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

‘Information Architecture for the World Wide

Web’ (3rd Edition)

Mike KargelaMark Thompson-Kolar

SI 658 Winter 2011Peter Morville & Louis Rosenfeld2007

Polar Bear Book

• About the Authors• Overview of the Book• Key IA Terms and Concepts• IA and Content• IA in the Field• Wrap Up• Questions

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition) 2

Peter Morville & Lou Rosenfeld

• School of Information Alums

• Considered inventors of Information Architecture field

• Worked together at Argus Associates

• Currently have their own consulting businesses


Overview of Book

• Part I: Introducing Information Architecture (IA)– Overview of IA

• Part II: Basic Principles of IA– Fundamental components of an architecture

• Part III: Process and Methodology– Tools, techniques and methods


Overview Continued• Part IV: IA in Practice– Practical tips and advice for those working in the

field

• Part V: IA in the Organization– Practicing and promoting IA within a business

context

• Part VI: Case Studies– The evolution of two large architectures and best

practices used in their developmentInformation Architecture for the World

Wide Web (3rd Edition) 5

Key IA terms and concepts (Ch.1)

• Findability – Ability for users to find what they need• Browsing | Searching | Asking paradigm

• Managing– IA must balance needs of users with goals of

business• Content management• Policies & procedures

6Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)

Key IA terms and concepts• Granularity

– Degree of specificity or coarseness of information chunks– Example: Journal issue, article, paragraph, sentence

• Structuring– Determining best level(s) of granularity– Determining best relation among items in site 7Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd Edition)

Key IA terms and concepts

• Organizing– Grouping those components into meaningful &

distinctive categories

• Labeling– What to call the categories– What to call navigation links


Label Label Label


• Components– What constitutes a medium (e.g. web sites)

• Main page, navigation bar, links, content pages, site index, search

• Dimensions– How the components exist in space

• Multidimensional, hypertextual

• Boundaries– Fairly intangible, fuzzy borders– Information “bleeds” into other sites


Key IA terms and concepts (Ch. 2)

• Information Ecology– Complex dependencies involving users, content &

context– “Oversimplified” model tool for addressing issues



• Users– Who’s using the site?– How are they using it?– What information do they want?– IAs must address this in decision making



• Context– Site exists within organization’s goals, strategy, technology, budget,

culture, and other factors– Vocabulary & structure conversation w/customers – What is today’s business context? Tomorrow’s?– How will users view your site/message/values distinct from

competition?



• Content– The “stuff” that makes up your site– Incl. documents, applications, services and

metadata of your site


IA and content: Facets (Ch. 2)

Content facets = Key questions IAs must address:

• Ownership• Format• Structure• Metadata• Volume• Dynamism


IA and content: Facets

• Ownership– Who creates and maintains

content on the site? – How will this be handled?– How is responsibility distributed?– How much content originates inside organization?– How much from outside?



• Format– Kinds of documents,

databases, applicationsused on site. Examples:• HTML “pages”• XML files• Oracle or MySQL databases• Word documents• PDF brochures• Video or audio clips



• Structure– Specific granularity of

documents:• Structural mark-up (XML)• Whole document (Word)• Discrete db fields provided (Product catalog)



• Metadata– Data about information:• How much already exists?• What gaps are there?• Manual or auto tagging?• Level of quality / consistency?• Controlled vocabulary / folksonomy / both?• How important IS metadata to the site?• Expertise in evaluating quality & work ahead ($$$)



• Volume– How much content

are we talking about?• 100 applications?• 1,000 HTML pages?• 1M documents?• An ever-growing product

catalog with 2B fields?


Flickr / jepoirrier


• Dynamism– Degree of change,

throughput, update• Speed of growth expected• Rate of turnover• How much added next

week/month/year?• Freshness factor• Can our tools handle this?


IA and content: Planning (Ch. 10)

• 3 initial meetings IAs should hold– Strategy team– IT team– Content owners/managers• Huge part of site success!• What content does each owner handle / maintain?• Purpose of each type of content?• Where does it originate? How “weeded”?• Who is the audience?• How is content entered into system?


