Information Architecture 101

Information Architecture blueprints for the web Christina Wodtke & Tom Wailes, Yahoo! Inc.

What we’ll cover

Why IA matters

A foundation of techniques

Persona creation 101

Content organization

Navigation design

Search

Information Architecture

Many definitions (BAH!)

Our working definition: Architecture in information spaces.

It is the design behind the design Diagram from Jesse James Garett’s Elements of User Experience

Where it fits in design

Who does it?

Graphic Designer

Interface designer

Information architect

Interaction designer

Product manager

Project manager

Business strategist

The elements and goals of IA Information Architecture Content architecture Organization of content for information retrieval findability Interaction Design Design of system behavior to promote usability Information /Interface design Design of information presentation to promote understandability

Why do we care so much

Once there were people with cows

And people without cows

The people with no cows were hungry

They took the road

And met at the market

And the people with no cows bought cows

The people with cows had fewer cows, but money for other things

Now there are people with information

And people with no information

The road is the computer

And the market is the web

But the market is really big

And the people can’t find each other

So we have ignorant people

And people with no money

The cows are okay with this

Business is not.

The Goal

The players

Users, seeking information (cowless)

Businesses with information (with cows)

Intermediaries such as search engines and directories, profiting on the exchange (marketplaces)

The goal is to get the users seeking the data to the businesses offering the data

Missing information is expensive

Recently in the news, government’s information management problems

Missing information is expensive

“ The Fortune 1000 stands to waste at least $2.5 billion per year due to an inability to locate and retrieve information .”

“ While the costs of not finding information are enormous , they are hidden within the enterprise, and…are rarely perceived as having an impact on the bottom line.”

The High Cost of Not Finding Information

An IDC White Paper, July 2001.

Missing information

“ Like all primary care physicians, Dr. Bob Goldszer must stay on top of approximately 10,000 different diseases and syndromes, 3,000 medications, 1,100 laboratory tests, and many of the 400,000 articles added each year to the biomedical literature. That's no easy task. And it is, quite literally, a matter of life and death. The Institute of Medicine's 1999 report, To Err Is Human, suggests that more than a million injuries and 90,000 deaths are attributable to medical errors annually . Something like 5% of hospital patients have adverse reactions to drugs, another study reports, and of those, 43% are serious, life threatening, or fatal. Many knowledge workers have problems similar to Dr. Goldszer's (though they're usually less life threatening). No matter what the field, many people simply can't keep up with all they need to know .”

--Harvard Business Review, Jul 1, 2002

Missing information

Lost sales -

Expensive support -

Duplicated effort -

Lost trust -

Lost lives?

Classification and Consequences

A physician who doesn’t see a new cure

A poor student who can’t find financial aid

A store where a product isn’t found

People and Information

People search for different things

What can we help with?

Known-item searching

Multiple-item seeking

Comprehensive seeking

Information and IA

Information Architecture

manages information to

make it findable

Tagging with metadata

Organizing with CV’s

Creating navigation systems

Optimizing search

Which we’ll cover today!

Next Understanding your problem through requirements

Understanding your problem Requirements for success

Understanding

How do you approach

A redesign?

A new site?

Do you just open Photoshop?

Requirements gathering

Don Norman’s three legged stool

Product is built on

User desires

Business needs

Technologically possible

This is for software.. With web, a fourth leg appears: content.

How do you know what’s needed?

Lou and Peter’s Venn

“ An information architect must learn about business goals and context, content and services, and user needs and behavior; and then work with colleagues to transform this balanced understanding of the information ecology into the design of organization, labeling, and navigation systems that provide a solid but flexible foundation for the user experience.”

--Peter Morville

Tom and Christina’s Lunchbox

It’s possible to design with missing element

But risky

A balanced meal is Business , Users, Technology, Content

Requirements gathering

What do you need to know?

Business , Users, Technology, Content

Who has the information?

What does it mean for your design choices?

User requirements

Who is the user?

Research should uncover

Demographics

Psychographics

Behavioral information

User requirements

Who knows the answers?

Marketing knows about demographics and often psychographics

User Research/usability specialists understand behavior

Data analysts can get quantitative information

You can do the research

On Wednesday see: Discovering User Needs: Field Techniques You Can Use

Business requirements

What is the business model?

What user behavior is profitable?

What is the brand position?

What are resource and time constraints?

But avoid the (b)org…

Business requirements

Who knows the answers?

Business development

Marketing (again!)

