IA For Drupal - Victoria Drupalcamp Presentation

IA for Drupal
Vanessa Turke
Solution Architect
ImageX Media

what is IA? Information Architecture (as defined by the IA Institute) “ The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability.”

what is the value of IA?
The cost of finding information
The cost of not finding information
The cost of using information
The cost of building and managing information systems
The value of educating employees and customers
The value of creating knowledge networks
The value of strengthening brand
The value of fostering innovation
http://iainstitute.org/en/about/our_mission.php
Carolyn Chandler & Unger, Russ. Project Guide to UX Design, A: For user experience designers in the field or in the making: New Riders, the Voices That Matter series, 2009

IA components
Organization systems - How we categorize information
Labeling systems - How we represent information
Navigation systems - How we move through information
Searching systems - How we search information
Peter Morville, Louis Rosenfeld. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web O'Reilly, 2006

process overview
Identify the project needs
Conduct research
Create project strategy
Design navigation system
Organize, classify & label
Create wireframe

identify project needs
Type of Organization
Type of Website
Type of Audience

organization type
Company, Non-profit, etc.
Philosophy
Process
Role of website in their business plan

website type
Brand Presence
Marketing Campaign
Content Source
Task-based application
E-Commerce (combines 1-4)
E-Learning (combines 3 & 4)
Social Network (can combine 1,2,3 & 4)

audience
Customers/Clients/Members
Employees/Staff/Internal
Competitors
??? (find out)

conducting research
Website Metrics / Analytics
Inventory of all site content
Stakeholder interviews
User testing
Environmental scan
http://www.slideshare.net/rhanna/preparing-for-successful-content-management

user profiles/personas
Fictitious characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product.
Personas need stories to make them complete
Focus on storytelling, and don’t try to represent complete task analysis
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/personas-and-the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_%28marketing%29

stories for personas
Springboard stories: needs and goals
Points of pain' stories: barriers to overcome
Key scenarios: context for actions
Narrative scenarios: what happens and why
Design Maps: perceptions, actions and barriers
Flow diagrams: actions and decisions
Use cases: detailed sequences of actions
http://www.wqusability.com/articles/personas_storytelling.html

story goals
Establish a goal and context -Why is the persona using the product now. What will make this interaction successful?
Describe the interaction - Stay at a high level and avoid detailed descriptions of the interface.
End with the result - What happens as a result of this interaction? What made it a success?
http://www.wqusability.com/articles/personas_storytelling.html

creating a project strategy
“ There’s more to it than wireframes, logos, sitemaps, or stationary systems. A good brand is resultant upon aligning an organization’s values realistically and building something around this that resonates and holds value for potential customers”
smashLAB's, Eric Karjaluoto

creating a project strategy
What is the business goal of the website?
What is the mission critical task for a user to complete?

information architecture approaches
Architecture mirroring real systems
Need recognition
Self selection
Multi-dimensional Architecture
http://webdesignfromscratch.com/website-architecture/information-architecture.php

designing navigational systems
What is this page about?
What site is this?
What are the major sections of this site?
What major section is this page in?
What is "up" 1 level from here?
How do I get to the home page of this site?
How do I get to the top of this section of the site?
What does each group of links represent?
http://instone.org/navstress

visitors information needs
How do I get around this site?
What’s important and unique about this organization?
What’s available on this site?
What’s happening there?
Do they want my opinion about their site?
How can I contact a human?
Any mission critical information for primary users
Ash, Tim. Landing Page Optimization, The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions: Sybex, Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2008
Peter Morville, Louis Rosenfeld. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web O'Reilly, 2006

assume nothing
“ ...Let me reassure you that way more of your website visitors just fundamentally don’t ‘get it’ than you’d ever suspect.”
Jeff Sexton, GrokDotCom

assume nothing
Not long ago, Google asked people in New York’s Times Square if they could describe what a ‘browser’ was...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ

eschew obfuscation (make navigation titles easy)
Research industry terms
Highlight every industry term, phrase, or concept in your site content
Interview random people on the street about them
Ask repeated ‘why’ questions regarding your industry terms and concepts
Come up with answers a 10-year old would understand
http://www.grokdotcom.com/2009/08/07/im-not-an-idiot-but-i-play-one-on-online-and-so-should-you/

website navigation models
List of contents
Breadcrumb trail
Horizontal top bar
Tabs
2-level top (bar or tabs)
Top and side bars
Buttons bar with revealed drop-down
Multiple-level tree nav
Paging
http://webdesignfromscratch.com/website-architecture/navigation-models.php

sitemaps

understanding ways users approach a task
Known-item
Exploratory
Don’t know what you need to know
Re-finding
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/four_modes_of_seeking_information_and_how_to_design_for_them

known item
Searchbox
A-Z indexes of terms
Quick links
Navigation

exploratory
Navigation
Related information
Contextual links
Search

don’t know what you need to know
Straightforward answers
Summaries
Outlines of Services
List of latest news, articles, blogs
FAQs
Related/contextual links in content body

re-finding
Wishlists (amazon.com)
Bookmarking
Quick links
User-based

consulting analytics

organizing analytics information http://www.alistapart.com/articles/taking-the-guesswork-out-of-design/

create attention map to prioritize page elements
http://webdesignfromscratch.com/web-design/attention-map.php
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/taking-the-guesswork-out-of-design/

sketching out initial layout
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/466-sketching-with-a-sharpie

organizing, classifying & labeling
Identify content types
Identify attributes & values
Identify relationships
Identify terms & vocabulary
http://www.agiledata.org/essays/dataModeling101.html

(Presentation Slide Content Type) title title title
Body
Resource

content types documented

roles and permissions documented

The Nine Pillars of Sucessful Web Teams
User Research*
Site Strategy*
Technology Strategy
Content Strategy*
Abstract Design*
Technology Implementation
Content Production
Concrete Design
Project Management
http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000242.php

thank you!
Vanessa Turke
http://www.imagexmedia.com/about/team/vanessa-turke
Presentation Resources:
http://www.vanessaturke.net/ia-ux

IA For Drupal - Victoria Drupalcamp Presentation

by Vanessa Turke on Sep 15, 2009

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IA For Drupal - Victoria Drupalcamp Presentation Presentation Transcript

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