IA Core Concepts and Best Practices
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Core concepts and best practices for information architecture and user experience in the higher education industry.
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IA Core Concepts and Best Practices
- 1. Information Architecture: Core Concepts and Best Practices Francis Zablocki, Strategist mStoner
- 2. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE mStoner CORE CONCEPTS USER EXPERIENCE BEST PRACTICES 23 February 2016 Fran Zablocki
- 3. m Fran Zablocki Strategist at mStoner @Zablocki ABOUT ME
- 5. DEFINITION ELEMENTS IA PRACTICE ON CAMPUS CONTEXT USER EXPERIENCE DISCIPLINES
- 6. m CONTEXT The structured design of shared information environments. Source: IA for the WWW, Morville & Rosenfeld, 2006 INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE IS:
- 7. m CONTEXT The combination of organization, labeling, search, and navigation systems within web sites and intranets. Source: IA for the WWW, Morville & Rosenfeld, 2006 INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE IS:
- 8. m CONTEXT The art and science of shaping information products and experiences to support usability and findability. Source: IA for the WWW, Morville & Rosenfeld, 2006 INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE IS:
- 9. “The work we do involves high levels of abstraction, ambiguity, and occasionally absurdity, and to some degree we’re all still making it up as we go along.” — Peter Morville & Louis Rosenfeld, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 2006
- 10. m How do we make sense of all of this?CONTEXT
- 11. m Planned Structure Form & Function Designated Pathways But the analogy only gets so far... INFORMATION VS. PHYSICAL ARCHITECTURE CONTEXT
- 12. Most buildings aren’t designed to be entered via: • The window • The ceiling • The plumbing But most websites have to be. http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4019/4684666416_1750a85773.jpg
- 14. m The Elements of User Experience Jesse James Garrett A Visual Model to Make Sense of a Rapidly Evolving Field Because IA is a piece of a much bigger puzzle, we need to understand how all the pieces fit together. USER EXPERIENCE OUR MODEL
- 19. m What do your visitors need to do? Research Compare Apply Donate Contact USER EXPERIENCE STRATEGY: USER NEEDS
- 20. m What do your visitors need to know? Why is your school is a good fit for me? Who teaches and learns at your school? How can I apply? When should I apply? What’s the latest news? Where are you located? USER EXPERIENCE STRATEGY: USER NEEDS
- 21. m What purpose does this site serve? To sell your institution to prospective students. To encourage alumni engagement. To provide employees with resources. USER EXPERIENCE STRATEGY: SITE OBJECTIVES
- 22. m What business objective does the site meet? Increase applications. Increase donations. Decrease time spent on information requests. STRATEGY: SITE OBJECTIVES USER EXPERIENCE
- 28. m What features will the site need to include? Search Social Media Video Forms Logins USER EXPERIENCE SCOPE: FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS
- 29. m What content will the site need to include? Notifications Events News Testimonials Reference SCOPE: CONTENT SPECIFICATIONS USER EXPERIENCE
- 34. m Information architecture is the structure of content. It is the structure, order, and hierarchy of content labels and categories. STRUCTURE: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE Source: http://www.jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf USER EXPERIENCE
- 35. m Interaction design is the structure of experience. It’s the hover state, slide out effect and behavior of that structure. STRUCTURE: INTERACTION DESIGN Source: http://www.jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf USER EXPERIENCE
- 40. m Decisions: What font will we use for the navigation? How much space (kerning) between the navigation items? How will different navigation elements be placed in relation to one another (alignment)? SKELETON: INFORMATION DESIGN USER EXPERIENCE
- 41. m Decisions: Carets or Bullets or Arrows to represent child links? Bold or Underline to represent what page people are on? SKELETON: NAVIGATION DESIGN USER EXPERIENCE
- 42. m Decisions: Does the navigation expand on hover or click? Does the navigation slide out sideways, or down? How many levels are shown at once? SKELETON: INTERFACE DESIGN USER EXPERIENCE
- 43. m
- 47. m Every layer below contributes to visual design. Each layer is invisible to the visitor - they just see ‘the design’. Even as site creators, we don’t typically think of each of these components in isolation. SURFACE: VISUAL DESIGN USER EXPERIENCE
- 49. m
- 51. ELEMENTS IA PRACTIVE ON CAMPUS DEFINITION SCHEMES & STRUCTURES TAXONOMY & VOCABULARY
- 56. m Topical Tells the visitor what the most important categories of information are. AMBIGUOUS ORGANIZATIONAL SCHEMES SCHEMES & STRUCTURES
- 58. m Audience Asks the user ‘Who are you?’, ‘How do you identify yourself?’ AMBIGUOUS ORGANIZATIONAL SCHEMES SCHEMES & STRUCTURES
- 60. m Task Designed to allow someone to accomplish something. Uses action verbs in labels. AMBIGUOUS ORGANIZATIONAL SCHEMES SCHEMES & STRUCTURES
- 62. m Global Local Hybrid (MegaMenu) DEPTH OF STRUCTURE SCHEMES & STRUCTURES
- 64. Local Navigation
- 66. m Contextual Supplementary Convenience Site Map BREADTH OF STRUCTURE SCHEMES & STRUCTURES
- 70. Site Map
- 71. ELEMENTS IA PRACTICE ON CAMPUS DEFINITION SCHEMES & STRUCTURES TAXONOMY & VOCABULARY
- 72. m Know Your Audience Be Efficient Anticipate what the user will expect to see TAXONOMY TIPS TAXONOMY & VOCABULARY
- 73. The label says research - where does it lead?
- 75. m Uniform method of describing things Provides quality and consistency Consistency means predictability ‘About’ or ‘About Us’? ‘Admission’ or ‘Admissions’ CONTROLLED VOCABULARY TAXONOMY & VOCABULARY
- 78. STAFFING Ideal: Dedicated Information Architect on staff Reality: Key point person for IA Goal: All staff associated with the web need to be versed WHO SHOULD DO IT?
- 79. STAFFING You are ALL information architects! WHO SHOULD DO IT?
- 80. Demand that IA be taken seriously Use the tools at your disposal Read, watch, listen, learn - there is an entire IA community out there BE A CHAMPION EVANGELISM
- 81. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Establish IA as a real thing, just like design, development, and content Use case studies from industry Insert IA into your training regimen Build up expertise among staff who work in the UX family (hint: that’s everybody) IA AT YOUR SCHOOL
- 82. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (Book): http://amzn.to/3RqL7y Elements of User Experience (Book) http://amzn.to/18Q4fA4 Jesse James Garrett http://www.jjg.net Karen McGrane http://karenmcgrane.com RESOURCES PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- 83. Adaptive Path adaptivepath.com/events-training Smashing Magazine smashingmagazine.com A List Apart’s UX section alistapart.com/topics/user- experience mStoner Blog mstoner.com/team/fran-zablocki/ RESOURCES PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- 84. THANK YOU! QUESTIONS? HELP US HELP YOU WITH IA @MSTONERINC | 773.305.0537 CASSI.GREENLEE@MSTONER.COM mStoner
- 85. Strategy. Research. Branding. User Experience. Content Strategy. Digital and Print Design. User Testing. Technical Execution. www.mstoner.com 773.305.0537 cassi.greenlee@mstoner.com @mStonerInc