Presentation by Amy J. Warner, Ph.D at Information Architecture Summit, March 16, 2002

1. Taxonomy & Metadata / Information
Architecture Consulting
The LIS Foundations of IA
A Presentation Made at the
University of Arizona SIRLS
Amy J. Warner, Ph.D.
Amy J. Warner, Ph.D.

2. Who I Am
Amy J. Warner, Ph.D. (warneramyj@yahoo.com)
• Independent consultant in taxonomy & metadata
design and information architecture
• Formerly Thesaurus Design Specialist with Argus
Associates, Inc.
• Faculty member in library and information science at
University of Wisconsin-Madison (1985-1988) and
University of Michigan (1989-2000)
• Co-author of Information Retrieval Today
• Fortune 500 consulting
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3. Outline
• What is IA?
– IA defined
– Why IA is important
– Basic concepts and building blocks of IA
• IA in context
– IA and users
– IA and business context
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4. Definition of IA
The art and science of structuring and organizing
information systems to help people achieve their
goals.
The application of principles and methods of library
and information science (LIS) to the design of
corporate intranets and websites.
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5. Why Is IA Important
• Costs
– To the user
• Finding information (time, # of clicks,
frustration, precision)
• Not finding information (recall, frustration)
– To the organization (lost revenue,
competition)
• Value of learning (related products,
services, projects, people)
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6. Why Is IA Important
Web Site Statistics
• Wasted expense: most sites will waste between
$1.5M and $2.1M on redesign next year
• Forfeited revenue: poorly architected retail sites are
underselling by as much as 50%
• Lost customers: the sites we tested are driving away
up to 40% of repeat traffic
• Eroded brand: people who have a bad experience
typically tell 10 others
Forrester Research
Why Most Web Sites Fail (Sept. ‘96)
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7. Why Is IA Important
Intranet Statistics
• Employees spend 35% of productive time searching for
information online (Working Council for Chief Information
Officers)
• Managers spend 17% of their time (6 weeks a year) searching
for information (Information Ecology, Thomas Davenport &
Lawrence Prusack)
• Sun’s usability experts calculated that 21,000 employees were
wasting an average of six minutes per day due to inconsistent
intranet navigation structures. When lost time was multiplied by
staff salaries, the estimated productivity loss exceeded $10M
per year (Web Design and Development, Jakob Nielsen [Sept.
1997)
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8. Why IA Fails
• ‘Internet time’
• Cultural issues--developers, librarians,
managers
• Project management
• Underestimating the problem
– Thinking it’s easy
– Good IA is ‘invisible’
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9. Why IA Is Hard
• Expectations
– Underestimating time/cost
– Underestimating difficulty of task
• Diversity: goals, users, authors
• Heterogeneous content / objects
• Relevance is subjective and situational
• Organization & language are
ambiguous
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10. Making IA a Manageable
Problem
• Identify and address the major needs of
major audiences
• Remove old, outdated content (ROT)
• Enable precision
• Design for the 80/20 rule
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11. Basic Concepts/Components
of IA
• Organization systems
• Navigation systems
• Labeling systems
• Searching systems
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12. Organization Systems
• Organization scheme
– defines the shared characteristics of content items and
influences the logical grouping of those items
– identify through content inventory
– types
• exact--divide information into well-defined and mutually
exclusive groups (alphabetical, chronological, geographical)
• ambiguous--divide information into categories that are not
exactly defined or necessarily mutually exclusive (topical, task-
oriented, audience specific, metaphor driven
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13. Organization Scheme, cont.
