A Brief (and Practical) Introduction to Information Architecture

Usability and Accessibilityfor the Web International Seminar

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon

July 26, 2007

Louis Rosenfeld

www.louisrosenfeld.com

My path and biases

The “Polar Bear” book

Agenda: emphasis on practical

1.Introduction to information architecture

2.How to think like an information architect

3.Some practical advice on methods and design approaches

4.Where the field is going

Questions? Please write them down

Introduction: IA in six slides

A definition and a diagram

Definition: the art and science of structuring, organizing and labeling information to help people find and manage information

Balances characteristics and needs of users, content and context

Where we’re from/what we do:User-orientation

Disciplines Methods

Human Computer Interaction Anthropology Marketing Sociology

Usability testing Contextual inquiry Card sorting Persona and scenario development

Where we’re from/what we do:Content-orientation

Disciplines Methods

Librarianship Technical communication Graphic design Journalism Computer science

Content inventory and analysis Content modeling Metadata development Server and search analytics

Where we’re from/what we do:Context-orientation

Disciplines Methods

Management Systems engineering Organizational psychology

Stakeholder interviews Project planning Specifications development

What we do: A series of balancing acts

Structured vs. semi-structured

IAs stronger in the latter, though data is ascendant

Centralization vs. autonomy

IAs develop balanced workflows and processes

Formal vs. emergent

IAs integrate both as part of broader info ecology

Build vs. buy Technology agnostics who go beyond tech requirements

Customers vs. business

IAs improve knowledge of the former; neutral balancers

Information architecture’s single rule

Pareto Principle (“the 80/20 rule”)

Information architecture is all about prioritization: determine which 20% is most important (information needs, content, design)

There are no other rules, just guidelines

Before we continue: A question

Aren’t usability and information architecture

really just the same thing?

CiteSeer: Strong on findability, weak on usability

UseIt: Strong on usability, weak on findability

IA for novices and veterans: Start with Two Big Questions

My questions for you

1. Who are your site’s major audiences?

2. What are each audience’s primary information needs (and how well are you addressing them)?

Are you confident in your answers?

Q1: Who are your site’s major audiences?

Audience definition is surprisingly difficult

Too little data… or too much Who/what/where/why/when/how questions

Political challenges Defining audience by silo leads to

stakeholder infighting Goal: err toward apolitical segmenting that

cuts across silos; examples: Job functions (admin, clerical, research, mgmt) Demographics

Q2: What are their major information needs?

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexin/

Information needs are common tasks and topics

Examples How do I obtain a driver’s license? Are there scholarships available for my

18-year old son? Who are my elected representatives? Can the state government help me find

investors?

Uncovering information needs:Ask people who would know

Webmasters and the “hate mail” they receive

Switchboard operators and their FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Subject Matter Experts and the people who bother them

Who else?

Avoid: focus groups

Uncovering information needs:Analyze behavioral data

Switchboard logs

Server logs (Web Analytics)

Search logs (Search Analytics)

Information and call center logs

Where else?

Grouping log data can help you (re)define audience segments

Big Answers for Big Questions

The end of redesigns

Redesigns are Expensive and wasteful Cosmetic User-hostile Pointless

Instead, institute a process Ask and answer these Big Questions on a

regular basis Allows all aspects of IA and UX to become

procedural and institutional

Sample Method: Search Analytics

Anatomy of a search log

Google Search Appliance; critical elements in bold: IP address, time/date stamp, query, and # of results:

XXX.XXX.X.104 - - [10/Jul/2006:10:25:46 -0800] "GET /search?access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1&site=AllSites&ie=UTF-8&client=www&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=www&q=lincense+plate&ip=XXX.XXX.X.104 HTTP/1.1" 200 971 0 0.02

XXX.XXX.X.104 - - [10/Jul/2006:10:25:48 -0800] "GET /search?access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ie=UTF-8&client=www&q=license+plate&ud=1&site=AllSites&spell=1&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=www&ip=XXX.XXX.X.104 HTTP/1.1" 200 8283 146 0.16

