Information Architecture - Part 1 - Spring 2013 - Class 1

Information Architecture –
Part 1: Class #1

Keith Schengili-Roberts
Copyright © 2013, The iSchool Institute Information Architecture - Part 1

Welcome & Introduction
Information Architecture: Basic What is Information Architecture?
Class #1 Approaches to Information Architecture

Instructor

keith.schengili.roberts@utoronto.ca

Class #1
March 13, 2013

Copyright © 2013, The iSchool Institute Information Architecture - Part 1


Today’s Class

• Administration / Introduction
• What is Information Architecture?
• The IA Process

Katherine Chornoboy &iSchoolProcter
Copyright © 2013, The Scott Institute Information Architecture - Part 1


Recommended Text: #1
Recommended Text #1: Information
Architecture for the World Wide
Web, 3rd Edition by Louis
Rosenfeld & Peter Morville (The
“Polar Bear” book) O’Reilly &
Associates, 2007
Cover price: $51.99 (though street
price is lower, especially online)
Encapsulates much of what is taught
in this course; excellent reference
work
Second edition available on Google
Books



• Recommended book: Ambient Findability
by Peter Morville (2005)
Subtitle: What We Find Changes Who We
Become
“Morville discusses the Internet, GIS, and
other network technologies that are
coming together to make unlimited
findability possible. Morville looks back at
the history of wayfinding and human
evolution, suggesting that our fear of
being lost has driven us to create maps,
charts, and now, the mobile Internet.”
A key book that explores how humans seek
information within their environment


Prioritizing Web Usability, (2006)
which is largely an update to his
previous essential text Designing
Web Usability.

List price: $68.99, but again, deals
are to be had (especially online).

Not available on Google Books.



Recommended Text #4
• The very latest book from Jakob Neilsen
and associates: Mobile Usability (2012)

List price: $36.99
Watermarked eBook/PDF version ~$22.39.

“How do we create a satisfactory user
experience when limited to a small device?
This new guide focuses on usability for
mobile devices, primarily smartphones and
touchphones, and covers such topics as
developing a mobile strategy, designing for
small screens, writing for mobile, usability
comparisons, and looking toward the
future.”
Copyright © 2013, The Scott Institute


Recommended Text #5
• Pervasive Information Architecture by
Andrea Resmini and Luca Rosati
(2012)
• Arguably a modern successor to the
“Polar Bear” book
• Looks at how IA has become a
necessity in designing “information
ecosystems” as people need better
wayfinding tools
• Also talks about how IA plays a role in
the creation of cross-channel
experiences, where the virtual
increases merges with the physical
world
Copyright © 2013, The Scott Institute


The “Other” Book
• You have been handed a “book” containing all of the
presentation material to be used in this course

• I will be changing/updating some items along the way to
reflect particular class interests that can’t be anticipated
prior to the “book’s” publication. Change is good. ;-)



More Admin Stuff
• Copies of the presentation deck for each class and
related materials will be made available at the
following Web site: www.infoarchcourse.com

• Go to “Course Files” page and download the zip
files containing the course materials



Who is this guy?
• Author of “Core CSS, 2nd Edition” (2003) and 3 previous
technical titles
• Professional Webmaster since 1995 early examples:
Delrina, Cyberjack, Symantec
• Consultant with Mekon, advising clients on CMS
deployments
• Previously the Information Architect and then the
Manager, Documentation & Localization at AMD (part of the
Graphics Products Group, formerly known as ATI).
• Member of the Information Architecture Institute
• Writer of The Computer Paper’s popular “Web Weaving
Series” (started in 1994)
• Instructor at FIS since 1999; have taught/currently teach:
• “PHP and MySQL Web Development”
• “Enterprise Content Management”
• “Information Architecture – Part 2”


What I Do
What I work on as an Information
Architect/Consultant:
• Aid firms moving from unstructured to
structured content
• My specific expertise is in DITA XML
• Advise clients on the best CMS for their
needs; advise their IAs and Writers on Best
Practices
• Work on the Return on Investment (ROI) that
can be expected
• Was keynote speaker at Content
Management Strategies 2012, and an invited
speaker to the Information Architecture
Colloquium in Lyon, France



