Collaborative Information Architecture

“ There’s no I in team” A case study in collaborative information architecture OZ-IA, Sydney September 2007 Patrick Kennedy, Step Two Designs

Information architecture can be hard enough, but what if you and your team have no experience?

Collaborative information architecture
Information architecture can be hard enough
But what if…
you and your team have no experience?
that team is new and still bonding?
your organisation expects prompt solutions?
hiring a team of experts is out of the question?
What if all of these were the case?

A quick agenda
Collaborative information architecture
Mentoring in a teamwork situation
Case study for the redesign of a large website
Some discussion around your experiences

Introducing ESA, a government agency with many departments and a lot of information to share!

The organisation
ESA is an Australian Commonwealth government agency that deals with scientific data
Many divisions or departments, fairly independent
Coordination is improving but website reflects silos
They knew there was probably a better way of doing it
Ownership and responsibility for website are being resolved
There was no formal team for the website redesign
They recognised there was little knowledge of the audience

The website reflected ESA, and had grown out of control, and the skills to fix it didn’t exist

The website
Large information-rich website
approximately 20,000 pages
many tools and applications
Been through several design iterations in the past
The website has grown out of control
Technical side of website taken care of
But few skills in UCD and IA
Major redevelopment initiated, including the IA

The team assembled for the project was newly formed and relatively inexperienced

The team
Newly formed
Little experience in working together
Staff from different parts of ESA
Multidisciplinary
Varying levels of experience in web design and IA
First coordinated effort at website redesign
Limited resources available
Reasonable pressure to complete work quickly

A mentoring arrangement
There was a limited budget for project
Recognition of the need for ongoing development
Desire to build up skills of team
Thus hesitation to rely on outsourcing
But needed to make progress, with best results
Mentoring was the chosen solution

Project outline

Methodology
IA was part of a much larger web project
Two distinct phases existed:
research
design
Still a work in progress

User research was a key part of the process…

Research
Many different sources of ‘data’ were used
But there was a focus on direct user research
Understanding audience needs was our goal:
Who are they?
What do they do?
How do they interact with ESA?
What do they use the website for?
Interviews were our primary research mechanism and revealed a great deal of information

… and a new audience model was developed

Research activities
Activities included:
stakeholder interviews
end-user interviews
log analysis
audience segmentation
follow-up survey
After a bit of hesitation the ESA team quickly picked up these techniques

Then the design process began in earnest…

Design
Focus on findability in the resulting website
Attempt to handle diverse audience needs
Activities included:
content inventory
card sorting
design sessions
usability testing
The audience model was used to guide the process
For a novice, this is the hardest bit

Work in progress
The project is still ongoing
Next steps include:
refinement of IA design
visual design
electronic prototyping
further usability testing
Then the project moves beyond the IA

Collaboration and mentoring

Collaboration can get messy but is essential for good analysis and design

Collaboration
As much as possible was done collaboratively
Collaboration made use of:
whiteboards
post-it notes
flipcharts
sheets of paper
many emails
scribbling and sketching
Activities were conducted by pairs, small groups, and in some cases the full team
Where necessary, sub-groups reported back to the whole team to keep everyone informed

Mentoring philosophy
The mentoring included…
Starting with the broad concepts and then narrowing in
Providing some instruction but quickly putting the team into action, practicing what they had learnt
Instilling confidence, such that they could do the IA work but also gain traction within the rest of the organisation
Encouraging discussion amongst team members
A gradual shift from training sessions to workshops

Source of inspiration
Principles from The Tao of Coaching by Max Landsberg were used to guide mentoring
For example:
Resist the temptation to tell, instead asking questions to prompt further thought
Coaching and mentoring are not just beneficial for recipient
Assessing the skill and will of team members

Training workshops
Project and personal goal-setting
Overall web design process
Qualitative methods for user research
Qualitative analysis techniques
Survey design and implementation
Audience segmentation and persona development
Card sorting and usability testing

Teaching aids
The team was provided with instructional material
They were also directed to a few key books:
The User is Always Right – Steve Mulder
Don’t Make Me Think – Steve Krug
Communicating Design – Dan Brown
The IA methodology was based on their content
This allowed team to ‘read along’ as they learnt
And it gave them more ammunition for later
Additionally, there were a number of blogs and sites

Challenges

Challenges and issues
Coordinating a new team
Inexperienced practitioners
Wider organisational issues
Virtual mentoring

