Intro to IA/IxD/UXD in the agency world

Information Architecture and UXD An intro to the role, process and purpose Karri Ojanen, Publicis Modem

About Me
Background and experience
Finland, United Arab Emirates
Graphic design, journalism, copywriting
Electronic music
Past clients and projects
Diverse experience from online service concepts and processes to mobile applications to e-learning solutions to digital/IPTV to digital marketing from microsites to games and social media
Mobile telecom: Nokia, N-Gage, Elisa, TeliaSonera
Forestry: StoraEnso, UPM
Online banking: Nordea
Fundraising: VillageLife.fi
Fashion: Seppala.fi

What is Information Architecture?
IA Institute:
The structural design of shared information environments
The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability
Practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape
Information Architecture is the foundation for web design
The blueprint of the site upon which all other aspects are built:
Form
Function
Metaphor
Navigation and interface
Interaction
Visual design
Initiating the IA process is the first thing to do

What is User Experience Design?
All aspects of the user’s interaction with the product (website or online application) : how it is perceived, learned, and used
“ User experience is not about how a product works on the inside. User experience is about how it works on the outside, where a person comes into contact with it and has to work with it” - J. J. Garrett, The Elements of User Experience
IA means defining information structures to answer the question "how does a user find the information they want?
UXD/IxD means defining system behaviors to answer the question "how does a user take the action they want?”...”

The Value of User Experience
The web has evolved from a library of interlinked hypertext pages to an online application platform
Not just text, image, video and audio, but the glue in between
Site centric -> Customer centric
Publishing to audiences -> Participation with audiences
Customer as observer -> Customer as driver
Content directories (taxonomy) -> Content tagging (folksonomy)
Clicks and page views as goal -> Interaction time as goal

The web has gone beyond being the support medium for campaigns and brand development
The web has become the lead
From one-offs to the full 360
More and more brands are born, developed and maintained in the digital space
Case Google: from a technology company to one of the world’s most recognizable and successful brands
Built not on “traditional” solid foundation of marketing, but on an ecosystem of experience and word of mouth referrals

Micro-interactions
Everyday exchanges with a product, brand and service
Individually they seem insignificant
Combined they define how the user feels about the product, brand and service at an emotional level
Each time Google helps the user to find something, view a map or connect with a friend, it sends a positive impression of the brand and service in the user’s memory bank
Create an emotional connection - deliver beyond the user’s expectations of great performance

The Value of IA/UXD to Us
“ Do you feel that something elusive has been overlooked when your team sketches an entire website on a white board in a one-hour meeting and then promptly leaves to go and build it?”
IA/UXD lays the necessary groundwork for our work
Requirements, scope and strategy
What is the site for? Who is it for?
Eases our site build/development process in the end, giving us more time to focus on the strategy first
Cost of developing, managing, maintaining and updating
IA holds a unified vision together

The Value of IA/UXD to Our Clients and Their Customers
Helps the client to focus on the key priorities
Helps everybody to see the forest from the trees
Good IA is incredibly effective
Good IA saves both time and money in the long run
Good information system makes sense to users
Cost of finding (time, clicks, frustration, precision)
Cost of not finding (success, recall, frustration, alternatives)
Cost of development (time, budget, staff, frustration)
Value of learning (related products, services, projects, people)
Value of total experience (brand experience, cross-platform functionality)

The Role of IA/UXD: The Process Discover Strategy and scoping Design Creative design Develop Building the site Launch

The Role of IA/UXD: The Process Now our IA appears here… … or here. Discover Strategy and scoping Design Creative design Develop Building the site Launch

The Role of IA/UXD: The Process IA: Discover and Research IA: Design IA: Validate … but it belongs here: Discover Strategy and scoping Design Creative design Develop Building the site Launch

The Role of IA/UXD: The Process DESIGN Insights become ideas DEVELOP Ideas become reality LAUNCH DISCOVER Analysis becomes insight Competitive Analysis Heuristic Evaluation Concept Model PITCH Audience Research Content Audit/Inventory Domain Research Requirements/Road Map Metrics/KPIs/Analytics Strategic Tactical Personas User Journeys LOW-FI Flowchart Site Map Wireframes HI-FI Flowchart Site Map Wireframes Nomenclature & Labeling Functional Specs Usability Testing

The Role of IA/UXD
IA/UXD is not a contained, “boxed” field of work
IA/UXD is not a one-man show
Collaboration
Consistency, not one off answers
Art Director Designer Copywriter Developer IA/UXD IA/UXD IA/UXD Interaction & functionality Interaction & functionality Interaction & functionality
IA/UXD is a strategic role
IA/UXD is part of planning, creative and technology
Planning Creative Technology IA/UXD

The Role of IA/UXD
Information architecture is not…
Simply drawing up a sitemap
Simply pumping out masses of wireframes
Designing for ourselves
Just about navigation
A frivolous expense for “huge” projects only
A “nice to have” item on a checklist
Database design

IA and UXD Professionals
This is an emerging discipline in an evolving medium
IAs and UXDs come from several different backgrounds
Graphic designers and art directors
Library technicians, Journalists and copywriters
Web admins, site content managers, content analysts
Need to have developed a good general understanding of the digital space
Curious: Asks a lot of questions, doesn’t accept the obvious, loves research
Empathetic: Listens carefully, takes notes
Generous: Shares information, collaborates well
Flexible: Delivers appropriately, understands constraints
Articulate: Verbally or visually (best if both)
The industry needs people that are multi-skilled and versed in strategy, technology and creative

IA and UXD Professionals
If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said “a faster horse.” -Henry Ford
Clients don't envision the future, they inform the present
Build processes that promote an idea-generating culture

The Role of IA: The Deliverables
Documents, surveys, research papers, content lists, workshops
Flowcharts and sitemaps
Schematic representation of a process
Sitemaps/flow maps the individual pages/views on a website and the links between them
Process flow maps the individual steps of a process, different options and alternatives and the outcomes
Wireframes
Stripped-down visual representation of a single web page, devoid of graphic treatment
Framework made with wires, which define basic layout and placement of content and page elements such as navigation, header & footer, branding etc.

The Role of IA: The Tools
Sketching: paper and pencil
Initial wires, ideas, quick draft versions of alternative functionality
”… using the sketch to conceive design direction not only sets a cognitive foundation of good design, but also demonstrates to the client that real, non-superficial design work is taking place.” - T. Scott Stromberg
Software tools
IA/UXD needs to be properly documented using software tools that allow for quick editing later on as the work develops
Common IA software: Microsoft Visio (Windows), Omni Graffle (Mac), ConceptDraw (Win&Mac), Axure (Windows)
Prototyping: Axure, Visio, Flash, HTML prototypes
Other: Word, Excel, Powerpoint/Keynote, etc.

Examples

Resources
Boxes and Arrows, http://www.boxesandarrows.com/
The Information Architecture Institute, http://iainstitute.org/
The Interaction Design Association, http://www.ixda.org/
Experience Matters, http://experiencematters.criticalmass.com/
WebMonkey Information Architecture Tutorial, http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/Information_Architecture_Tutorial

Summary

Thank You
Karri Ojanen
Information Architect
Publicis Modem Toronto

Intro to IA/IxD/UXD in the agency world

by Karri Ojanen on Aug 12, 2008

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