2. introduction!

3. Run of the show
 5 mins x 7 presenters
 1 surprise check (!)
 1 in-class activity

4. Order of things
Introduction*
What is it?
What‟s new?
How‟s it done?
Activity
Discussion of the activity
Conclusion

5. What to pay attention to?
Another dimension to IA – Channels
Cross-channel heuristics for IA
 Place-making
 Consistency
 Resilience
 Reduction
 Correlation
The CHUbe - channel–heuristics–user tasks cube

6. If nothing else…
Pervasive IA & Findability
 Integrating multiple, separate interactions into one seamless
flow, thereby affording multiple ways to access information
 Quality of locating information across channels and
environments
Why Should You Care?
 Experiences are increasingly becoming cross-channel
(hybrid) in nature
 „Everyware‟ is here to stay: users expect information to be
available regardless of their situation (e.g., the activity)

7. Ambient findability?
Pervasive
information
architecture?
…
What ARE they?!

8. About Pervasive IA
 Move from separate channels to cross-channel
 Big picture requires all channels
 Multiple, separated interactions become one
seamless flow

9. About Ambient Findability
 Findability: quality of being findable
 Ambient Findability: quality of being findable across
channels and environments

10. Example, please.
 Meijer shopping experience:
 website
 email
 social media
 mobile app
 brick-and-mortar store
 Why is interaction seamless?
 Same IA is deployed across different channels

11. Why do we care?
 This is how things are!
 Trend = more channels
 Good PIA avoids frustrating experiences

13. Why do we care?
 Old IA deals with websites only
 Things have changed:
 Companies sell services and experiences
 Users become intermediaries
 Experience is hybrid
 Ease of use is not enough, people are shielding off
painful information

14. How is
pervasive
information
architecture
different and
better?

15. How is PIA different?
• It bridges the gap between the physical and digital.
• It‟s not just about labels, taxonomies or websites.
Now, it‟s about working with info to shape meaning
and purpose over many domains.

16. How is PIA different?
“ IAs have to have a little
We
more Wurman in our pockets
and move beyond the Polar
Bear book.
”

17. How is PIA better?
• Information architectures become ecosystems.
• Users become intermediaries.
• Static becomes dynamic.
• Product design becomes experience design across
different media.

18. More about
PIA heuristics
(directions, not
directives!)

19. PIA Heuristic 1: Place-making
Capability of Pervasive Information
Architecture to reduce disorientation and
increase legibility
• Reduce confusion
• Build a sense of place
• Increase wayfinding across environments

21. PIA Heuristic 2: Consistency
Capability of PIA to provide and sustain
internal and external, in-context, on-task
coherence
• To suit the purposes, contexts and people it is
designed for
• To maintain the same logic along different
media, environments and times in which it acts

22. Flipping image: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/23/flip-book-makes-a-
virtual_n_473869.html

24. PIA Heuristic 3: Resilience
Capability of PIA models to
shape and adapt themselves to specific
user needs and seeking strategies
• Support users in different contexts/places/times
• Support different seeking strategies
• Active or passive
• Direct or indirect
• Conscious or latent

27. PIA Heuristic 4: Reduction
The capability of PIA to minimize the
cognitive load and frustration associated
with choosing from vast information
sources, services, and goods.
• Does NOT reduce options
• Organize and cluster
• Focus and Magnify

30. PIA Heuristic 5: Correlation
Capability of PIA to suggest relevant
connections among pieces of information,
services, and goods to help users achieve
explicit goal.
• Creates continuity and discovery within one
channel AND across channels

32. How to apply
pervasive
information
architecture…

33. I. Overview

34. Understanding Applied Pervasive IA
• 2-D IA
• Vertical axis= hierarchical relationship
• Horizontal axis = semantic and contiguity relationships

35. What Makes Pervasive IA “Pervasive”?
• Moving to 3-D and even 4-D IA
• Third axis = multiple channels
• Time is the fourth dimension

36. What is the Recipe for Pervasive IA?

37. What is the Recipe for Pervasive IA?
• There isn‟t one. Sry :P

38. What is the Recipe for Pervasive IA?
• But don‟t worry…

39. II. Methodology

40. Step1: Identify the Channels
• Four common channels
• Paper: hard-copy, physical materials.
• Store: encompasses an area that requires way-finding
and physical movement for search.
• Web: an interface on a stable platform (e.g. laptop)
• Mobile: communication using mobile devices (e.g.
iPad, cell phone)
This is pervasive!

