1TODAY’S CLASS

Information Architecture

The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and

intuitive access to content.

Definition

Information Architecture for the World-Wide Web Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville

Organizing info so

people can find stuff

>

PLAY WITH CANDY

Sort into groups. Name groups

MAKE A HOMEPAGE FOR

YOUR CANDY SITE

4 KINDS OF INFORMATION

SEEKING

You are going to Belize. You want the lonely planet guidebook

KNOWN ITEMhttp://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/

What worksSearchA-Z indexNavigation

http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/

You want to visit a tropical island. Where should you go?

EXPLORATORY

http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/

What can helpNavigationRelated SearchSearch (with autocomplete, related terms)

http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/

Ticket Prices to Belize drop in September and April

DON’T

KNOW

WHAT YOU

NEED TO

KNOWhttp://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/

What can helpRelated informationRecommendationsPush technologies

http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/

You saw a great waterproof camera on amazon, and now realize it’s the one you want to buy. Where did it go?

REFINDING

http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/

What can helpFavoritesPersonalizationVisited link color

http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/

RedesignDESIGN FOR TASKS

Find a baseball Find a gift for a upcoming party for a seven year oldMake users aware some balls are on saleFind again a good choice for that party

Classification has Consequences

A physician who doesn’t see a new cureA poor student who can’t find financial aidA store where a product isn’t found

IA has Solutions

– Tagging with metadata– Organizing with CV’s– Creating navigation

systems – Optimizing search

Information Architecture

manages information to make it findable

CLASSIFICATION IS

CONTEXTUAL

Benabar n’est pas jazz?

Dewey Decimal System‣ 200-299 – Religion Categories‣ 40+ categories related to Christianity‣ 1 for Judaism‣ 1 for Islam (& related)

Who Cares?‣ Religious Scholars‣ Librarians‣ Information Architects‣ Jews and Muslims

26

THIS IS A FISH

Who Cares?Hungry Catholics inland in South America on Fridays

‣ Classification reflects social and cultural organization‣ Information Architect must understand this context

Context is King

Get to know your audience…

1. Who are they?

Football Fan

Get to know your audience…

1. Who are they?

Football Fan?

Know your audience…1. Who are they?

2. What do they care about?

Are the Patriots going to make the

playoffs?

Show me photos!

What happened in the last game?

Know your audience…1. Who are they?

2. What do they care about?3. How do they think of the information and content?

Conference, division…

Schedules, standings…

Know your audience…

1. Observe others2. Study Competitors and similar sites3. Review your search logs4. Do a card sort

Now what?Check your labels. Do they make sense?

36

TODAY’S CLASS

Metadata

Pictures of “you”

Boards as metadata

40Metadata:

what is it?“metadata is data about data"

41Metadata:

what is it?“Metadata tags are used to describe documents, pages, images, software, video and audio files, and other content objects for the purposes of improved navigation and retrieval”

‘Information Architecture for the World Wide Web’, 2nd ed., (2002)

Rosenfeld, L. & Morville, P.

DescriptiveProcuitto

Cheese

Honey

Olivia’s

Tapas

IntrinsicWhat does the camera

know? What does the

system know?

Administrative

45Not all

Metadata is equalWhat are users interested in?What do you want users to be able to find?What metadata makes management easy?

Tag content for findabilityTag content for management

46Exercise

BALLWrite as many descriptive words (or short phrases) on your post-itOne word (or phrase) per post-it

Don’t share– yet! Hold on!

48

Add pic of netflix

Controlled vocabularies

Master of your domains

The French Academy Founded in 1635Multiple dialectsGoal: purify the French languageGoal: unify the nation (ensure that the State and all citizens speak the same language)

The French Academy today

…but…

So what?

How will you ensure they continue to do so?

• So what are your goals?• How will you ensure that your users and your

system speak the same language?

When humans and computers interact

I’ve got

music

I want music.

Humans are good at figuring things out

Hip Hop

Rap.Rock.