XXX.XXX.XX.130 - - [10/Jul/2006:10:24:38 -0800] "GET /search?access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1&site=AllSites&ie=UTF-8&client=www&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=www&q=regional+transportation+governance+commission&ip=XXX.XXX.X.130 HTTP/1.1" 200 9718 62 0.17

Full legend and more examples here:http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/searchanalytics/blog/log_sample_google_appliance/

The Pareto Principle in action

Sorting queries by frequency results in a Zipf Distribution

Can we improve performance for the most popular queries?

What users want and when:Sorting and clustering queries

Diagnostics from search analytics: What can you fix or improve?

User research

Interface design: search entry interface, search results

Retrieval algorithm modification

Navigation design

Metadata development

Content development

Best Bet search results: Big answers for Big Questions

Manually-assigned recommended links Ensure useful results for top search

queries Useful resources for each popular query

are manually determined (guided by documented logic)

Useful resources manually linked to popular queries; automatically displayed in result page

Best Bets example: NCI

Best Bets also improve navigation

Comprehensive A-Z site index automatically generated from best bet keywords

Guides:Bigger answers to Big Questions

Guides are single pages that contain A selective set (5-10) of important links

related to a Big Question Narrative text that explains the topic and

what’s available to help with that topic

Generally linked from the main page, but also used in more specific contexts Subsite main pages Search results

Vanguard links to guides on main page

Vanguard’s guide to itstax information

Guides are painless and efficient

Low impact on IT (single HTML page)Cut across departmental silosGap fillers; complement comprehensive

methods of navigation and searchCan be timely (e.g., news-oriented

guides, seasonal guides)Minimize political headaches by creating

new real estateCan grow into fuller subsites

Sample Design Approach: Contextual Navigation

Contextual navigation:Focusing on where users are

Contextual navigation supports users deep in site Where am I? Where can I go from here?

Critical in a Web 2.0 worldTop layers of information systems are increasingly

bypassed Search engines Syndication (RSS, Atom) Banner advertising

Deep content becomes starting point

A common content model

Contextual navigation is powered by content models

“Data modeling for semi-structured content”

Content modeling process helps narrow down both content and metadata choices

Content models consist of1. Content objects

2. Links between objects

3. Metadata

Use sparingly to support high-value contextual navigation

Hewlett-Packard content model for product information

HP’s content model for products includes overview, supplies, support, drivers…

Content model is exposed as part of search results to enhance navigation

BBC content model for music

artist descriptions

album reviews

album pages

artist biosdiscography

concert calendar

TV listings

Content modeling use metadata to connect content objects

Content Objects…

…link to other Content Objects…

…by leveraging common Metadata Attributes

album page album review, discography, artist Album Name, Artist Name, Label, Release Date…

album review album page Album Name, Artist Name, Review Author, Source, Pub Date…

discography album review, artist description Artist Name, Album Name, Release Date…

artist description

artist bio, discography, concert calendar, TV listing

Artist Name, Desc Author, Desc Date…

artist bio artist description Artist Name, Individual Artist Name…

concert calendar

artist description Artist Name, Tour, Venue, Date, Time…

TV listing artist description Artist Name, Channel, Date, Time…

At last: A little bit of inspiration

The past and future of IA… in logos

timeExternal IAs Internal IAs

Senior information architectDirector of User ExperienceChief Experience OfficerChief Information Officer…CEO?

What I’ve covered

1. Introduction to information architecture

2. How to think like an information architect

3. Some practical advice on methods and design approaches

4. Where the field is going

Now, about those questions…

How to reach me

Louis Rosenfeld705 Carroll Street, #2LBrooklyn, NY 11215 USA

+1.718.306.9396 voice+1.734.661.1655 fax

lou@louisrosenfeld.comwww.louisrosenfeld.comwww.rosenfeldmedia.com