Designing Rules ~ IA Summit 2009
by Daniel Brown
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In designing transactional and content-rich web sites, rules provide an underlying structure that governs the experience: what is displayed, when it’s displayed, and how it responds to user actions. ...
In designing transactional and content-rich web sites, rules provide an underlying structure that governs the experience: what is displayed, when it’s displayed, and how it responds to user actions. Web design today is at an important crossroads: more complex technologies offer a greater range of features and functions, which permit more elaborate experiences.
The depth of these systems means that information architects no longer design structures with specific pieces of content in mind, but instead have to design structures around classifications, categories, and abstractions. In conjunction with these so-called “objects,” information architects must consider the rules that govern their appearance, display, and response to users.
This session introduces a framework for thinking about rules, providing a vocabulary and taxonomy of rules where none has previously existed.
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What kind of person you should be
Means for living with other humans.
Subjects like: Human behavior, Small business
Toys like: Thomas trains
Not that it picked things I’m interested in, but of all the things I’m interested in, it picked these.
Subjects like: Human behavior, Small business
Toys like: Thomas trains
Not that it picked things I’m interested in, but of all the things I’m interested in, it picked these.
Subjects like: Human behavior, Small business
Toys like: Thomas trains
Not that it picked things I’m interested in, but of all the things I’m interested in, it picked these.
Subjects like: Human behavior, Small business
Toys like: Thomas trains
Not that it picked things I’m interested in, but of all the things I’m interested in, it picked these.
▼
What is a rule?
plainview.files.wordpress.com—moses1.jpg
•Wireframe: what goes on the screen
•Rule: how the screen changes in different circumstances
•CORE IDEA:
•Not quite: while rules are crucial for \"driving\" the user experience, they aren't the heartbeat
or the central nervous system. Rules also are not a single cohesive system with lots of
moving parts. Rules are applied here and there as necessary.
Rules make use of the language of a web site without defining it.
•Not quite: while rules provide direction, rules aren't linear instructions -- they feel more like
mechanisms for selecting ingredients
Rules must apply in specific situations with clear criteria regarding presentation. The metaphor breaks down quickly.
I can use the same recipe when I want to make a dish.
Different circumstances call for different rules.
Doesn’t help us understand rules.
•Help us make choices about what's seen and how we see it
•Director: overall experience
•Actor: content itself
Editor crafts one aspect of the experience: within the format of the medium and the parameters of the director’s vision, we get the editor
Editor: starts with piles of footage, pulls out the stuff that works best
We’ll consider some other metaphors later
For now, let’s see how rules fit into IA
•Templates: How content is arranged on the screen
•Navigation and classification: How people find content
•Content Types: set of content structures that give us a meaningful language for talking about the range of information on the site (functional content types vs. format content types)
•Rules: they're what stitch the experience together, like an editor
▼Why IAs should care about rules
•Rules are germane to the user experience
•IA work gets more abstract: talking about contnet in terms of it’s type
•IA needs a way to integrate real-world \"instances\" into abstract structures
•Rules are, in a sense, a structure that governs the implementation of content, that bridge the gap between the abstract structures we create to form context (Hinton) and the way those structures are populated
•They describe how everything fits together
Small amount of literature on this stuff: I struggled to find any thinking on the mechanisms behind the display, as related to user experience.
Rules govern different aspects of the user experience: Content.
•Templates: How content is arranged on the screen
•Navigation and classification: How people find content
•Content Types: set of content structures that give us a meaningful language for talking about the range of information on the site (functional content types vs. format content types)
•Rules: they're what stitch the experience together, like an editor
▼Why IAs should care about rules
•Rules are germane to the user experience
•IA work gets more abstract: talking about contnet in terms of it’s type
•IA needs a way to integrate real-world \"instances\" into abstract structures
•Rules are, in a sense, a structure that governs the implementation of content, that bridge the gap between the abstract structures we create to form context (Hinton) and the way those structures are populated
•They describe how everything fits together
Small amount of literature on this stuff: I struggled to find any thinking on the mechanisms behind the display, as related to user experience.
Rules govern different aspects of the user experience: Content.
•Templates: How content is arranged on the screen
•Navigation and classification: How people find content
•Content Types: set of content structures that give us a meaningful language for talking about the range of information on the site (functional content types vs. format content types)
•Rules: they're what stitch the experience together, like an editor
▼Why IAs should care about rules
•Rules are germane to the user experience
•IA work gets more abstract: talking about contnet in terms of it’s type
•IA needs a way to integrate real-world \"instances\" into abstract structures
•Rules are, in a sense, a structure that governs the implementation of content, that bridge the gap between the abstract structures we create to form context (Hinton) and the way those structures are populated
•They describe how everything fits together
Small amount of literature on this stuff: I struggled to find any thinking on the mechanisms behind the display, as related to user experience.
Rules govern different aspects of the user experience: Content.
•Templates: How content is arranged on the screen
•Navigation and classification: How people find content
•Content Types: set of content structures that give us a meaningful language for talking about the range of information on the site (functional content types vs. format content types)
•Rules: they're what stitch the experience together, like an editor
▼Why IAs should care about rules
•Rules are germane to the user experience
•IA work gets more abstract: talking about contnet in terms of it’s type
•IA needs a way to integrate real-world \"instances\" into abstract structures
•Rules are, in a sense, a structure that governs the implementation of content, that bridge the gap between the abstract structures we create to form context (Hinton) and the way those structures are populated
•They describe how everything fits together
Small amount of literature on this stuff: I struggled to find any thinking on the mechanisms behind the display, as related to user experience.
Rules govern different aspects of the user experience: Content.
•Templates: How content is arranged on the screen
•Navigation and classification: How people find content
•Content Types: set of content structures that give us a meaningful language for talking about the range of information on the site (functional content types vs. format content types)
•Rules: they're what stitch the experience together, like an editor
▼Why IAs should care about rules
•Rules are germane to the user experience
•IA work gets more abstract: talking about contnet in terms of it’s type
•IA needs a way to integrate real-world \"instances\" into abstract structures
•Rules are, in a sense, a structure that governs the implementation of content, that bridge the gap between the abstract structures we create to form context (Hinton) and the way those structures are populated
•They describe how everything fits together
Small amount of literature on this stuff: I struggled to find any thinking on the mechanisms behind the display, as related to user experience.
Rules govern different aspects of the user experience: Content.
•Templates: How content is arranged on the screen
•Navigation and classification: How people find content
•Content Types: set of content structures that give us a meaningful language for talking about the range of information on the site (functional content types vs. format content types)
•Rules: they're what stitch the experience together, like an editor
▼Why IAs should care about rules
•Rules are germane to the user experience
•IA work gets more abstract: talking about contnet in terms of it’s type
•IA needs a way to integrate real-world \"instances\" into abstract structures
•Rules are, in a sense, a structure that governs the implementation of content, that bridge the gap between the abstract structures we create to form context (Hinton) and the way those structures are populated
•They describe how everything fits together
Small amount of literature on this stuff: I struggled to find any thinking on the mechanisms behind the display, as related to user experience.
Rules govern different aspects of the user experience: Content.
•Templates: How content is arranged on the screen
•Navigation and classification: How people find content
•Content Types: set of content structures that give us a meaningful language for talking about the range of information on the site (functional content types vs. format content types)
•Rules: they're what stitch the experience together, like an editor
▼Why IAs should care about rules
•Rules are germane to the user experience
•IA work gets more abstract: talking about contnet in terms of it’s type
•IA needs a way to integrate real-world \"instances\" into abstract structures
•Rules are, in a sense, a structure that governs the implementation of content, that bridge the gap between the abstract structures we create to form context (Hinton) and the way those structures are populated
•They describe how everything fits together
Small amount of literature on this stuff: I struggled to find any thinking on the mechanisms behind the display, as related to user experience.