Dance.

55Most of the time

Raggamuffin

?

56But computers are

literal Acidreggae

?

No matches found

57And need help

AcidReggae?

?

Let’s give them “Reggae” and “Trance”

IA

58

Thus Controlled vocabularies (CV)Amy Warner defines a controlled vocabulary

(CV) as “organized lists of words and phrases, or notation systems, that are used to initially tag content, and then to find it through navigation or search.”

The IA can’t always be there…

I define them as

Documented relationships of words and concepts to assist people finding stuff.

Same dif.

Controlled Vocabularies

Simple Complex

SynonymRings

AuthorityFiles

ThesauriClassificationSchemes

Equivalence Hierarchical Associative

(Vocabularies)

(Relationships)

Controlled Vocabulary Types

Controlled vocabularies

61

A=B AB

A BEquivalenceChristmas=Xmas

HierarchalWinter Holidays > Christmas

Associative Christmas Tree | Santa Claus

Synonym rings 62

• Simplest type• Helps with search, indexing• Simplifies maintenance

• Acronyms: BBC, British Broadcasting Company; MPG, miles per gallon

• Variant spellings: cancelled, canceled; honor, honour

• Scientific terms versus popular use terms: acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin; lilioceris, lily beetle– From Synonym Rings and Authority Files

by Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel

Synonym rings include

64

China cap = chinois = strainer

65Why Bother?

• Sometimes on intranets, CV’s are skipped

• You think you can force people to use proper terms

• But people are lazy

I’m tired of typing “Controlled Vocabulary--- CV is shorter.

66Why Bother?

• On the internet you want to be found

• Plus users use short queries– Average queries are 2.5

words– 30% of searches are one word queries

• On large scale sites, there is enough data to do this programmatically, but on small sites, not.

I want a cannon camera.

• Cadillac of Controlled Vocabularies• Includes associative relationships

Preferred term Variants Siblings Parent Associated

Christmas X-mas, Nöel Hanukah, Kwanzaa

Winter holidays Santa Claus

Thesauri

Associations

• Amazon uses buying patterns to determine associations

Associations

Associations

71Associations

What is relatedWhat is required?What else is interesting?

Relevancy is king

72Possible

Relationships Process/agent (camp fires/matches) Action/product of action (baking/cakes) Agent/counteragent (allergies/antihistamine) Raw material/product (wool/sweater).

73

EXERCISE

Make a candy thesaurus

Preferred term Variants Siblings Parent Associated

Christmas X-mas, Nöel Hanukah, Kwanzaa

Winter holidays Santa Claus

74Implementation?

Implementation dependent on situation and tools.May be slow painful data entry– know this and prepare.

75Test

Test with users – did you get it right?

–Browse Testing–Search Testing–Monitor quantitative

–Refine, refine, refine

76Maintain

Who maintains it?What the rules for new terms?Document your decisions.

77

TODAY’S CLASS

facets

78Is that all?

NO!

Life beyond enumerative classification….

79Faceted

Classificationwas developed, prior to the existence of computers, by S. R. Ranganathan, a Hindu mathematician working as a librarian.

80Ranganathan’s

5 Facets

• who: personality• what: matter• how: energy• where: space• when: time

82Ordinary stuff?

Epicurious uses

facets to help

users find recipes

83Personals

Faceted classification is often used by PersonasContent is by the users

84What’s the difference?

ElectronicsCamera

Digital

Film

PDAs

Televisions

Camera facets

Pixels

Zoom

Price

85Music

Enumerative

Modern

– Rock

• Alternative

– Seattle

– Atlanta

Faceted

Mood

Tempo

Artist

Use

FACETS, ANYONE?

Create candy facets for your store

86

• who: personality• what: matter• how: energy

• where: space• when: time

Is this all there is?

89

90

Tagging– when it works

91

People can’t be bothered

Pictures of “you”

93

94User navigation

95

HEADER

This slide was left purposely blank.

96

Q&AHEADER