IAs are Typically Wearers of Many “Hats”
• In my experience the IAs I teach are
those who may or may not have “IA” as
part of their official title, but do the
equivalent work
• Also, most IAs have never had any
formal training in the art and craft of IA,
which is where this course comes in
• I see my role as instructor in part to
teach you the fundamentals and give
you the tools necessary to better do the
work you are likely already doing



Teaching Philosophy
• Plan is to introduce you to some new ideas, with the
intention of making you re-think how you currently
implement Information Architecture in practice

• Teach for real-world applicability

• People learn best by doing, and by sharing their own
experiences

End goal: provide some fundamentals for the work most of
you are likely already doing


Timetable for Classes

Class Timetable:

• Wednesday March 13th, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. (Class #1)
• Wednesday April 3rd, 6:00-9:00 p.m. (Class #4 -
Assignment #1 due)
•Wednesday April 10th, – no class, but Assignment #2 due



Rough Course Outline
Class 1 Class 3
• Administration / Introduction • Navigation and User
• What is Information Expectations
Architecture? • Writing for the Web
• The IA Process • Fonts and Legibility
Class 2
• Creating Sitemaps and Flow
Charts (Using Visio)
• Card Sort Exercise
Class 4
• Discovery
• User-Centric Design
• Findability
• Defining User Types
• Metadata, Taxonomies and
Folksonomies
• Personas & Scenarios
• IA and SharePoint



Goals
• By the end of this course you should have a good
theoretical basis in the basics of Information
Architecture
• Should have the tools necessary to methodically
tackle the redesign of any Web site/content
• Both “Part 1” and “Part 2” courses mix instruction
with plenty of hands-on examples; completed
assignments can be used to build a portfolio
• Will have time to work on parts of assignments in
class


Introductions
• Please introduce yourself to the class:
• Why are you interested in Information Architecture?
• What do you hope to get out of this series of
classes?



What I am Looking for in the Assignments
• Bringing together concepts and techniques that have
been learned over the course
• Being able to identify theoretical approaches and why they
have been incorporated (or why they haven’t)
• Demonstrating how your new approach will improve upon
the old (i.e. “Before and After” approach works well)
• Having done the work – the time invested in your project
should be evident in your assignment



Assignment #1
• Create a full set of personas/scenarios for a targeted
Web site/digital content
• Format: Written; between 5-10 pages in length total
(including images); ultimately am looking for quality,
not quantity.
• When Due: Final class (Date TBD)
• Worth 40% of class mark
• See “A” class versions of this assignment at:
infoarchcourse.com/files.php#iaadvanced-assignment1-samples



Assignment #2
• Creating “Before” and “After” Information Architect
sitemaps (i.e. “blueprints”) that better optimize the
layout/structure of a target Web site of your
choosing
• When Due: Wednesday April 10th 2013 (One week
after the final class)
• Worth 40% of course mark
• See “A” class versions of this assignment at:
infoarchcourse.com/files.php#iaadvanced-assignment2-samples



Marking Rationale
• Since most people attending the class
are already practicing IA, I don’t just
provide a mark on each assignment,
but a critique of what you have done
(and how to make it better)
• Breakdown of Marks:
• Assignment #1 = 40%
• Assignment #2 = 40%
• Participation in class = 20%



What is Information Architecture?

• As you will see, there is no one definition



“Defining the D*mn Thing” (DTDT)
Defining what IA is has been a long-standing argument…

• My favourite is from the Polar Bear book:

1. The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation
schemes within an information system.
2. The structural design of an information space to facilitate task
completion and intuitive access to content.
3. The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and
intranets to help people find and manage information.
4. Maps out how the site will accommodate change and growth
over time


“Defining the D*mn Thing” (DTDT) (cont).
• An early definition from Richard Saul
Wurman (1996):

1. The individual who organizes the patterns
inherent in data, making the complex clear
2. A person who creates the structure or
map of information which allows others to
find their personal paths to knowledge.
3. The emerging 21st century professional
occupation addressing the needs of the
age focused upon clarity, human
understanding and the science of the
organization of information



IA’s Are Always Seeking Patterns…
•



Maps
• Maps are one way connecting using the “virtual” to describe the
physical world