Product Management

Technology requirements

What technology capabilities does your company have?

Database type

CMS

Backend(s)

What is the user’s typical platform?

Technology requirements

Who knows these requirements?

Engineering

Data mining group

Web Developers

Content requirements

What content is currently in site?

What content will be in site?

What format is content in?

Who will maintain it?

Content requirements

Who knows these requirements?

Content often forgotten, leftover chore.

Merchandiser, if ecommerce site.

Sometimes a librarian.

Sometimes a database engineer, or data entry drone.

Exercise: requirements gathering

Exercise

Divide into groups

Each person take a paper, you will be that person.

One (or more) with no paper, you are the IA.

Interview others to discover the requirements for your project

Exercise

You are an Information Architect hired to create a new feature for BIGGmusic.com: a mix-CD creator.

This section of the site will allow users to make mixed-music CD’s, then have them burned and shipped to users. You’ve been hired to design the organization of the site.

Exercise

You’ll start by interviewing the business strategist, marketing head, user researcher and lead engineer.

Write down the user, business and technological requirements that you uncover.

GO! You have 15 minutes, then a couple groups will present.

Next Personas

Personas Never leave your user

Personas

Persona development

Personas are:

A key to user-centered design

Not “The User” but “one particular user”

Inform the entire design process

Who are we designing for?

What are we designing?

How will we design it?

Does this design work?

Persona development/user profiling

Personas are:

Archetypal users

Conglomerates based on user data

Built collaboratively by team

Useful for keeping users front-of-mind

Grace

(62/ female/ widowed/ Little Rock, AR.)

“ I like playing my favorite games online, but if I can play with friends, well that’s even better!”

Personal Background: Her husband has passed on. She has two grown kids, both of whom live far away. She misses the kids, but has a fairly large circle of friends that she spends time with.

Technical Proficiency Profile: Limited. Can use her browser and her email. MS Word confuses her, and she doesn’t like using it. Doesn’t know what an OS is. Tends to click yes if the browser prompts her to do anything, and will click wildly until things work.

History with Shockwave and/or AtomFilms: Plays crossword puzzles daily and saves them. Plays card games, PhotoJam, but is offended by South Park cartoons

Shockwave’s opportunity: If Grace can be convinced to participate in community activities, she will become a loyal user of the site. She needs to be sheltered from the sick and twisted content, however.

Scott

(17/ male/ single/ Shaumburg, IL.)

“ I want something cool and really on the edge. Something you can’t get on TV”

#2 most common user

Profession: Full time student (studies exercise and sport science)

Personal Background: Youngest kid in family of five. Likes to be seen as a little rebellious. Excited to be in college, but not really brave enough yet to actually do anything rebellious, so uses Internet to express his self-image.

History with Shockwave and/or AtomFilms: he’s been to Shockwave a few times, and usually clicks games as soon as the navigation bar loads. He likes playing arcade games, and “shoot ‘em up’s.” Spend two hours playing “King of the Hill paintball” recently.

Shockwave’s opportunity: he is already hanging out in the games section regularly. If shockwave can introduce him to it’s sick and twisted material, it can keep him on the website longer, and use his tendency to send out links to spread the word.

Persona development/user profiling

How to create personas:

Summarize research, distribute to stakeholders.

Hold a work session with stakeholders & development team to brainstorm personas.

Prioritize and cull lesser personas to develop primary and supporting personas.

Exercise: rapid persona creation

Prioritize personas

Prioritize personas primary secondary special

Use personas

Keep them near

Hang them on your wall

Make poster, placemats, puppets

Role-play personas

Evaluate with them

Persona Posters

Personas in context of use

Embedded in deliverables

On the wall, nearby

Good for team, good for strangers

Designing with what you’ve learned

Persona Scenarios – the power of story telling

Storytelling is one of the most effective tools humans have for understanding.

Makes interaction of human and machine real

Personas in action

We typically use scenarios in three ways:

As a design tool

As an evaluation tool

As a communication tool

Scenarios for Design

To design with personas

Get your personas out

Tell ideal user experience for one persona

Adjust for business constraints

Build for this scenario

Get your persona out…

“ I don’t have time to get lost on someone’s site—

I’m not playing here.”

. 32

. Male

. Single

. Los Angeles, CA.

. T1 at work, DSL at home

. 15–20 hours/week online.

