A Brief (and Practical) Introduction to Information Architecture

A Brief (and Practical) Introduction to Information Architecture Usability and Accessibility for the Web International Seminar Monterrey, Nuevo Leon July 26, 2007 Louis Rosenfeld www.louisrosenfeld.com

My path and biases

The “Polar Bear” book

Agenda: emphasis on practical
Introduction to information architecture
How to think like an information architect
Some practical advice on methods and design approaches
Where the field is going
Questions? Please write them down

Introduction: IA in six slides

A definition and a diagram
Definition: the art and science of structuring, organizing and labeling information to help people find and manage information
Balances characteristics and needs of users, content and context

Where we’re from/what we do: User-orientation
Usability testing
Contextual inquiry
Card sorting
Persona and scenario development
Human Computer Interaction
Anthropology
Marketing
Sociology
Methods Disciplines

Where we’re from/what we do: Content-orientation
Content inventory and analysis
Content modeling
Metadata development
Server and search analytics
Librarianship
Technical communication
Graphic design
Journalism
Computer science
Methods Disciplines

Where we’re from/what we do: Context-orientation
Stakeholder interviews
Project planning
Specifications development
Management
Systems engineering
Organizational psychology
Methods Disciplines

What we do: A series of balancing acts IAs improve knowledge of the former; neutral balancers Customers vs. business Technology agnostics who go beyond tech requirements Build vs. buy IAs integrate both as part of broader info ecology Formal vs. emergent IAs develop balanced workflows and processes Centralization vs. autonomy IAs stronger in the latter, though data is ascendant Structured vs. semi-structured

Information architecture’s single rule
Pareto Principle (“the 80/20 rule”)
Information architecture is all about prioritization: determine which 20% is most important (information needs, content, design)
There are no other rules, just guidelines

Before we continue: A question
Aren’t usability and information architecture really just the same thing?

CiteSeer: Strong on findability, weak on usability

UseIt: Strong on usability, weak on findability

IA for novices and veterans: Start with Two Big Questions

My questions for you
Who are your site’s major audiences?
What are each audience’s primary information needs (and how well are you addressing them)?
Are you confident in your answers?

Q1: Who are your site’s major audiences?

Audience definition is surprisingly difficult
Too little data… or too much
Who/what/where/why/when/how questions
Political challenges
Defining audience by silo leads to stakeholder infighting
Goal: err toward apolitical segmenting that cuts across silos; examples:
Job functions (admin, clerical, research, mgmt)
Demographics

Q2: What are their major information needs? Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexin/

Information needs are common tasks and topics
Examples
How do I obtain a driver’s license?
Are there scholarships available for my 18-year old son?
Who are my elected representatives?
Can the state government help me find investors?

Uncovering information needs: Ask people who would know
Webmasters and the “hate mail” they receive
Switchboard operators and their FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Subject Matter Experts and the people who bother them
Who else?
Avoid: focus groups

Uncovering information needs: Analyze behavioral data
Switchboard logs
Server logs (Web Analytics)
Search logs (Search Analytics)
Information and call center logs
Where else?
Grouping log data can help you (re)define audience segments

Big Answers for Big Questions

The end of redesigns
Redesigns are
Expensive and wasteful
Cosmetic
User-hostile
Pointless
Instead, institute a process
Ask and answer these Big Questions on a regular basis
Allows all aspects of IA and UX to become procedural and institutional

Sample Method: Search Analytics

Anatomy of a search log
Google Search Appliance; critical elements in bold: IP address , time/date stamp , query , and # of results:
XXX.XXX.X.104 - - [ 10/Jul/2006:10:25:46 -0800] "GET /search?access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1&site=AllSites&ie=UTF-8&client=www&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=www&q= lincense+plate &ip=XXX.XXX.X.104 HTTP/1.1" 200 971 0 0.02
XXX.XXX.X.104 - - [ 10/Jul/2006:10:25:48 -0800] "GET /search?access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ie=UTF-8&client=www&q= license+plate &ud=1&site=AllSites&spell=1&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=www&ip=XXX.XXX.X.104 HTTP/1.1" 200 8283 146 0.16
XXX.XXX.XX.130 - - [ 10/Jul/2006:10:24:38 -0800] "GET /search?access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1&site=AllSites&ie=UTF-8&client=www&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=www&q= regional+transportation+governance+commission &ip=XXX.XXX.X.130 HTTP/1.1" 200 9718 62 0.17
Full legend and more examples here: http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/searchanalytics/blog/log_sample_google_appliance/

