Name

Bringing Information Architecture and UX into a SharePoint Hybrid Environment

Virgil Carrollprincipal architect, high monkey

about me

• From the great State of Alaska• User Experience Aficionado• Been building websites since 1998• Been building SharePoint since 2001• Check out our new website• Blog: http://www.highmonkey.com/blog• Twitter: @vcmonkey

agenda

• Reviewing IA fundamentals• What does hybrid really mean• UX / UI the Hybrid Way• Searching Hybrid

Reviewing IA fundamentals

how users think

• The too-easy information seeking model

User asks question

MAGIC HAPPENS

User received answer

why doesn’t this model work?

• People are really poor finders• People often don’t understand what to look for• Public searches tend to carry less expectations

Key to IA: good findability

• How we look for stuff• Complex structures tend to fail

• People want to find things their way

• People DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW TO FIND STUFF

Good findability starts with putability

• How we store information• More successful with complex structures

• People don’t want to make too many decisions

why do we care?

• Because people finding stuff is the MOST important, but we still have to have storage

• Because organization is key to successful finding• People can’t find stuff that isn’t there

IA breakdown

Purpose

PeopleLanguage

Business goals, funding, politics, culture, technology, resources and constraints

Vocabulary, rules, content types

Audience, tasks, needs, information seeking behavior, experience

purpose (context)

• Everything in your organization has a purpose

• Every person in your organization has a purpose for using information

• Look out for conflict between HYPOTHETICAL (or stated) versus ACTUAL (or achieved) purposes!

• the key to success is understanding and alignment

Purpose

PeopleLanguage

Purpose

PeopleLanguage

language (content) and rules

• Every organization has its own vocabulary to follow

• How content is named and stored

• Terms that are used frequently (acronym hell)

• Every piece of content exists for a purpose (good and bad)

• Every organization has governance and cultural rules around how information is used

• Understanding content and organizational language is key

Purpose

PeopleLanguage

people

• Every person has different experiences and abilities to draw from

• People are mostly out of our control, but we must try and understand them

• People have their own PURPOSE and LANGUAGE

What does hybrid really mean

WHAT IS SHAREPOINT WITHOUT REGRET

Hybrid is and is not cloud

• Its as much a marketing strategy as a good one• Hybrid is only part way…and their part way• It gives the opportunity to get the best of two worlds (but could easily be made into the worst)

• From an IA perspective, it is going to be much more work…to be good

Hybrid is a good first step

• Transition to the cloud on your own schedule (kinda)• We are still limited by what we can actually do

• Get your people used to the ‘cloud’ experience• Hybrid can offload certain workloads, freeing resources to others

• Hybrid can give you a way forward…and a simpler path back

Hybrid give you new features…faster

• Groups• Shows in Outlook 2016

• Office 365 Planner• Sway• Delve• Power BI

Hybrid in SharePoint 2016…so far

• Search (can work with 2013 as well)• User Profile Service

• Includes My Sites / Social• Needs Azure AD to implement??

• OneDrive• Followed Sites, App Launcher & Pins, Share across cloud and on-premise

• Hybrid Delve

Hybrid has its cautions

• Half the resources but could be twice the management• You can’t always manage the rollout of new functions• Most newer features will require SharePoint Server 2016 – big decision (since its probably the last)

• Training, training, training

UX & IA - the Hybrid Way

Hybrid Information Architecture

• Must be a seamless experience• Need to have a deeper understanding of people patterns

• Traditional organization may or may not work• Might have to live with what you can get (good Microsoft strategy)

Beware of crossing barriers

• Try not to cross organizational barriers• Try not to make people click between too much• Clearly communicate the new strategy

What to move (and not)

EnterpriseProcesses

Projects & Workspaces

My Sites

STAY ON PREMISE

TO THE CLOUD

EnterprisePortal

Above The Line versus Below The Line

What to move (and not)

MOVE• Stuff you don’t really care to manage

• My Sites• Team / Group collaborative Sites

• Things you want to socialize on

NOT MOVE• Enterprise processes• Serious security, compliance and audited content

Unique hybrid scenarios

• Internal vs. External (best solution)• Private data vs. not• Enterprise vs team• Portal vs. process

• One design to rule them all

• Make sure your navigation is consistent

• Site Collection / Site naming structure and hierarchy

Consistent UI is key

Use CSWP to surface cross data

• Same content, different display

• Build complex queries based of metadata and query rules

• Query builder tool

Searching Hybrid

Search is a must

• Searching across systems could help reduce risk of confusion

• Cloud and On-prem can add to ‘sprawl’ which will result in searching being used more

• If your content ‘sucks’ your search better not

• Segment to better target results

• Tie to search navigation / query rules

• May have to more manually promote results

Use result sets to divide your repositories

• Identify location in header or other noticeable descriptor

Change result types to identify location of content

• Consider both unique to environment and shared for better findability

• MMS not hybrid…yet

Develop a solid metadata strategy

• Show items differently• Helps break up the page• Allows you to highlight

important information which ever system you are in

Use query rules to group

5 simple things you can do to make your search better

Check out my blog post: http://www.highmonkey.com/Blog/August-2015/1199.aspx

Governance: a last Hybrid consideration

• Have to be more disciplined, not less• Its tool time• Need to automate governance tasks• Keep an eye on Office 365 specific compliance tools and reports

questions??Virgil Carroll, President

High Monkey Consulting

virgil@highmonkey.com

763-201-6040

Blog: http://www.highmonkey.com/blog

Twitter: @vcmonkey