy

Realized Strategy

90% 90%

The paradigm “ready, aim, fire” no longer applies; it is now “ready, fire, steer.” Paul Saffo

Prescriptive Descriptive

Top-Down Bottom-Up

Planned Emergent

Stable Adaptive

Centralized Distributed

“In today’s marketplace, it is the organizational capability to adapt that is the only sustainable competitive advantage.” Willie Pietersen

The Speed of IA

The Yahoo Taxonomy Model

An informal count suggests more than 67,000 categories in Yahoo with roughly 4 to 8 levels of hierarchy between the main page and actual content.

Search Log Analysis

33,000 queries (27,000 or 81% unique)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Queries Per Term

con·tent man·age·ment n.

The organization and structuring of information resources so they can be stored, retrieved, published and reused.

• cms software

• information models

• content types & granularity

• sgml, xml & metadata

• single source strategy

• syndication

• business processes & workflow

Facets at Wine.com

Wine.com by the Numbers

Facet # of Vocabulary Terms

Type 46

Region 16

Winery 750

Price 6

Ratings 6

Total Terms 824

Total Combinations 19,872,000

endeca.com

Guided Navigation“Multi-dimensional indices are both lighter-weight and more powerfully expressive than a single large taxonomy.”

“The Library of Congress uses a “monolithic taxonomy of compound subjects, and needs a five Volume reference catalog of over 250,000 subject terms…”

Corporate FacetsFacets Description

Topics Enterprise-wide subject hierarchy.

Organizations Businesses, functions, departments (authors/owners).

Countries & Locations Geographic indicator of intended audience.

Products & Services Complete range of products and services.

Formats Content/object types that are meaningful to employees.

Roles Major employee roles (e.g., managers, admins).

Languages Language of documents.

Management by Metadata

Enterprise Certified • Metadata approved by Enterprise IA Team.• Featured in Taxonomy.• Featured in Searching (“Best Bets”).

Organization Certified • Metadata approved by Information Steward.• Secondary placement in Taxonomy / Search.

Author Certified • Metadata provided by Individual Employee.• Not in Taxonomy.• Included in Search Results.

Uncertified • No metadata provided.• Not in Taxonomy.• Not in Default Search Results.

Socially Translucent Systems

BabbleGoogleBlogdex Buddy ListsPurchase Circles

Tools for Adaptive Web Sites…• User Interviews• Card Sorting (e.g., affinity modeling)• Task Performance Analysis (varied levels of fidelity)• Ethnographic Observation• Adaptive Framework (facets, thesauri, novel UI)• Usage Logs (search, page hits, clickstream)• Link Analysis (Google, referrer logs) • Customer Interaction (via the web site)• Collaborative Filtering (Amazon)• Social Computing (Slashdot, Babble)

“Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”Seneca, circa 65 AD

The End

Peter Morville

Semantic Studios

http://semanticstudios.com/

Presentation

http://semanticstudios.com/events/strategy1102.ppt

“We shape our buildings. Thereafter, they shape us.” Winston Churchill

“The beginning of all understanding

is classification.” Hayden White

Morville@semanticstudios.com 1 Information Architecture & Strategy Information Architecture...

Documents

· of the European Unic Reference to Document (Strategy, Mission, Plan, etc. Strate Strategy Strategy Strategy Strategy Strategy Contact Person Responsible Rectors and Directors

UX Honeycomb av Peter Morville - Frälsningsarmén · 7 kriterier för en bra webbplats. 5. 6 » Testa era formulär! ... Dags för en enklare vardag? TECKNA STÄDABONNEMANG lbland

Morville@semanticstudios.com 1 Information Architecture Designing and Organising Digital Information Spaces Part II. IA Building Blocks

1 Synonyms & Taxonomies Synonyms & Taxonomies Thesaurus Design for Information Architects an ACIA Seminar by Peter Morville & Samantha Bailey

THE MORVILLE YEAR

Daily occupations among asylum seekers · Daily occupations among asylum seekers – Experience, performance and perception Anne-Le Morville DOCTORAL DISSERTATION by due permission

Intertwingled Information Changes Everything - Morville, 2014

‘Information Architecture for the World Wide Web’ (3 rd Edition) Mike Kargela Mark Thompson-Kolar SI 658 Winter 2011 Peter Morville & Louis Rosenfeld 2007

Informasjonsarkitektur for Sunnfjord-portalar · architecture for the World Wide Web og Ambient Findability (Morville 2005) formulerer det: ”Information that is hard to find, will

Biological cleaning and reuse of waste water Mikkel Morville Export Manager mm@biokube.dk

UX STRAT USA 2017: Peter Morville, "Planning for Strategic Design"

The System of Information Architecturejournalofia.org/volume3/issue2/01-morville/jofia-0302-01-morville.pdf · PETER MORVILLE | THE SYSTEM OF INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE Again, if the

Strategy, Architecture & Tomorrow’s Web Peter Morville President, Semantic Studios March 21, 2003

STRATEGY SHARES Strategy Shares EcoLogical Strategy ETFstrategysharesetfs.com/wp-content/uploads/funds/equity... · 2020-04-03 · STRATEGY SHARES Strategy Shares EcoLogical Strategy

Interpretation or assumptions about known ‘facts’ … › office › resources › ...King Robert granted to this house (de Morville) the lands of Rollard near the Burgh of Irving,

1 , R. Zheng (ed.). Hershey, PA: IGI - Typepad...assumption of “ambient findability” (Morville, 2005), the Web is becoming a more fertile knowledge landscape than man has ever

Category Strategy/Sourcing Strategy

329 Morville St

Our inclusion strategy - United Lincolnshire Hospitals · estates strategy, environmental strategy, research strategy, communications and engagement strategy and education strategy

Information Architecture - ORARIAN | Scott Robinson, … · Christina Wodtke. New Riders. 2002. • Information Architecture for the World Wide Web Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville