Making IA Real: Planning an Information Architecture Strategy

Making IA Real Planning an Information Architecture Strategy Chiara Fox Internet Librarian 2001 November 6, 2001

What We’ll Cover

What Is Information Architecture?

Know What You Have

Get a Second Opinion

User Test, User Test, User Test

Bring It All Together

What is Information Architecture?

Information architecture is the art and science of structuring and organizing information systems to help people achieve their goals.

An Ecological Approach

IA From Top to Bottom

Top-Down

portal

strategy

hierarchy

primary path

Bottom-Up

sub-site

objects

metadata

multiple paths

Object X Name: Product Category: Topic: Stale Date: Author: Security: portal local subsites (HR, Engineering, R&D…)

Components of IA

Organization

Navigation (including search)

Labeling

Organization

The grouping of like content together

Provides a way to browse the structure of the site

Exact Schemes

Chronological

Geographical

Alphabetical

Ambiguous Schemes

Subject

Audience

Task

Navigation

Global

Local

Contextual

Supplemental

Search

Labeling

The interface to the organization scheme - the names of the different categories

Appears in the words in the navigation systems

One of the most important aspects and one of the most difficult to do.

Needs to reflect the content and the user - must be written in the users’ language

Websites Need an IA Strategy

Websites grow organically

Need to plan before you build a new site or redesign a current site

Strategy begins with research

Know What You Have

Content Analysis and Audit

Content Map

Classification Scheme Analysis

Search and Server Log Analysis

Content Analysis & Audit

Take a representative sample of the content on your site

Look for patterns and relationships among the content

What is similar

What is different

Possible attributes

Identify ROT

You will need to do a complete content audit before implementation to document the site for migration

Content Audit Example

Content Map Example

Site 1

Site 2

Classification Scheme Analysis

Compile listing of all classifications used on the site

Product names

Industries

Look for similarities and differences

Can schemes be collapsed?

Do you need a new scheme?

Classification Scheme Analysis Example

Search & Server Log Analysis

Take a sampling of the logs – a few hours or days depending upon site traffic

Search Logs

Determine top 100 terms users are searching for

What terms are yielding no results?

How do these terms relate to your content?

Server Logs

Determine most accessed pages

Click-stream analysis - what path are users taking through the site

Get a Second Opinion

Interview opinion leaders & stakeholders

Discuss the goals and direction for the site

Get buy in & support from top management

“Points of Pain” Exercise

Exercise to determine which problems with the website are related to information architecture

Good to do with stakeholders rather than executives

Users complain that they can’t find things on the site. Everyone has different ideas about what the site should do. Hard to cross-sell products and services since they are so separate. Takes too long for the pages to load, especially on a modem.

User Test, User Test, User Test

Exploratory user testing

10 representative users is usually enough

One-on-One testing, not focus groups

Ideally do it more than once

Card Sorting & Affinity Diagrams

Card Sorting

Great for understanding how users would like to see the content organized

Open sort vs. closed sort

Affinity Diagramming

Way to analyze what the users told you in the card sorting

Affinity Diagram Example

Task Analysis & Mental Model

Task Analysis

More traditional usability study

Have the user try to do something on the site

Can use prototypes to test design

Paper prototypes are great so users don’t get hung up on design

Users’ Mental Model

Determine what discrete tasks the user is trying to accomplish by coming to your site

Match the content of your site to the mental model

Mental Model Example

Mental Model

Content Map

Bring It All Together

Use the information you have gathered to create a structure that:

Enables users to complete their tasks

Supports the goals of the organization

Can grow and adapt as needs change

Remember you are:

Determining content areas

Designing navigational systems

Applying clear and descriptive labels

Improving search

Blueprint Example

Wireframe Example

Metadata Schemes

Definition

Metadata is structured data which describes the characteristics of a resource. It shares many similar characteristics to the cataloguing that takes place in libraries, museums and archives. Chris Taylor, University of Queensland

Purposes

Document surrogate (abstract, title)

Maintenance attributes (date, author)

Facilitates retrieval (subject, audience)

Metadata Schema Example Relevant to …person …product …process Subject Keywords Review Date Architectural Placement Title Attribute Name Manual Text – Controlled Vocab Engineers, Semiconductor, Fabrication Process Descriptive Manual Text – Controlled Vocab Dry Etch Technology; Transistor Descriptive Automatic Date 01-01-2002 8:00AM GMT Workflow Manual Text -Controlled Vocab My X-Zone, Product Catalog Workflow Manual Free Text My X-Zone Identity Tagging Process Value Type Examples Type of Attribute

Levels of Control

Ways to Leverage

User Interface

Generate browsable indexes (site-wide, sub-site, specialized authority files)

Enable field-specific searching (filters, zones, sorting)

Support personalization (language, location)

Behind the Scenes

Enable efficient content management

Dynamically generate pages

Controlled Vocabulary in XML <SVTerm UID="SVCS::8099"> <label>Document Management Systems</label> <alt>Document Delivery Systems</alt> <alt>Document Management</alt> <alt>Document Delivery</alt> <parent UREF="SVCS::80"/> <child UREF="SVCS::8099129"/> <child UREF="SVCS::8099130"/> <child UREF="SVCS::8099131"/> <child UREF="SVCS::8099132"/> <child UREF="SVCS::8099133"/> </SVTerm> Rapid Implementation Methodology Enterprise Document Archive

Next Step: Implementation