Charles Joseph Minard
• It took Charles Minard (1781-1870) to start thinking of using
maps to show more than just geography:



A Picture Can Contain a Thousand Words (If Done Right)
•

“It may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn” said Edward Tufte


A Good Book on (Visual) IA
• Minard’s map was
highlighted in Tufte’s
landmark book The Visual
Display of Quantitative
Information (1983)
• It was in turn absorbed and
referenced by a new
generation of UI designers,
leading to things like the
Macintosh Human Interface
Guidelines (1993), which
popularized UI ideas still
used today


What Does an Information Architect Do?
• Develops and communicates a holistic view of a Web site
or of the display of digital content
• Clarifies the mission and vision for a Web site/digital
content, balancing the needs of the organization and the
audience
• Designs a site/targeted content for a specific audience
concentrating on ease-of-use
• Determines what type of content (and for Web sites,
additional functions) is displayed/presented



Signs You Might Already Be an Information Architect ☺
• When looking at a web site, do menus that hold no meaning to you
whatsoever leave you in a bad mood?

• Do you find yourself running between the designers, the
programmers, the writers and the account executive trying to hold
a unified vision together?

• Do you leave a web site fuming when the words that are used to
describe sections have nothing to do with the content that is found
there?

• Do you feel that the important stuff in the web site you’re building is
somehow between the pages as well as on the pages?

• Ref: http://iainstitute.org/documents/learn/Am_I_an_IA.pdf


IA as a Synthesis of Disciplines
A good Information Architect is somebody who has
knowledge of the following disciplines:
• Psychology
• Usability Engineering
• Graphic Design
• Writing
• Marketing
• Content Structure/Strategy



The Types of Systems IAs Work With
• Organizational/structural systems: These constrain the
way content can be grouped.
• Labelling systems: Artifacts of taxonomies that determine
logical relations among content groups.
• Navigation systems: Provide a means of moving through
the site based on the scheme for the labelling.
• Search systems: Search, metadata, search engine
optimization.



Why is IA important?
• Users get lost and frustrated
• Loss of potential customers, members, sales
• Management
• Poorly architected Web sites/digital content are hard to
manage – changes take more time and cost more
• Inconsistent messaging
• Lack in the flexibility of growth



Why is IA important? (cont.)
Put another way, “where’s the pain?” (Louis Rosenfeld)
Pain can be manifested in:

• Lost time/productivity (e.g. Intranets)

• Bad impressions on customers, resulting in fewer sales

• Lower unit sales

• Fewer members registering or enrolling

• More marketing materials mailed out to explain/sell/bring
awareness to the things users should be finding on the Web site

• More offline support (i.e. calls to tech support) required



Why is IA important? (cont.)
• It is a foundation for great Web/content design
• It is the blueprint upon which all other aspects of the
site/content structure is built: form, function, metaphor,
navigation, interface, interaction and implementation of
business rules
• Creates a visual representation of all business rules (Web)



Is There ROI from IA?
• The answer seems to be “yes” but it is hard to nail down
the specifics:
• A Forrester report suggest that 42% of online
purchasers made their most recent purchase because of
previous good experience with the retailer
• Buyers give up on two-thirds of shopping attempts



One Commonly Told Story of I.A. Effectiveness
• Skechers redesign of their Web site helped increase sales
more than 400%
• But is that the whole story?
• No. The redesign was done immediately before the
Christmas shopping season.

• In the end, do not take such stories at face value



Audience Reach
“There are more than a billion users on the Internet, so
any site that has less than ten million customers (in
other words, almost any site) has not tapped into 99
percent of the potential audience”.
Jakob Nielsen/Hoa Loranger, 2006



Notice Any Similarity in the Following?
“There are 1 billion users on the internet and half of
them could come to your site. If the average cost of
an abandoned shopping cart is $20 you will lose
$10 billion a year in sales of your designer pet food.”
Daniel Rosenberg: www.baychi.org/calendar/20031014/

While the statement from previous slide is mathematically true, other
factors (such as market segment targeted, focus audience,
language, geography, etc) effectively act as a constraint on your
total audience.

So, beware of “voodoo economics” when it comes to IA.