And many more

questions (p. 237)

IA and content: Analysis (Ch. 10)

• Gather content– Noah’s Ark: Two of every kind– Get a diverse and useful sample• Formats: Text, video, apps, email

messages, records …• Document type: Marketing reports, product catalogs,

press releases, annual reports, forms, ...• Sources: Departments, business units, third-party …• Subjects: Range, look for existing taxonomy• Other possible categories:

– Dynamism, language, intended audience, size/length


Edward Hicks

Questions

• What is this object?

• How can I describe it?

• What distinguished it from others?

• How can I make it most findable?

• Patterns or groups emerging?

• Hierarchies?

• Linkage in common business practice?

IA and content: Analysis

• Analyze content– Think about metadata as way

to categorize:• Structural – How is it divided?• Descriptive – Format?

Audience?• Administrative – Who owns?

Who created? How does it relateto business concept?


IA and content: Design (Ch. 12)

• Content Inventory– Describes what

content exists and where it can be gotten:• page by page• section by section• document by

document

– Identifies gaps – Intensely detailed


IA and content: Design

• Content MappingBreak down or combine existing content into content chunks.Content chunk = most finely grained content piece that requires individual attention.



• Content Modeling– Content model =

“Micro” info architectures of small chunks of interconnected content. • Depends on consistent

parts and logical connections

• Focus on most high-value content on site

– Improve cross-site navigation by linking

– Find gaps (not yet exist)– Deal with scale


Need

Need

Need


• All these steps lead to :


good content, but even better

navigation & user satisfaction

IA and content: Comment

• Content is crucial in IA– Most thorough treatment of content we have

seen yet in Information Architecture books:• Concepts• Purposes• Research• Design• Implementation & management


IA in The Field

• Lot of potential obstacles loom for the IA:– Lack of understanding of IA– Budgets– Organizational Politics– Technology

• Getting the right people on board as early as possible is key


IA in The Field

• Selling is major part of an IA’s job– Change perceptions– Help clients understand what IA is and how a good

IA can help them meet their goals and objectives– Before and after the sale


Selling IA

• Two Kinds of People– By the Numbers• Need data to make their decisions• Want to know what they’re going to get in return for

their investment

– Gut Reactionaries• Make decisions based upon what feels right• Rely less on hard data, more on intangibles


Putting a Value on IA (Ch. 17)• Calculate Return On Investment (ROI)– For intranet portals• Employee time savings

– External Sites (E-Commerce)• Recouping lost sales

• Challenges associated with ROI– Benefits of a complete IA are difficult to quantify– Benefits of many IA components can’t be

quantified – Most claims for IA benefits can’t be validated


Talking to The Gut Reactionaries

• These people go with what feels right/what’s in line with their experiences

• If they don’t have direct experience with IA, use first hand success stories

• Communicate roles and scenarios that the client can understand and/or relate to


Other Techniques

• User sensitivity “boot camp sessions”• Expert site evaluations• Strategy sessions• Competitive analyses• Comparative analyses• Ride the application salesman’s wake• Be aggressive and be early


Three Pieces of Advice• “Pain is your best friend”– Be able to identify pain points and help clients to

understand or “feel” them

• “Articulation is half the battle”– Help clients articulate the information problems

they are experiencing

• “Get off your high horse”– Avoid too much IA jargon and use terms client

understands


The IA Value Checklist• Reduces cost of finding information

• Reduces cost of finding wrong information

• Reduces cost of not finding information at all

• Provides competitive advantage

• Increases product awareness

• Increases sales

• Makes using a site more enjoyable

• Improves brand loyalty


• Reduces reliance upon documentation

• Reduces maintenance costs

• Reduces training costs

• Reduces staff turnover

• Reduces organizational upheaval

• Reduces organizational politicking

• Improves knowledge sharing

• Reduces duplication of effort

• Solidifies business strategy

Wrap Up

• Excellent book that provides many helpful tools and techniques

• Annotated with real world experiences, useful advice and practical considerations

• Can serve as a great on the job resource that the practicing IA can go back to repeatedly


Questions?

?


Documents

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