myumich service architecture janus project brown bag 1 june 2000

myUMich Service Architecture

Janus Project

Brown Bag

1 June 2000

26 May 2000myUMich Service Architecture2

Overview

Introductions Institutional messages & business goals

– Linda Place

User requirements study– Judy Dean

Portal benchmark study– John Cady

Service/information architecture– John Cady & BJ Streu


Institutional Messages

Suspension of Belief “Publicness” Faculty Autonomy Transparent Administration Making Our History Visible


Principle of Suspension of Belief

Creation of an environment that – Enables and supports intellectual and artistic

creativity and exploration of alternative world views– Encourages risking identity loss and discourages

rigid perspectives– Encourages exploration of complexity– Fosters compromise and accommodation across

divergent viewpoints


Principle of “Publicness”

Local community minded Commitment to eliminating socio-economic

barriers to education Enabling an education that interacts with as

many aspects of American life as possible


Principle of Faculty Autonomy

Decentralization of decision making with respect to teaching and research

Enable taking of personal responsibility Encourage personal engagement with work


Principle of Transparent Admin

Keep bureaucracy invisible to faculty and students

Enable creativity and exploration to happen without being obviously present

Do not focus on production of goods and services but on enabling of academic processes


Principle of Visible History

Take community member accomplishments seriously by keeping them visible


Business Goals

Improved recruitment and retention Brand enhancement (national recognition) Development of lifelong relationships


First Target Audience

Undergraduate students Potential students


User Requirements Overview

Role and task modeling

Student interactions and user testing

“Best practices” research and benchmarking


Portal Benchmark Study

Goal: see how to best handle portal structure

Studied:– Top 10 Internet portals (as ranked by Traffick.com)– Two school-specific portals with guest views– Looked at college student portals; none worth study

Focus: organization, navigation, and labeling


Positive Findings

Found some strong examples to emulate

Solid confirmation of the utility of the “containers” approach as the primary model of organization


Positive Findings, part 2

Also, great insights into customization options:

– Add/remove modules– Customize within a

module – Move content within

columns– Etc.

And into creating the customization process:

– Strategies for easily moving content up or down in a column

– How to give user feedback about changes


Pitfalls

However, we also discovered some pitfalls Some sites supplemented container navigation

with lists of menu items, navigation bars, etc. This caused a variety of problems:

Pitfall #1: menu sprawl


Pitfalls

#2: multiple navigation bars


Pitfalls (continued)

#3: several levels of menus


Pitfalls

#4: partial inclusion of options


Pitfalls

#5: Duplication or near-duplication of links


Benchmark Summary

Some good ideas Some lessons

A state-of-the-art architecture is within our reach


Proposed Organizational Structure

In a static Web site: design architecture + content simultaneously

In interactive, fluid portal environment: design shell first, then architectures of services


Design Considerations

Satisfy those fans of one all-in-one page and those who prefer several simpler pages

Avoid the menu pitfalls we found in other portals

Build a system that can accommodate services we haven't even thought of yet

Keep things simple and efficient for the user

How to:


An Answer

Aha! Yahoo!

Not a graphically pleasing site, but a very functional one

Yahoo! architecture

– Begin with single all-in-one page

– Can add pages, choose content, and name them


Advantages of Yahoo! Approach

Gives user control over the way s/he defines “simple”

Relieves us of need to categorize menu items

Relieves us of potential menu item politics

User presented with only as much complexity as needed


Using the Yahoo! Method

This model gives us the greatest flexibility and modularity of all the systems we’ve seen

It has been tested and is proving popular– Yahoo! is by far the portal leader

(see handouts)

Our architecture will be more sophisticated and flexible than either MyUW or MyUCLA (and the latter has been in use since 1997)


Other Structural Notes

Keep navigation to a minimum and prominent

Build an intuitive and easy customization process

Educate users re: customization benefits/ease

Take care in designing default page; most users not expected to customize, at least at first

The Architecture

Contributing to Student Input

Contact Linda Place

[email protected]

615-5820

myumich service architecture janus project brown bag 1 june 2000

Documents

work slide

benchmarking slide

possible slide

labeling slide

history visible slide

principle of suspension

principle of visible

principle of transparent