. Technical proficiency: fair

. Searcher/speed browser

. Mostly reads news online

Example Persona Scenarios Michael is doing his morning surf; he’s just left indiewire.com and has come to indieword.com. He reads through the new stories on Sundance and spots the link to the Festival Planner. He remembers he was just agonizing over having to wade through the huge number of films . He hopes this might make it simpler. Michael looks over the Festival Planner intro page. He wants to make sure this is going to save him time and not waste his time. He sees he can play with it without having to sign up, which is a relief ; he sees he can set up a schedule for the day based on his preferences. It seems painless; he sets his watch alarm for five minutes—at that time he’ll decide if he wants to continue. Preferably, he’ll be done. … … Festival Planner now gives him a schedule to review, with three films to pick from and an option to “see all for this time slot.” One film for each time slot is indicated as his “best pick.” Each shows how well it meets his taste and needs. And he can choose to “rest” and not select a film for that time period. Michael goes through the schedule; his wristwatch beeps, and he absent-mindedly shuts it off. He selects his films. As he chooses, he notices an option to get a report on any film when its available—he’s very excited by that. If he can’t see them all, at least he can get a sense of what he’s missing! Finally, Michael has a schedule that satisfies him. He notices he can e-mail the schedule to anyone. He sends a copy to his P.A. and to himself. 1. Emphasis on goals ^ 2. Avoiding interface design >

Next step

Task analysis

Step by step breakdown of scenarios

Helps define interface/interaction needs

Flushes out potential opportunities for errors

Task analysis

Start with scenario

Break it up into discreet tasks

Subdivide into smaller steps

Task analysis Purchasing a purse at nordstroms.com might include the tasks: 1. locate purse 2. add purse to shopping cart 3. check out

Task analysis Purchasing a purse at nordstroms.com might include the tasks: 1. locate purse 2. add purse to shopping cart 3. check out f. Review order “ CHECK OUT” BECOMES g. Finalize checkout e. Input payment d. Input billing address c. Input shipping address b. Sign in/sign up a. Select checkout

Task analysis And so on…

v. Input state (dropdown of standard abbreviations)

f. Review order “ INPUT BILLING ADDRESS” BECOMES “ CHECK OUT” BECOMES

vi. Input country

g. Finalize checkout

iv. Input street address

e. Input payment

iii. Input street address

d. Input billing address

ii. Input family name

c. Input shipping address

i. Input first name

b. Sign in/sign up d. Input billing address (prepopulate all fields from c.) a. Select checkout

Example Task analysis

Another Task Analysis

digramming

Next Content Architecture Part I

Content Architecture Make it make sense

What is this?

What are these?

They are all birds (ornithologist)

The Cassowary is not a bird! (the Karam)

From “Why the Cassowary is not a bird”, R. Bulmer, Man , Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967)

Who Cares?

Ornithologists

The Karam

Information Architects

Dewey Decimal System

200-299 – Religion Categories

40+ categories related to Christianity

1 for Judaism

1 for Islam (& related)

Who Cares?

Religious Scholars

Librarians

Information Architects

Jews and Muslims

Classification reflects social and cultural organization

Information Architect must understand this context

Get to know your audience…

Who are they?

Football Fan

Who are they?

Football Fan?

Who are they?

What do they care about?

Are the Patriots going to make the playoffs? Show me photos! What happened in the last game?

Who are they?

What do they care about?

How do they think of the information and content?

Conference, division… Schedules, standings…

Observe others

Study Competitors and similar sites

Review your search logs

Do a card sort

Now what?

Organize your information so it makes sense to your audience

Structure your information to help users find it

… using metadata

Metadata: what is it?

“ metadata is data about data"

Metadata: what is it?

“ Metadata tags are used to describe documents, pages, images, software, video and audio files, and other content objects for the purposes of improved navigation and retrieval”

‘ Information Architecture for the World Wide Web’, 2 nd ed., (2002) Rosenfeld, L. & Morville, P.

Types of Metadata

Descriptive : the nature of the thing, what is it related to?…

Intrinsic : composition of the thing, size, shape…

Administrative : how can the thing be handled? Workflow…

Types of Metadata

Yahoo! Travel < meta name =' description ' content ="Yahoo! Travel is a comprehensive online travel destination, where you can reserve flights, rental cars, hotel rooms, cruises and vacation packages, all in one place. Research trips from a wealth of planning resources including destination and city guides, user and expert reviews, local weather and currency information, and much more. Yahoo! Travel has competitive prices on everything from airfare to lodging, it's easy to find great deals and special offers"> < meta name =' keywords ' content ='online airfare airfares hotel car reservations travelocity airlines tickets airplane air line air fares arifares airline low fairs fares cheap tickets flights book information flight itinerary itineraries online reservations online tickets online travel agents vacations cruise cruises cruiselines business travel busines corporate hotels discounts car cars rental lasvegas tickets travel reservations online travel travel bookings online bookings book airfare fare wars discount fares sales lowest vacation planning information travel agencies travel sites disney world florida orlando miami atlanta ATL Dallas DFW DCA LAS LAX NYC ORD SFO atl dfw dca las lax nyc ord sfo Washington D.C. washington dc los angeles Los Angeles new york New York new york city New York City San Francisco sanfrancisco family trips family vacation family vacations'>

Types of Metadata

Descriptive : Patriots, NFL, AFC East…

Intrinsic : HTML page, 40k…

Administrative : update daily with news feeds, update when new game…

Web Page: New England Patriots

Types of Metadata

Descriptive : Patriots, NFL, AFC East…

Intrinsic : jpg file, 4k…

Administrative : rights owner-NFL, replace when logo changes…

Logo: New England Patriots

Not all Metadata is equal

What are users interested in?

What do you want users to be able to find?

What metadata makes management easy?

Tag content for findability

Tag content for management

Exercise

Listen

Write five descriptive words (or short phrases) on your post-it

One word (or phrase) per post-it

Don’t share– yet! Hold on!

Next Content Architecture Part II

Controlled vocabularies Master of your domains

When humans and computers interact I’ve got music I want music.

Humans are good at figuring things out Hip Hop Rap. Rock. Dance.

Most of the time Jiggy tunes ?

But computers are literal Acid reggae ? No matches found

Add more on how they are literal

And need help Acid Reggae? ? Let’s give them “Dance and DJ” IA

Of course, the IA can’t always be there…

Thus Controlled vocabularies (CV)

Amy Warner defines a controlled vocabulary (CV) as “organized lists of words and phrases, or notation systems, that are used to initially tag content, and then to find it through navigation or search.”

Controlled Vocabularies

I define them as

Documented relationships of words and concepts to assist people finding stuff.

Same dif.

Controlled Vocabulary Types

Levels of control

Controlled vocabularies

Relationships

A=B Equivalence Christmas= Xmas Hierarchal Winter Holidays > Christmas Associative Christmas | Santa Claus A B A B

Synonym rings

Simplest type

Helps with search, indexing

Simplifies maintenance

Synonym rings include

Acronyms: BBC, British Broadcasting Company; MPG, miles per gallon

Variant spellings: cancelled, canceled; honor, honour

Scientific terms versus popular use terms: acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin; lilioceris, lily beetle

From Synonym Rings and Authority Files by Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel

Why Bother?

Sometimes on intranets, CV’s are skipped

You think you can force people to use proper terms

But people are lazy

I’m tired of typing “Controlled Vocabulary--- CV is shorter.

Why Bother?

On the internet you want to be found

You’ve got cows

But people can’t spell “cows”

Plus users use short queries

Average queries are 2.5 words– 30% of searches are one word queries

I want a cannon camera.

Bizrate takes good advantage It may be the Canon PowerShot S30

But what do people call it? Cannon S30 Powershot S30 S30 Canon S30

A page for each synonym

And they can be number one

Authority File

Addition of preferred terms and variants

Preferred terms

Protects brand

Sensitivities

Educates

Christmas | Xmas, X-mas, Nöel ,

There is a right spelling

Classification schemes

Includes non-equivalent relationships

Includes hierarchal informal

Useful for navigation

Useful for helping people broaden their search

Classification schemes

Types of relationships

Sibling:

Gap.com directories

Men

Women

Maternity

Body

Boys

Girls

Baby boy

Baby girl

Classification schemes Parent / Child (amazon.com)

Classification Schemes

Other Relationships

Alphabetical (administrative metadata)

Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Moore, Alan

Chronological (administrative metadata)

New for You > New Releases > Books

Topic (descriptive metadata)

Comics > Graphic Novels > Horror

Amazon uses all of these, and more….

Thesauri

Cadillac of Controlled Vocabularies

Includes associative relationships

Santa Claus Winter holidays Hanukah, Kwanzaa X-mas, Nöel Christmas Associated Parent Siblings Variants Preferred term

Associations

Amazon uses buying patterns to determine associations

Associations

Exercise

Card sort

Take your keywords

Open your packets

Sort the items into similar piles.

