Best Practice Information Architecture

Best practice Information Architecture Open Publish, Sydney 2 nd August 2007 Patrick Kennedy, Step Two Designs

A short agenda
‘Needs based’ information architecture
Whatever 2.0
(All in roughly 30 minutes!)

An introduction to needs based IA

What is information architecture?
A partial definition:
“ The art and science of organizing and labelling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability” (aifia.org)
Structuring content and system so people can find information
It involves designing:
Navigation
Labelling
Taxonomies, thesauri, indexes

Tools and techniques
Site maps
Wireframes
Card sorting
Usability testing for validation

But how do you get it right?

[notes]
Designing anything based on your own preferences and biases is not the best approach
Getting it right means understanding the problem at hand as well as knowing your audience
This goes beyond usability, it’s about delivering useful solutions
We often don’t fully understand the problem…

For example, we’re given a job to implement a call centre intranet…

[notes]
Call centres are fascinating places to practice IA
We’ve done much of this kind of work

This is actually one of the main sources of information for staff…

[notes]
The core information they need is what allows them to handle the call
Much of the knowledge is already known
But rapidly changing or crucially important information need to be on hand, such as:
interest rates
stock prices
Product specifications
A variety of methods are used for this stuff

… as are these documents, sitting on every desk

[notes]
Insurance policies
Terms and conditions of a loan
Quite detailed
Not frequently referred to
But hold the answers to the really challenging calls

These documents were actually the big problem for staff

[notes]
Especially old versions going back in time
Not usually handled by current system
May pre-date electronic production
So perhaps not easily put on the intranet
And who’s to say that would even be the best solution?

Email was the other big source of pain…

[notes]
To compensate for inadequacies in other systems
Email was used to store notes, memos, revisions, updated versions, tips and knowledge from others
Email is not well designed to handle this content
Locked away, not shared or consistently organised
The thing is, to effectively handle calls, operators need to bring to bear all the information and knowledge
If they can’t find it, they either can’t help or make up

The key is researching user needs.

[notes]
In this case, the issues were not well understood by the organisations management
The stated problem was that the intranet needed to be redesigned
Didn’t know
Information was hard to find
Staff weren’t happy
Our research uncovered the underlying issues and allowed the problem to be better defined
So what process was used?

Needs analysis

What is needs analysis?
Researching what users really need
Stop, look and listen
Talking to your colleagues!
A holistic approach
Taking the broader context into account
Thinking outside the box
Asking a ‘bigger’ question
AKA: design research, user research, ethnography

Typical IA methodology

Needs based IA methodology

[notes]
So a typical project might look like this
But what we’ve found is that doing some work before this produces better results
So the needs analysis can inform the strategy and user research

Key principles

Is the identified problem the symptom or the cause?

[notes]
For example, in the call centre scenario from earlier, the stated problem was the intranet needed to be redesigned
But this was a symptom not the cause

Our methodologies often assume that organisations work like this…

… whereas they are much more like this in reality

Needs analysis is ethnographic, focusing on activities and environments

[notes]
It involves people
People will be using the solution you design, so they need to be included in defining the problem
As well as assessing potential solutions

You can’t deliver effective solutions to people you haven’t personally met

[notes]
Compiling a huge requirements specification is not enough
If you haven’t met with and talked to people who are at the heart of the problem and whom will use the solution you deliver

There are no shortage of problems to be solved…

[notes]
What often happens is people attempt to “boil the ocean”
This can be a major problem, as projects become so big and resource-intensive that nothing ever gets delivered
A good example is the redesign of large websites
It’s better to focus on small but effective solutions, the cumulative effect is a much improved situation for users of the system

… but the real challenge is knowing where to start

[notes]
The answer is you start with needs analysis

How to do needs analysis

In the trenches, you will learn many things…

What you will learn
Goals – what are they trying to achieve?
Behaviours – how do they go about it?
Attitudes – what do they think and how do they react?
Tasks – what is it they need to get done?
Official and unofficial processes
Unmet needs – potential goals for your solution
Relationships – how are they affected by others?
Corporate culture – what is the norm?
Environment – in what context will they use your solution?

