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Content OrganizationCommunication 337
Organizational Systems
• Organizational Schemes
- defines shared characteristics of content items & influences their logical groupings
• Organizational Structures
- defines types of relationships between content items & groups
– Rosenfeld & Morville, p. 26
Organizational SchemesExact versus Ambiguous
Exact
• Divide information into mutually exclusive and easily defined categories
• Examples:
- Alphabetical
- Chronological
- Geographical
• User already knows what to look for
Alphabetic Scheme
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2
3
4
5
Chronological Scheme
Geographic Scheme
Ambiguous
• Divide information into categories that defy exact categorization
• Examples:
- Topical
- Task-Oriented
- Audience-Specific
- Hybrid
• Best for browsing and associations
Topical Scheme
Task-Oriented Scheme
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Audience-Specific Scheme
Hybrid Scheme
Organizational Structures
The primary ways users can navigate a site
Major Organizational Structures
• Hierarchy
• Database-oriented
• Hypertext
• Linear
Shallow and Broad
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Narrow and Deep
Hierarchical Scheme
Level 3
Level 2
Level 1
Database-Oriented Scheme
Hypertext Scheme
Linear Structure
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Information Architects
• Clarify the mission and vision• Determine the content and functionality• Define the organization, navigation, labeling,
and searching systems• Develop strategies for accommodating
change and growth– Rosenfeld & Morville, p. 11
Mental Models
• How a user thinks about and approaches their tasks and goals
• The goal of IA is to match the user’s mental models to the information structure
Information Architecture
Miller’s Magical Number Seven
The so-called “Rule of Five” is really based on
George Miller’s 1956 paper “The Magical
Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some
Limits on Our Capacity for Processing
Information”
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