Label the piles with post-its

Discuss

Building your own

Understand requirements

Harvest terms

Create groupings

Implement

Test

Maintain

What kind of CV do you need?

What do you want your CV to accomplish?

To integrate with your navigation system?

To improve searching? To improve browsing? Both?

How much vocabulary control do you want to provide? Synonym ring? Facets? What level of vocabulary control is appropriate?

What can your technology support?

Pareto’s Principle: a.k.a. the “80/20 Rule”

"A minority of input produces the majority of results.”

( www.paretolaw.co.uk/principle.html )

Useful IA guidelines

80% of your site's users belong to 20% of the site's audiences

80% of users' information needs are served by 20% of the site's content

80% of users' information needs are addressed by the top 20% of all searches

80% of IA effort should be invested in 20% of total architecture

Getting answers

Content - specificity and stability

Technology - tools and integration.

Users – who are they

Maintenance- who will do it?

Content Inventory

Link ID

ROT

Document type

Topics/Keywords

Location

Maintainer

Expiration

Access

Author

Existing/planned

Identify all content and attributes

Term harvesting

Look Inward

Your site

Current keywords

Look outward

Magazines

Competitors

Discussion lists

Log harvesting

Search engines

Overture

Ask people

Interviews

Card sorts

Sorting Terms

A Card Sort for Architects

Multiple Groupings

Equivalent UF cheese=fromage

Broader terms BT cheese | dairy

Narrower terms NT cheese | cheddar

Related term RT cheese | crackers

Sleeping Bags BT Camping NT Down Sleeping Bags NT Synthetic Sleeping Bags NT Family Sleeping Bags NT Cold Weather Sleeping Bags NT 2-Season Sleeping Bags NT 3-Season Sleeping Bags NT Back Packing Sleeping Bags NT Expedition Class Sleeping Bags NT Ultralight Sleeping Bags RT Backpacks RT Ultralight Backpacking RT Sleeping Bag Liners RT Sleeping Pads RT Stuff Sacks RT Pillows From Creating a Controlled Vocabulary by Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/creating_a_controlled_vocabulary.php

Sorting conflicts

Cheese goes in dairy or in sandwich materials?

A cheese basket?

String cheese?

Choices fit strategy

Associations

What is related

What is required?

What else is interesting?

Relevancy is king

Possible Relationships

Process/agent (camp fires/matches)

Action/product of action (baking/cakes)

Agent/counteragent (allergies/antihistamine)

Raw material/product (wool/sweater).

examples

Implement

Implementation dependant on situation and tools.

May be slow painful data entry– know this and prepare.

Test

Test with users – did you get it right?

Browse Testing

Search Testing

Monitor quantitative

Refine, refine, refine

Maintain

Who maintains it?

What the rules for new terms?

Document your decisions.

Next Interface and Navigation

Interface & Navigation IA made visible “ Like putting an Armani suit on Attila the Hun, interface design only tells how to dress up an existing behavior.” – Alan Cooper

Most IA is invisible

A lot of work no one sees

Synonym rings, etc

If it was seen, is would be too much

We show only a subset

Yahoo! Maps Legal turn One-way street No turns between 3pm and 6pm Concrete barrier Pedestrian walkway Speed limit 35 Road passes overhead Destination on the left Highway 101

The magic number?

13 tabs– no one saw them. Six tabs, everyone saw them

But not everything is simple masthead Global links Folders Mail tools ad Other properties upsell Web search Related Services tip inbox ads ad Related Services upsell Mail tools Log out inbox Write mail And there isn’t even content!

Navigation orders complex pages

Understanding Navigation Message and Access

Global navigation

Where you are

Brand/masthead

Where you can go

Top level categories

Safety nets

Where’s my (shopping cart/account/help???)

Global Navigation

Global navigation

Local Navigation

I’ve started down the path

Now what?

What are the categories of items?

What are the siblings of what I see?

What are the subcategories?

Local Navigation

Contextual navigation

Inline links

Related items

Document management

Inline links

Related items

Examples of data manipulation

Pagination

Ad negotiation

Print/email/clip

Sort

Content architecture Interaction Design Information /Interface design

Pagination Useful to reduce page download speed and cognitive overload. Annoying for printing.

Ad negotiation

Print/email/clip

Sort

Secondary Navigation

Site Maps

Indexes

Table of Contents

Have you ever seen this page?