The Pareto Principle in action Sorting queries by frequency results in a Zipf Distribution Can we improve performance for the most popular queries?

What users want and when: Sorting and clustering queries

Diagnostics from search analytics: What can you fix or improve?
User research
Interface design: search entry interface, search results
Retrieval algorithm modification
Navigation design
Metadata development
Content development

Best Bet search results: Big answers for Big Questions
Manually-assigned recommended links
Ensure useful results for top search queries
Useful resources for each popular query are manually determined (guided by documented logic)
Useful resources manually linked to popular queries; automatically displayed in result page

Best Bets example: NCI

Best Bets also improve navigation
Comprehensive A-Z site index automatically generated from best bet keywords

Guides: Bigger answers to Big Questions
Guides are single pages that contain
A selective set (5-10) of important links related to a Big Question
Narrative text that explains the topic and what’s available to help with that topic
Generally linked from the main page, but also used in more specific contexts
Subsite main pages
Search results

Vanguard links to guides on main page

Vanguard’s guide to its tax information

Guides are painless and efficient
Low impact on IT (single HTML page)
Cut across departmental silos
Gap fillers; complement comprehensive methods of navigation and search
Can be timely (e.g., news-oriented guides, seasonal guides)
Minimize political headaches by creating new real estate
Can grow into fuller subsites

Sample Design Approach: Contextual Navigation

Contextual navigation: Focusing on where users are
Contextual navigation supports users deep in site
Where am I?
Where can I go from here?
Critical in a Web 2.0 world
Top layers of information systems are increasingly bypassed
Search engines
Syndication (RSS, Atom)
Banner advertising
Deep content becomes starting point

A common content model

Contextual navigation is powered by content models
“Data modeling for semi-structured content”
Content modeling process helps narrow down both content and metadata choices
Content models consist of
Content objects
Links between objects
Metadata
Use sparingly to support high-value contextual navigation

Hewlett-Packard content model for product information
HP’s content model for products includes overview, supplies, support, drivers…
Content model is exposed as part of search results to enhance navigation

BBC content model for music artist descriptions album reviews album pages artist bios discography concert calendar TV listings

Content modeling use metadata to connect content objects artist description artist description artist description artist bio, discography, concert calendar, TV listing album review, artist description album page album review, discography, artist … link to other Content Objects… Artist Name , Channel, Date, Time… Artist Name , Tour, Venue, Date, Time… Artist Name , Individual Artist Name… Artist Name , Desc Author, Desc Date… Artist Name , Album Name , Release Date… Album Name , Artist Name , Review Author, Source, Pub Date… Album Name , Artist Name , Label, Release Date… … by leveraging common Metadata Attributes TV listing concert calendar artist bio artist description discography album review album page Content Objects…

At last: A little bit of inspiration

The past and future of IA… in logos time External IAs Internal IAs Senior information architect Director of User Experience Chief Experience Officer Chief Information Officer … CEO?

What I’ve covered
Introduction to information architecture
How to think like an information architect
Some practical advice on methods and design approaches
Where the field is going
Now, about those questions…

How to reach me
Louis Rosenfeld
705 Carroll Street, #2L
Brooklyn, NY 11215 USA
+1.718.306.9396 voice
+1.734.661.1655 fax
[email_address]
www.louisrosenfeld.com
www.rosenfeldmedia.com

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A Brief (and Practical) Introduction to Information Architecture

by Louis Rosenfeld on Jul 26, 2007

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