Rules govern different aspects of the user experience: Content.
•Conditional Display Rules -- Whether to show the box
•Filtering Rules -- What content to show in the box
▼Responsibility -- who controls the content
•Editorial Guidelines vs. Application Logic: rules followed by humans vs. rules implemented
by a system
▼Examples
•
cooksillustrated.com
Strong editorial influence here. Decisions that in other media might be left up to humans, we leave up to the machine, But we provide a set of guidelines to make sure it chooses wisely.
For cooks, you can imagine the range of considerations: latest, magazine, theme, categories
(Aside: tools for helping content editors do their jobs better)
•Conditional Display Rules -- Whether to show the box
•Filtering Rules -- What content to show in the box
▼Responsibility -- who controls the content
•Editorial Guidelines vs. Application Logic: rules followed by humans vs. rules implemented
by a system
▼Examples
•
cooksillustrated.com
Strong editorial influence here. Decisions that in other media might be left up to humans, we leave up to the machine, But we provide a set of guidelines to make sure it chooses wisely.
For cooks, you can imagine the range of considerations: latest, magazine, theme, categories
(Aside: tools for helping content editors do their jobs better)
Rules that govern how people experience the information
Imagine you could say, in rooms of this type, always show 3 exits
•What menu options to display/facets
▼Examples
•
reviews.cnet.com—mp3-players
•
reviews.cnet.com—digital-cameras
•What menu options to display/facets
▼Examples
•
reviews.cnet.com—mp3-players
•
reviews.cnet.com—digital-cameras
•What menu options to display/facets
▼Examples
•
reviews.cnet.com—mp3-players
•
reviews.cnet.com—digital-cameras
Clicking one yields the same result
Rules help select appropriate values
Highly mathematical/algorithmic
Clicking one yields the same result
Rules help select appropriate values
Highly mathematical/algorithmic
Kind of rudimentary example, but illustrates exactly what I’m talking about.
This is a foaming attachment for my Krups I bought recently.
Crucial information that might vary in different circumstances.
▼Govern the rendering of information
•Business rules around calculating price/shipping
•Business rules about options available to users
•Business rules about login/account information display
▼Filtering infinite information space
•Search results
•Flight searches
▼Example
•Offering different shipping options depending on destination
•Calculating shipping charge based on supplied ZIP code
ALSO: Decision Points
Kind of rudimentary example, but illustrates exactly what I’m talking about.
This is a foaming attachment for my Krups I bought recently.
Crucial information that might vary in different circumstances.
▼Govern the rendering of information
•Business rules around calculating price/shipping
•Business rules about options available to users
•Business rules about login/account information display
▼Filtering infinite information space
•Search results
•Flight searches
▼Example
•Offering different shipping options depending on destination
•Calculating shipping charge based on supplied ZIP code
ALSO: Decision Points
•The taxonomy here can not address every situation
•Products are becoming more complex
Some things in common:
Criteria for selecting behaviors or responses within the context of a presentation
•The taxonomy here can not address every situation
•Products are becoming more complex
Some things in common:
Criteria for selecting behaviors or responses within the context of a presentation
•Generalized approaches to common problems
•BUT: rules expressed as generalizations (choose latest content) without specific
applications
•AND: a pattern can describe the kinds of rules needed
•Example: developer.yahoo.com—pattern.php
•Layout of content specific to a design system
•BUT: one component can support multiple rules
•AND: a component can specify the kinds of rules needed
•Examples: www.sun.com—g39.html
•For a specific area of a specific interface, rules describe what content is to appear
•Rules use the language established for a specific web site: content types, metadata,
components
How do we structure rules?
What do we need to think about for each rule?
Separate from content type because dependency between filter and content type
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesjordan/2226419650/sizes/o/
Another possibel metaphor: if not the soul of the product, then certainly its frontal lobe