Seven Myths of Usability ROI
1. Generalization is valid
2. Calculation of ROI from the Producer Perspective
3. You Can Ignore Other Factors
4. Analog Comparisons are Not Required
5. All Usability Dollars are Spent Effectively
6. Executives Will Believe Voodoo Economics
7. UE Resources will Reduce the Software Schedule



Seven Myths of Usability ROI (Cont.)
1. Generalization is valid: “a user interface typically has
around 40 flaws that can slow users and lead to errors”.
Hardware? Software? Web? Not all interfaces will have 40
flows.
2. Calculation of ROI from the Producer Perspective: “the
average annual bill for supporting a PC is $13,000.” In
practice companies want market share and do not care
about reducing the cost for the consumer.



3. You can ignore other factors: “revenue increase 80% for
the new version, and usability was cited as the second
most significant improvement.” So what the #1 reason?
(Doubling the size of the sales force?)
4. Analog comparisons are valid: “there was a loss of
approximately 50% of potential sales from the site as
people can't find stuff.” Do you buy something each and
every time you go into a bricks-and-mortar store?



5. All usability dollars are spent effectively: devilishly hard to
measure value of usability in isolation; effective marketing
likely provides bigger bang for the buck.
6. Executives will believe voodoo economics: see Jakob
Nielsen/Hoa Loranger's “Audience Reach” quoted earlier.
Executives know better (or at least good ones do).
7. UE Resources will reduce the software schedule: As a
general rule, new processes tend to increase the time to
market.



Caveats Regarding Usability
• What studies are out there tend to be incomplete or without related
business variables (“all crap” - Rosenberg)
• Ultimately usability is one variable of overall “product design”,
which includes:
• Features
• Performance
• Cost
• Reliability
• Usability

• A successful product or Web site ultimately depends on all of these
factors



I.A. Deliverables (Web)
• Content Inventory (“Content Survey”, “Content Audit”)

• Competitive Analysis

• Usability/Accessibility analysis/recommendations

• Personas (“User Profile”)

• User Scenarios (“Use Case”, “Task Analysis”, “User Flow”)

• Sitemap (“Site Hierarchy Map”, “Site Diagram”, “Blueprint”)

• Wireframes (“Page Architecture”, “Page Schematic”)

• Style Guide

The items in blue are the subjects covered in Part 1 of the Information Architecture
course, and the rest are covered in the Part 2 sessions of the Information
Architecture class.


Three Circles of IA



What’s in a Name…

• Often you will find many combinations of these
“buzzwords” used to describe a job function, or a particular
approach to IA, but in fact the roles often have a large
overlap



Speaking about Jobs…
Go to:
www.workopolis.com
or www.monster.ca
and do a search on
“Information
Architect”



Approaches to Information Architecture
• IA is still very much a developing discipline, and there are a
number of theoretical approaches to the subject, including the
following:
• “Bad” Web Sites
• Patterns/Patterning
• Content Management
• User-Centric Approach

Overall trend is to incorporate and formalize aspects of all of these that
prove to be useful from a practical perspective.



“Bad” Web Sites
• Vincent Flanders is the main proponent
of this approach
(www.webpagesthatsuck.com and
www.youtube.com/user/vincentflanders)
• Basic idea is to look at “bad” Web sites
and look at why they fail
• Not a prescriptive approach; and
therefore limited in applicability; doesn’t
say what is good about “good design”,
focuses solely on the bad
• Can serve as good counter-examples
• Notable that some User Centric
advocates lean towards this approach,
though use it as a stepping-stone to
improving UI design



Some Recent Examples
• bearflagwine.com
• pandminc.com
• The term “mystery-meat
navigation” came from
him
• Sites serve as good
examples of what not to
do, but do not tell you
what you should do
(other than “don’t do
this”)
• 2012 nominees:
webpagesthatsuck.com/
worst-websites-of-2012-
overview.html


Another Approach for “Bad vs. Good” (Providing the “Why”)
• Edward R. Tufte's Visual
Explanations (available from:
www.edwardtufte.com)

• More a book on visual design
than anything else, but contains
many good lessons for people
looking to architect the display of
information

• His work has proven to be very
influential in many fields,
including IA



“Bad” Example



“Bad” Example (cont.)