How about this one?

You can make it helpful “ After testing several different sitemap designs on users, I decided to try putting one on every page of my small Columbian web site. I then decided to track how often it was used for navigation. It turns out the sitemap is used for over 65% of all navigation done on the site .” -- Usability Report by Peter Van Dijck of poorbuthappy .com (Guide to Columbia) http://www.webword.com/reports/sitemap.html

Conventions

It is certainly probable, then, that placing these objects in expected locations would give an e-commerce site a competitive edge over those that do not…

-- Examining User Expectations for the Location of Common E-Commerce Web Objects

Usability News

4.1 2002

Conventions If 90% or more of the big sites do things in a single way, then this is the de-facto standard and you have to comply . Only deviate from a design standard if your alternative design has at least 100% higher measured usability. If 60-90% of the big sites do things in a single way, then this is a strong convention and you should comply unless your alternative design has at least 50% higher measured usability. If less than 60% of the big sites do things in a single way, then there are no dominant conventions yet and you are free to design in an alternative way. -- Jakob Nielsen, November 14, 1999 Alertbox column "Identifying De-Facto Standards for E-Commerce Web Sites“ © 2003 Heidi P. Adkisson

Conventions

Some things are becoming de rigor

Deviate when you’ve got something better

Not because you are bored

Homework: Prioritization

Now combine

Follow expectations based on conventions

Design a hierarchy based on task importance

Err on the side of simplicity

Next Understanding Search

Understanding Search The Web, your web

Does search stink?

“… studies show that search is still the primary usability problem in web site design.”

Vividence Research: Common Usability Problems

Poorly organized search results

Poor information architecture

Source: Flexible Search and Navigation using Faceted Metadata (UC Berkeley SIMS, Submitted 2001-2)

“ Most of the complaints we get are due to the way users search; they use the wrong keywords.”

--Manufacturing Manager in Must Search Stink? by Forrester Research

Vision

Search is a tool, important in every aspect of users’ lives

Yet users don’t like to invest effort

“ Type words in little white box. Click "Search." Wait. See results pop up. Click on first link. Skim webpage. Log off.

"That's how searching the World Wide Web seems to work for most people," explains Purvi Shah.

-- Desperately Seeking Alison Balmat, Penn State Research

Understanding search

Search is a question whose answer is not always a web page

Query: 2003 Camry prices

Does this user want a website?

Does he want a page on pricing cars?

Does he want to know what cars are going for?

But what we’ve got: web pages

A Yahoo Answer

Direct display of answers

Your answers?

Do you have Answers?

Or at least the right web pages.

What can you do today?

HP offers best bets on a few critical searches (80-20)

What is a perfect user experience?

Fast

Easy

Search is a FAST experience

Users spend only seconds on a results page

User WANT to spend only seconds on a results page

Actual load time must be fast

Perceived load time must be faster

Cognitive scan time must be faster

Search must be fast

Design for speed of scan

What is the critical information for users?

What is secondary?

What are power-user features?

Smart things we did

Search term in bold

URL in color that recedes

Power-user features in gray

Progressive rendering

Search must be EASY

Average queries are 2.5 words– 30% of searches are one word queries

Can we be mind readers?

Can we seamlessly elicit more information?

People are lazy.

From E-Sex to E-Commerce: Web Search Changes -- Amanda Spink, Pennsylvania State University, Bernard J. Jansen, US Army War College, Dietmar Wolfram, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Tefko Saracevic, Rutgers University

Entice – longer search boxes

Articulate – related searches

Synonym rings for success!

Search can be easy

Remember your context

You aren’t Yahoo! or Google…

Take advantage of you

Gap knows their users

Gap knows you are shopping for clothes

Gap has pictures

Gap has prices

Gap knows what category things are in

Search engines– not so much.

You can be great.

No Search?

Should you have search?

Do you really have so much stuff?

How do people look for things on your site?

Do you have to resources to do it right?

If you have Search, make it Good Search.

Using an on-site search engine actually reduced the chances of success, and the difference was significant…. Our data showed that today’s on-site search engines are worse than nothing — significantly worse.

-- Jared Spool

Smart things IMDB did

Used a synonym ring

Corrected spelling

Found foreign matches

Clearly shows your entry, so you can learn from your mistakes

Smart things L.L. Bean did

Section devoted to disambiguation on terms important to users

Grouping by category

Images and prices

Included associated terms– but not on top.

