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Building a user-focused information architectureDevin Asaro, Content Strategist — @copydevGreg Harron, UX Strategist — @gregharron
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What is information architecture?
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IA is not just your content model
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IA is not just your tagging structure
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IA is not just your product hierarchy
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“On the web, IA is structured information that contributes to the relationship of meaning between a website and the people who use it.
HERE’S OUR DEFINITION
”#IAatDMFB @copydev
On the web, IA is structured information that contributes to the relationship of meaning between a website and the people who use it.
(This is a two-way relationship)
“”
HERE’S OUR DEFINITION
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(Actually… three)
On the web, IA is structured information that contributes to the relationship of meaning between a website and the people and programs that use it.
“”
HERE’S OUR DEFINITION
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Information architecture is about helping people understand their surroundings and find what they're looking for—in the real world as well as online.
— The IA Institute http://bit.ly/1EE08pT
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BUT OTHER PEOPLE SAY SMART STUFF, TOO…
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— Louis Rosenfeld http://bit.ly/1F7iPWn
[Information architecture is] the art and science of structuring, organizing and labeling information to help people find and manage information.
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The world is confusing. We’re here to help people navigate it.
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IA isn’t just for information architects, just as design isn’t just for designers.
IA is for business people, too.
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My company can’t agree on anything. Do we need to fix our culture before we can build our IA?
Yes and no
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IA can actually help you overcome organizational conflicts.
No.
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First, you have to agree to reframe your thinking, and seek a common solution.
…but yes.
And that takes some doing.
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How do we do it?
Phase One:Establishing IA Foundation
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First rule:Let your users make the important decisions.
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Second rule:To create change, you have to look for new sources of information.
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Interaction
How do we get raw user information?
ObservationIn the lab In the wild
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Users ≠ Customers Your website is also an internal tool
Lay out your tools (in no particular order)
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Gather your toolsAvoid the temptation to organize them
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Your CEO is NOT a primary userBalance opinion against empirical data
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Phase Two:Create logical groupings
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Restore order and corral the chaos
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What do you need?
Ingredient #1: Doggie bag from Phase 1
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Secret Ingredients: Pinch of courage + dash of speed
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But first, let’s demystify this card sorting stuff.
What is card sorting?
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…and there you have it.
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What are we looking for? !!
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Consistency with user expectations!
• natural groupings based on user mindset
• clear, distinct meaning
• mental models of how things relate to one another
ambiguities terminology usage/understanding concept overlap
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Open and/or closed
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OPEN = what things go together?
CLOSED = test your labels
HYBRID = test labels, allow user to customize
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Ideally, Open THEN Closed !!!
Users sort cards into logical groupings and provide a label for each category
Open Card Sort
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Closed/Hybrid Card Sort
Hybrid Card Sorting exercise to identify common groupings and understand user mental models for information architecture. Users sort cards to predefined
categories. !With Hybrid version, users also have option to create new categories if they don’t see a true fit.
For best results… Mash up your methods !!
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• open vs closed • physical vs digital • moderated vs unmoderated !
• compare user and business stakeholder results
Practical stuff
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1.30-40 cards is optimal, 50-60 max
2.Randomize card order (and categories if doing closed sort)
3.Vary wording and terminology on cards
4.Set time/workload expectations with participants up front
5.Encourage the participant to think aloud
6.Ask follow-up questions
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Analyze results
-Similarity - which cards were grouped together most commonly
-Categorization - how often did cards get grouped to the same category
-Qualitative review of notes and observations
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Visualization of data clusters, showing % of participants in agreement with category groupings.
What did we learn from this highlighted data point?
Dendograms
Toolkit #1
Toolkit #2
Similarity Matrix
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Shows % of participants that grouped pairs of cards together - Highlights common pairings/clusters.
Plenty o’ fish Lots of online tool options out there.
OptimalSort
UserZoom
UsabilityTools
ConceptCodify
SimpleCardSort
xSort
and more…
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We want to identify this path BEFORE we pave.
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Tree Test Scenario-based test to quickly test intuitiveness of site navigation and architecture BEFORE building the site.
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Tree Test Results Rich data generated automatically to support navigation and architecture decision making.
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Tree Test Participant Paths & Destinations Results See how users navigated for each scenario
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End Result: User-Validated Information Architecture
Questions?
Devin Asaro, Content Strategist @copydev Greg Harron, UX Strategist @gregharron
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