41. Step 2: List Heuristics + User Tasks
• Heuristics
o Place-making
o Consistency
o Resilience
o Reduction
o Correlation
• User Tasks
o Pieces of a scenario broken down into separate tasks

42. Step 3: Visualize
• Visualize in 2-D

43. Step 3: Visualize
• Visualize in 3-D: the CHUbe

44. Step 3: Visualize
• Visualize in 3-D: the CHUbe
• Why are there squares
missing?

45. Step 3: Visualize
• Visualize in 3-D: the CHUbe
• Why are there squares
missing?
o Heuristic not relevant…
− in the channel
− To the user task
− or does not exist in that channel

46. III. Example

47. How is it pervasive?

48. Step 1: What channels are involved?
• Store: The store itself
• Paper: Weekly flyer of special offers
• Web: Receiving emails about upcoming sales at the store,
browsing their online website
• Mobile: Using specific applications to browse through
items, look up coupons

49. Step 2: What task flows are involved?
Necessary for creating seamless user experience of
grocery shopping!

50. Step 2: What task flows are involved?
Necessary for creating seamless user experience of
grocery shopping!
1. Getting information about current products and offers
2. Building a shopping list
3. Getting to the supermarket
4. Parking the car
5. Fetching a cart
6. Navigating the shop
7. Finding products
8. Queuing and paying

51. Step 3: Identify Heuristics Involved
Heuristic: Place-making
• How do we make them feel at home?
• How could we help in way-finding?

52. Step 3: Identify Heuristics Involved
Place-making
Store Print Web Mobile
• Color codes • Respecting • Translate • In-store
• Addressing color codes physical navigation
different • Product layout to IA • Color codes
users placement • Use of • Premade
established paths
labels, etc • Contextual
information

53. Step 3: Identify Heuristics Involved
Heuristic: Consistency
• Internal consistency:
o Capability to provide coherent in-channel experience
o Adopting the right classification system
o Example: “Mixed” classification model:
− 1st level: hierarchical model
− 2nd level: faceted model
o Considering different styles of searching and different shopping
behaviors
• External consistency:
o Creates smooth transition from one channel to another
o Using same color codes, labels for mobile devices, store, web site

54. Step 3: Identify Heuristics Involved
Heuristic: Consistency
• These allow us to address several mental models
simultaneously
• In the supermarket…
o Supporting consistent logic within the supermarket
o Using a mobile app to inform physical wayfinding

55. Step 3: Identify Heuristics Involved
Heuristic: Resilience
• Main Idea: Reshape places in real-time
o How do we allow different paths?
o Encourage berry-picking: “Relevant [information] tends to be
scattered, [and] users move fluidly between search and browse
modes, relying on strategies including footnote chasing, area
scanning, and citation, subject and author searching” (AF p.59).

56. Step 3: Identify Heuristics Involved
Resilience
Store Print Web Mobile
• More than • Customize • Provide
one path experience histories
• Allow • Store user • Suggest
shortcuts preferences missing
products

57. Step 3: Identify Heuristics Involved
Heuristic: Reduction
• “A set of strategies to address such an issue and has
nothing to do with getting rid of choices: reduction is an
organizational and presentational guideline”
• Focus and zoom:
o reduces the paradox of choice
o Directs attention to only a small subset of choices
• Magnify:
o View details after selecting choice
o Reduces cognitive load

58. Step 3: Identify Heuristics Involved
Reduction
Store Print Web Mobile
• Use • Relevant • Provide full • Mobile moves
meaningful information catalog but with the
clusters only offer customer
• Link to other information in • No need to
channels for context include
additional info “currently
unavailable”
items

59. Step 3: Identify Heuristics Involved
Heuristic: Correlation
Who does it?
• Top-down (information architects)
• Correlations between items of same facet
• Bottom-up (users) :
• “If you like a and b, we suggest c”
Where is it?
• Internal
• Paths for vegan food
• Correlation between customers
• External
• Searching for an item online and finding it in the supermarket

60. Step 4: Visualize the Info Architecture
Create a CHU Table

61. Step 4: Visualize the Info Architecture

62. Activity Time!

63. First…
Raise them hands! Count
off, 1 through 5!

64. Task
Imagine that you were hired to make tourist
experiences for a city with monsters at its edge of
town. These monsters were dangerous and
sometimes killed people, but the townspeople have
learned to live with them and now want to use this as
their main tourist attraction.
Design cross-channel experiences while taking
the “Place-making” heuristic into consideration.
You have 20 minutes. Go!

65. Conclusion
We‟ve said a lot…
Let‟s just make sure that you‟ve got it.

66. So, What‟d We Do Here?
 Introduction
 What is it?
 What‟s new?
 How is it done?
 How is it done even better?
 You did it!
 Discussion
 Conclusion

67. Key Takeaways
 Pervasive IA & Findability: What?
 Why Should You Care?
 IT‟S THE FUTURE…

68. Q&A
Any questions?

69. Thank You!