… but not everything will be directly relevant

[notes]
Not everything will be relevant to a project
Don’t worry !
All goes towards a better understanding of the people involved
The context in which they use a system can be vitally important, if not translated into a design

Some needs analysis tips and tricks

Technique
Employ ethnographic methods
Use one-on-one interviews as a basis
Plain old observation can be very enlightening
Personas can be useful in illustrating your users
Make use of narrative to elicit real-life scenarios
Capture quotes and sound-bites
Use a ‘blended’ approach
Get richer: ride-along, interrupt observation

Things to avoid
‘Design by committee’ – don’t ask what they want
They aren’t designers, but you are
Don’t focus on technology or the ‘product’
Focus on actual end-users, not intermediaries
Keep it positive – avoid ‘whinge sessions’

Related techniques
Card sorting
Usability testing
Log analysis, statistics
Time and motion studies
Role playing

What about…?
Questionnaires
Surveys
Focus groups
Market research
Time and motion studies
Cultural probes
They’re all related and do tend to overlap
Use whatever combination works best for you

How much research?
As with usability testing, ethnographic research tends to obey the law of diminishing returns
We’re not after all the issues, just the key issues
A good rule of thumb is 15 people per audience segment
We typically do 5 days of interviews, some contextual inquiry, plus data analysis

How much research?
We’re not trying to get statistically significant data
We want to learn about people; how they do their job, how they get things done, how they use the product in question
Use successive layers of research for big projects
Go into more detail with each round of research
But, more research equals more analysis !

Cross pollinate skills between disciplines

Cross pollination of skills
“Two heads are better than one”
Learn from each other, collaborate
Multidisciplinary teams work better
Expertise might be found where you least expect it (similar to the ‘long tail’ effect)
Mentoring or a partnership may be effective

Whatever 2.0

The bells and whistles of Web 2.0

A very short blurb on Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is the latest round of innovation on the internet
This is fundamentally changing the nature of how the web works
From publishing content to the ‘read-write web’
Ajax provides a framework for interaction
Web services and API form the basis for ‘small pieces loosely joined’, mash-ups
A lot of activity, a lot of money being invested

There seem to be two types of 2.0; there’s the ‘social web’ phenomenon…

The ‘social web’
Blogs
Wikis
Photo sharing
Social bookmarking
Folksonomies

… and the Rich Internet Application (RIA)

The ‘Rich Internet Applications’
Flash and Ajax powered
Real-time (asynchronous) interaction
Replacing the page model of the web
Can hide some rough edges from users
And of course, you can combine social web and RIA

Exemplars
Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/shingen_au/
Del.icio.us http://del.icio.us/
Google Maps (and the rest of Google) www.google.com/local
37 signals www.37signals.com

What about this new breed of business tools?

A very short blurb on Enterprise 2.0
Enterprise 2.0 is about bringing the spirit of Web 2.0 to the corporate space
The same technologies can be used to create radically new ways of working and collaborating
Staff will be finally given the opportunity to directly contribute, rather than being just passive consumers
Lots of exciting technologies: wikis, blogs, folksonomies (tag clouds), mash-ups, portals
‘ Software as a service’ is also a key element

Exemplars
3,000 internal blogs at IBM www.nevon.net/nevon/2005/06/now_3600_intern.html
Dogear at IBM acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=344&page=1
Peers at AvenueA|Razorfish blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2004/11/avenue_arazorfi.html
Corporate wiki and blogging software

The danger with Whatever 2.0
Much experimentation is going on
Some real benefits are being delivered
The social web typically follows fads
Most RIA focus on superficial interface changes
Many gimmicks being added “because we can”
Are we returning to the bad old days ?
Agile methodologies multiply the problem
Constant state of beta may make us more reactive
It’s difficult to tell if true needs are being met

As featured in Bit Literacy by Mark Hurst

Gootodo.com
A simple yet effective to-do list application
Crafted around well researched user needs
Only those features that are useful have been built
Very clean and simple use of web 2.0

Caltex HR Service Centre

Caltex HR Service Centre
From Cairo Walker’s case study this morning
Goal: how to provide current payroll officers with the tools to answer a broad range of HR queries?
Extensive needs analysis was undertaken
HRSC staff, other HR team members, general staff
How did they go about doing their jobs? What did they do? What information did they use to do it? Where was it meant to be? Where did they really get it from?