• Organization structure
– defines the principle ways in which users can navigate
– often can be determined through user research
– models
• hierarchy--top down
– polyhierarchies
– depth vs. breadth
• hypertext--nonlinear
– chunking and linking
• databases--relational
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14. Navigation Systems
• Hierarchical navigation systems--the information hierarchy is the
primary navigation system
• Global navigation systems--often enables greater vertical and
lateral navigation within a site
• Local navigation systems--often used for sub-sites
• Ad hoc navigation--relationships between individual content
items or groups of content items; usually embedded within a
page
• Mechanisms for producing navigation systems
– navigation bars
– frames
– pull-down menus
– tables of content, indexes, site map, guide pages
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15. Vanguard.com Navigation
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16. Vanguard.com Navigation
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17. GlobalVolunteers.com Navigation
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18. Labeling Systems
• Synonymy and ambiguity
• Labels as links
• Labels and index/search terms
• Labels as headings on pages
• Sources for labeling systems
– other web sites
– controlled vocabularies outside, inside the
organization
– content
– users and experts
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19. Subject/Contextual
Clarification of Labels
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20. Ambiguity of Index Terms
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21. Synonymy of Labels on Same
Page
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22. Inconsistency of Labeling
Across Pages
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24. Searching Systems
• Support different types of search
– comprehensiveness vs accuracy
– exploration
– existence
• Support different search mechanisms
– Natural language vs. controlled vocabulary
– Searching fields
– Retrieval models (boolean, statistical, etc.)
• Integrate search and browse
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25. Integration of Search and
Browse
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26. Amazon.com Advanced
Search
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27. IA ‘Generations’
• ‘Brochureware’
• Pages served from database
• Metadata-driven website
CMS
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28. An Ecological Approach
Business
Context
Content Users
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29. IA From Top to Bottom
Top-Down Bottom-Up
portal sub-site
strategy objects
hierarchy metadata
primary path multiple paths
portal
Object X
Name:
Product Category:
Topic:
Stale Date:
Author:
Security:
local subsites
(HR, Engineering, R&D…)
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30. Where Does IA Fit?
The Elements of
User Experience
Jesse James Garrett
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31. Why Metadata-Driven Web
Sites
Users Example
Personal Digital Assistant
Synonyms
Handheld Computer
"Alternate" Spellings
Persenal Digitel Asistent
Abbreviations / Acronyms
Communication Chasm PDA
Broader Terms
Wireless, Computers
Narrower Terms
PalmPilot, PocketPC
Related Terms
WindowsCE, Cell Phones
Documents and Applications
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32. Epicurious.com
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33. Epicurious.com Facets
Main Ingredients
Beans, Beef, Berries, Cheese, Chocolate, Citrus,
Season/Occasion
Dairy, Eggs, Fish, Fruits, Garlic, Ginger, Grains, Christmas, Easter, Fall, Fourth of July,
Greens, Herbs, Lamb, Mushrooms, Mustard, Nuts, Hanukkah, New Years, Picnics, Spring,
Olives, Onions, Pasta, Peppers, Pork, Potatoes, Summer, Superbowl, Thanksgiving,
Poultry, Rice, Shellfish, Tomatoes, Vegetables Valentine's Day, Winter
Cuisine
African, American, Asian, Caribbean, Eastern Course/Dish
European, French, Greek, Indian, Italian, Jewish,
Appetizers, Bread, Breakfast, Brunch,
Mediterranean, Mexican, Middle Eastern,
Condiments, Cookies, Desserts, Hors
Scandinavian, Spanish
D'oeuvres, Main Dish, Salads, Sandwiches,
Sauces, Side Dish, Snacks, Soup, Vegetables
Preparation Method
Advance, Bake, Broil, Fry, Grill, Marinade,
Microwave, No Cook, Poach, Quick, Roast,
Sauté, Slow Cook, Steam, Stir Fry
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34. Epicurious, First Facet Browse > Picnics
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35. Epicurious, Second Facet
Browse > Picnics
> Poultry
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36. Search Term
Bitpipe.com
Broader Term
Narrower Terms Related Terms
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37. Bitpipe’s CV
Web Application Software
BT Internet Application Software
NT eBusiness Software
eCommerce Software
Portal Applications Software
RT Internet
Web Applications Architectures
Web Development Tools
Webmaster
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38. Contact: Amy J. Warner
warneramyj@yahoo.com
Questions??
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