Trying to assemble and a coordinate a new team was difficult at times…

Coordinating a new team
The team had little experience in working together
Multidisciplinary team brought together from all over ESA
Much time spent discussing and clarifying, beneficial within collaborative design projects
It took time to bed the team down and begin working effectively
Few team members were on the project 100%, struggle for time
Team members came and went, reducing continuity and momentum
Attempts were made to record discussions to share with absentees
Eventually, the team was whittled down to a core group of keen individuals

… especially with inexperienced practitioners trying to find their way…

Inexperienced practitioners
Team members had little or no experience in IA and UCD
Understanding a large and diverse audience is not easy
And the organisation has little experience in this area
There is little coordination of the collective knowledge regarding their clients
Similarly, designing a large and complex website is not trivial
Hence the last few ‘failed’ attempts to redesign the website
Thus, the time taken for the project surpassed expectations

… and wider organisational issues put more pressure on the team…

Wider organisational issues
There was pressure from other parts of ESA
Keeping to the larger project plan proved difficult
This highlighted the unrealistic expectations of time required
Was also a tendency to bite off more than they could chew
Neither of these are uncommon situations
Additionally the team needed to be able to explain themselves
Part of the solution was instilling confidence in the team
Another aspect was providing them with useful deliverables (eg creating different documentation for different circumstances; conceptual wireframe for management vs high-detail wireframe for implementation)

… and adding to the pressure was the fact that the mentor was inter-state

Virtual mentoring
Limited face-to-face contact between mentor and team
ESA is located in Canberra and Step Two Designs in Sydney
Trips were reserved for training sessions and workshops
Additional discussion made use of phone and email
Less than ideal, ultimately it proved successful
ESA team were all geographically close

Benefits and limitations

Benefits and limitations
User-centred design
Collaborative teamwork
Mentoring

User-centred design will improve the website, making it more useful to the audience…

User-centred design
A clear understanding of who will be using the website allows it to be designed more effectively
Few people argued with taking a UCD approach
In addition to improving the website, this work is likely to increase the level of knowledge about clients throughout ESA
Personas have already been earmarked for use beyond web design, communicating ESA’s audience and their goals etc
But UCD does take more time up front than ‘expert design’

… and working as a team is much better than working on your own…

Collaborative teamwork
“Two heads are better than one”
Intellectual teamwork compensates for the limitations and biases of any one individual
Better discussions result and the design is improved
‘Vigorous’ and circular discussions seem counterproductive but contribute to the problem solving by helping participants develop their ideas
The team forged bonds across departmental boundaries
But collaboration also takes longer than working solo

… particularly when you have someone to turn to for assistance

Mentoring
Mentoring builds the skills of the team whilst allowing progress
Practical skills and team confidence are developed earlier than
Contractors and consultants are expensive and leave the team without the skills to maintain and further develop the website
Trying to ‘learn then do’ takes much longer and risks quality
But mentoring requires a good relationship to form
And it is up to the mentorees to do the bulk of the work, seen as a risk by other parts of the organisation
Additionally, mentoring requires mentor availability

Conclusion

Conclusions
A new team can successfully collaborate on complex design activities in which they have little expertise, with the help of a mentor
Collaboration results in better thinking and better design
Organisational pressures need to be addressed early
Expectations must be suitably set; UCD takes considerable time, and learning as you go increases the time even further
In terms of collaboration and UCD, this was ESA’s first time and there is little doubt they will get better at both
Mentoring is not necessarily the same as training
Mentors end up talking a lot; but being able to ask questions is possibly the most valuable part from the team’s perspective
An ‘in house’ mentor would have been much more effective

So why are they so unpopular?

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

References
Brown, D., Communicating Design : Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning , New Riders, 2007
Kennedy, P., Squiggles help find personas , 2007. Online at: www.gurtle.com/ppov/2007/06/14/squiggles-help-find-personas/
Krug, S., Don’t Make Me Think : A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2nd ed), Macmillan, 2006
Landsberg, M., The Tao of Coaching : Boost your effectiveness at work by inspiring and developing those around you , Profile, 2003
Maurer, D., Card Based Classification Evaluation , Step Two Designs, 2003. Online at: www.steptwo.com.au/papers/ext_cardbased/
Maurer, D., Card sorting analysis spreadsheet , Maadmob Interaction Design, 2007. Online at: www.maadmob.net/donna/blog/archives/000760.html
Mulder, S., Yaar, Z., The User Is Always Right : A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web , New Riders, 2007

Collaborative Information Architecture

by Patrick Kennedy on Sep 21, 2007

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Collaborative Information Architecture — Presentation Transcript