Caltex: starting position
>58,000 documents stored in >6,200 folders
Duplicate copies, inconsistency, incorrect decisions and advice
Staff don’t know where to find information… even the experts don’t know where to look
Intranet, central content management, Dreamweaver

Caltex: the cunning plan
Everyone contributes, a ‘wiki’ approach is defined
Appoint knowledge custodians for all HRSC supported business processes (knowledge clusters are owned)
Knowledge custodians work with the business owner to ensure clusters are 100% correct

Courtesy: thisisbroken.com

LinkedIn Answers
A way for the community of LinkedIn users to ask questions and receive answers and feedback
Great concept as it fosters user collaboration
However, it’s misused , principally because they were no business rules put in place at the outset for the community to ‘limit’ or ‘govern’ the types of questions asked
The result? As opposed to the feature becoming a fascinating knowledge base and platform that benefits from the inherent internet ‘long tail’ - it has descended into a free-for-all for wannabes hawking their services and offerings at the expense of the original idea

YouTube
Wildly popular
But heavily criticised for user experience
In particular navigation and browsing

Needs analysis is a universal tool, to be used for any type of project, including Web 2.0

The fundamental principles still apply
Find out what your users need and deliver it
The same techniques apply equally well to Web 2.0
Often hear:
If I add Web 2.0 will it make my site better?
If I add Web 2.0 does it make my site bad?
The right solution is technology agnostic
“Web 2.0 don’t kill sites, people kill sites”

The wrap-up

Rather than a fairly hit and miss approach…

In summary…
Often, people try to create a solution on their own
‘ Cookie cutter’ solutions won’t work (all the time)
Heuristics and conventions work for usability
But not for the useful side of things
Don’t just take a website that worked for someone else and build your site the same

… good needs analysis allows you to hit the mark

In summary…
A more informed decision is a better decision
One size does not fit all
There is no one solution for an information-rich site
Needs analysis is vital for effective design
Find out what will work for ‘you and yours’
Talk to people and come to terms with the whole problem space
Needs based IA applies equally well to new tech

Yes I know it’s past 5:00pm :-)

IA and UCD at Open Publish 2007
Understanding the user experience Russ Weakley – 11:15 tomorrow (Track A)
Information Architecture Ash Donaldson – 12:00 tomorrow (Track A)

Web 2.0 at Open Publish 2007
Enterprise 2.0 in practice Cairo Walker – 11:15 this morning (Track A)
Knowledge Management and Web 2.0 Matthew Moore – 10:15 tomorrow (Track A)
Web 2.0 the next generation platform Bahram Boutorabi – 10:15 tomorrow (Track B)
Marketing and Web 2.0 Cheryl Lead – 15:00 tomorrow (Track A)

Further reading (1 of 3)
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville ISBN: 0596000359
The Field Study Handbook Kate Gomoll, Ellen Story Church & Eric Bond (Available from www.uie.com)
Observing The User Experience Mike Kuniavsky ISBN: 1558609237

The User Is Always Right Steve Mulder & Ziv Yaar ISBN: 0321434536
Don’t Make Me Think Steve Krug ISBN: 0789723107
Information Anxiety 2 Richard Saul Wurman, David Sume, Loring Leifer ISBN: 0789724103

Boxes and Arrows www.boxesandarrows.com
User Interface Engineering (UIE) www.uie.com
Information architecture wiki www.iawiki.net
Step Two Designs www.steptwo.com.au/papers/

Questions?
Your feedback is most welcome
Patrick Kennedy [email_address]
Blog: www.gurtle.com/ppov/
Website: www.steptwo.com.au

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Best Practice Information Architecture

by Patrick Kennedy

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