Smart things Launch did

Grouped results

Albums

Artists

Songs

Made advertising relevant

Made it a viable navigation tool

Dumb IBM search?

You type “content management system”

They have a content management system for sale

What here can help you?

What could IBM learn from LL Bean and the Gap?

How will you be smart?

What do your users need and want?

What do you know about your content

How can you make sure your users never fail?

Conclusion

Look, listen, learn

Understand the context

Know your user

Design with purpose

You can be great!

Q&A

Christina Wodtke

www.yahoo.com

[email_address]

Tom Wailes

[email_address]

LEARN MORE!

book : : www.blueprintsfortheweb.com

zine : : www.boxesandarrows.com

blog : : www.eleganthack.com

peeps : : www.aifia.org

Reading List

The Age of Findability by Peter Morville

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/the_age_of_findability.php

Unraveling the Mysteries of metadata and taxonomies by Christina Wodtke

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/unraveling_the_mysteries_of_metadata_and_taxonomies.php

All About Facets & Controlled Vocabularies by Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/all_about_facets_controlled_vocabularies.php

Synonym Rings and Authority Files by Karl

Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/synonym_rings_and_authority_files.php

Building a Metadata-Based Website by

Brett Lider and Anca Mosoiu

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/building_a_metadatabased_website.php

A Taxonomy Primer . Amy Warner.

http://www.lexonomy.com/publications/aTaxonomyPrimer.html

Indexing from A to Z. Wellisch, Hans. (1995).. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1995. Book

Metadata creation—down and dirty. James L. Weinheimer.

http://www.princeton.edu/~jamesw/mdata/MetadataCreation.ht

Faceted classifications and thesauri. Barbara Perles.

http://is.gseis.ucla.edu/impact/f95/Papers-projects/Papers/perles.html

Facet analysis: Using faceted classification

techniques to organize site content & Structure. Luise

Gruenberg.

http://www.asis.org/Conferences/Summit2002/Gruenberg.ppt (PowerPoint presentation)

The design of browsing and berrypicking techniques for the online search interface. Marcia J. Bates.

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/berrypicking.html

From E- Sex to E-Commerce: Web Search Changes (PDF) http://ist.psu.edu/pdfs/Spink040302.pdf

Analyzing Card Sort Results with a Spreadsheet Template by Joe Lamantia

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/analyzing_card_sort_results_with_a_spreadsheet_template.php

Sitemaps and Site Indexes: What They Are and Why You Should Have Them by Chiara Fox

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/sitemaps_and_site_indexes_what_they_are_and_why_you_should_have_them.php

Metadata: cataloging by any other name …. Jessica Milstead and Susan Feldman. Online, January 1999.

http://www.onlinemag.net/OL1999/milstead1.html

Reading List

Boxes and Arrows: Defining Information Architecture Deliverables

http://www.sitepoint.com/article.php/326

Blueprints for the Web: Organization for the Masses By Christina Wodtke

http://www.informit.com/content/index.asp?product_id=%7B8548A2A9-3B1C-4AC8-B231-8367F921769C%7D

IntranetJournal -- Information Design Using Card Sorting

http://intranetjournal.com/articles/200202/pkm_02_05_02a.html

Metadata Harvesting –by Karl Fast PowerPoint Presentation

http://www.asis.org/IA03/fast.ppt

Controlled vocabulary and thesauri creation for describing images in a database Controlled Vocabulary.com

http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/imagedatabases/index.html

Software for Information Architects by Peter Morville

http://argus-acia.com/strange_connections/current_article.html

Extracting Value from Automated Classification Tools By Kat Hagedorn, March 2001

http://argus-acia.com/white_papers/classification.html

Tools for information Architects

http://aifia.org/tools/

Perfecting Your Personas by Kim Goodwin

http://www.cooper.com/newsletters/2001_07/perfecting_your_personas.htm

Reconciling market segments and personas By Elaine Brechin

http://www.cooper.com/newsletters/2002_02/reconciling_market_segments_and_personas.htm

Taking the "You" Out of User: My Experience Using Personas by Meg Hourihan

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/taking_the_you_out_of_user_my_experience_using_personas.php

Bringing Your Personas to Life in Real Life by Elan Freydenson

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/bringing_your_personas_to_life_in_real_life.php

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites by Louis Rosenfeld , Peter Morville BOOK

Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web by Christina Wodtke BOOK

Information Architecture 101

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