• Full example of the slide (which includes titles/captions)


“Good” (or at least “Better”) Example

• Example from www.asktog.com/books/challengerExerpt.html

• Point of all this is: if you can convey useful information in a glance,
do so


Information is Beautiful

A good site for inspiration on visualizing information: www.informationisbeautiful.net

Good TED talk by David McCandless (host of the “Information is Beautiful” site):
www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html
(or bit.ly/tTng06)


User-Centric Design (a.k.a. Usability Design)
•Best known proponent is Jakob
Nielsen, Ph.D.
Web site: www.nngroup.com
His books:
• Designing Web Usability: The
Practice of Simplicity (2000)
• Homepage Usability: 50
Websites Deconstructed (2001)
• Prioritizing Web Usability
(2006)
• Eyetracking Research (2009)
• Mobile Usability (2012)



The User-Centric Approach
• Two main principles (first
stated in Designing Web
Usability):
• Web users want to find the
info they want easily.

• If they don’t know what they
want, users still want to
browse quickly and access
the info they come across in
a logical manner.



The User-Centric Approach and “Patterning”
• Christopher Alexander is an
architect who initiated an
approach to architectural
thinking that formulated a set of
rules, called “patterns”.

• Each "pattern" represents a
rule governing one working
piece of a complex system,
and the application of pattern
languages can be done
systematically.

• Example: dining rooms work
best when they are adjacent to
a kitchen


Patterning and the Web
• Patterning takes a look at the
individual elements of GUI
design and “flows” of
information; produces a
better understanding of why
given elements on a page
work, and how to best use
them in novel situations

• The Design of Sites follows
these ideas; can be found on
Google Books



A Simple Pattern…
Action Buttons
• People know how to use three-
dimensional buttons in everyday
life

• This knowledge of the real world
is transferred over to the virtual
by the use of graphical user
interface buttons

• You can take advantage of this
knowledge by making important
buttons on your Web site appear
three-dimensional



So What Draws Your Eye the Most on This Page?
• www.ebay.ca Web
site, circa 2006
(image from
Wayback Machine)
• Take a look at it
today an look for the
3D elements there;
are they still
effective?



Content Management
• Main proponent is Ann
Rockley (an FIS graduate)

• Focus is not so much on Web
sites per se but any form of
content and how to manage it

• Information can be improved it
is broken down into its
constituent pieces, in a
process known as “chunking”

• Benefits user by providing
more clear information,
provider by providing a
usable, common framework


Managed Content: Key Ideas
• “single sourcing” – create/store/manage reusable content
to be deployed to many different sources i.e. Web,
manuals, marketing info, etc
• Information is “chunked” into its constituent parts (i.e.
concepts and procedures)
• Items should be able to stand on their own
• Organization is inherent in content, and the CM process
helps make organizing it explicit



Content Management Flow

• Taken from a Rockley presentation (now offline)



Content Strategy
A more recent offshoot from Content
Management, which concentrates on how
providing content to users, and how
corporations can get the most value out of
information

• There is a split between a marketing- and
a more content management-related
focus of this term

• “Content strategy plans for the
creation, publication, and governance
of useful, usable content.” Kristina
Halvorson

• “…content strategy is all about the
why and how and content marketing
is what you actually deliver – the
tools, techniques, channels and
content types” Michael Brenner



Key IA Online Information Sources
• Boxes and Arrows: www.boxesandarrows.com
(arguably the site on current practices in I.A.)
• Jakob Neilsen's site: www.useit.com
• Information Architecture Resources: www.jjg.net/ia
• Peter Morville's I.A. site: www.findability.org
• Information Architecture Institute:
www.iainstitute.org
• xBlog: www.xplane.com/xblog/
• Dan Brown’s GreenOnions.com:
blog.greenonions.com
• Jeffrey Veen’s Blog: www.veen.com/jeff/



Some Words of Wisdom…
• If you remember nothing else from this course, remember
this:

“Information architecture is an iterative process.”

• In other words, don’t expect to necessarily get it right the
first time. Good IA is a process; it is never static.



An example of this from the software GUI world…

A more recent (2009) iteration of the CCC software

• “Almost final” refers to the initial public release of the software

• It is easily up to +60 iterations now

Information Architecture - Part 1 - Spring 2013 - Class 1

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