Falling in and out and in love with Information Architecture

1. Falling in and out and in love with Information Architecture Lou Rosenfeld • May 4, 2018

2. what I’ll cover What information architecture is Why we fall in love with it Why we fall out of love with it And why we fall back in love with it

3. 1 What is   information architecture?

4. A deﬁnition    “The craft of structuring, organizing, and labeling information to make it easier to ﬁnd and understand.”

5. Questions to answer    What are the common information needs? What are common information-seeking behaviors? What content goes where? What content goes together?  What content is most important?

6. Information architecture   ingredients

7. (obligatoryVenn diagram)

8. From http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000024.html

9. Information architecture components • Labeling systems: metadata, controlled vocabularies, thesauri • Organization systems: taxonomies, content models, ontologies • Navigation systems: top-down/site-wide, contextual • Search systems: interface design, indexing, results design

10. Finding + understanding = iterative searching / browsing / learning

11. Information architecture   is always present

12. From https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chess#mediaviewer/File:Opening_chess_position_from_black_side.jpg

13. From https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Postcard-for-correspondence-chess_%28trimmed_image%29.png

14. Information architecture   is invisible    

15. Information architecture   is invisible     …until it’s not

16. From https://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?178

17. From https://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?178

18. today

19. today

20. today search navigation, labeling, organization

21. today

22. today content model metadata metadata content object content object content objectcontent object content object

23. Information architecture   helps makers   as well as users

24. From https://biblioklept.org/2013/05/15/joseph-hellers-handwritten-outline-for-catch-22/

25. From “Information Architecture in Real Life” Are Halland:   https://www.slideshare.net/aregh/information-architecture-in-real-life-part-i From “Information Architecture for the WWW” 2nd ed.

26. Information architecture  is a lens on culture

27. Information architecture  can be dangerous

28. 2 Falling in love with information architecture

29. It’s natural to   organize stuff… the Bower Bird Ptilonorhynchidae

30. From http://www.viralforest.com/bower-bird/ the Bower Bird Ptilonorhynchidae

33. the Information Architect Homo sapiens inconfusus

34. the Information Architect Homo sapiens inconfusus

35. the Information Architect Homo sapiens inconfusus …and fun too

36. The gravity of the gaps

37. The gravity of the gaps

38. It’s necessary   to organize stuff Read about my experience consulting for the US Department of Veterans Affairs: http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/2009/07/shame_and_disgust.html

39. It’s necessary   to organize stuff …and ethical too Read about my experience consulting for the US Department of Veterans Affairs: http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/2009/07/shame_and_disgust.html

40. 3 Falling out of love with information architecture

41. Mgmt. incentives for teams "Org chart" site map Topical guides Site-wide site index Content inventory Content analysis Ubiquitous simple search IF Index all enterprise content K-logs for key people Wikis for key teams Top-Down Navigation Bottom-Up Navigation Search "Guerrilla" Information Architecture "Shallow" topical hierarchy Topical site map Topical subsites Product hierarchy Business function hierarchy "Deep" topical hierarchy Specialized content index Select content models Identify content objects Metadata for objects Linking rules for objects Connect content models Spell- checking Stemming Develop "Best Bets" Clustered by existing metadata Remove duplicate results Clustered from auto- classification Consistent document titling Clustered by topical metadata Clustered by fielded criteria Document auto- classification Document auto- categorization Consistent semantic metadata Cross-walking/ switching vocabs. Meta- or enterprise thesaurus Link staff directory to k-logs Link staff directory to wikis Broaden k-log coverage Broaden wiki coverage K-log aggregation (RSS) HR incentives for KM K-logs made searchable Wikis made searchable Site hierarchy Site map "Org chart" hierarchy Site index Selective navigation Content modeling Metadata development Search queries Search results Content from teams, communities Content from experts Launch content models Synonyms from thesauri Enterprise Information Architecture Roadmap Louis Rosenfeld http://www.louisrosenfeld.com Version 3.0; February, 2006 Your mileage will vary. Many enterprises have failed to integrate content from across departmental "silos" in ways that make sense to users. This Roadmap breaks down information architecture design into four major tracks, and plots concrete steps within each track over time with the goal of making information easier to find across silos. Use the Roadmap as a straw man to inform and shape your own enterprise IA strategy. Want more? • Definitions, explanation, and discussion: http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000359.html • Enterprise Information Architecture seminar with Lou Rosenfeld: http://louisrosenfeld.com/eia/ Consistent structural metadata Use connective tools (a la Technorati) K-logs linked from taxonomy Wikis linked from taxonomy Enable user keyword tagging Metadata gap analysis Delete site index Faceted navigation Politicized main page User- centered main page Main page Enterprise -centered main page "Revise search" interface Search interface Consistent specialized search IFs Consistent simple search IF design Metadata attribute inventory Metadata tagging Acquire external CVs Metadata value inventory Enable author keyword tagging Manual tagging of key areas Tuning of automatic tagging Concept- searching Very Soon Near Term Long Term Way Off © 2006 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All right reserved. Site-wide index from common queries Faceted metadata

42. Big IA challenges require changing culture more than sites

43. Big IA challenges require changing culture more than sites and… big evidence

44. Reports from the user research group

45. Query data from the search team XXX.XXX.X.104 - - [10/Jul/2013:10:25:46 -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=ww w&q=lincense+plate&ip=XXX.XXX.X.104 HTTP/1.1" 200 971 0 0.02 XXX.XXX.X.104 - - [10/Jul/2013:10:25:48 -0800] "GET /search? access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ie=U TF-8&client=www&q=license+plate  &ud=1&site=AllSites&spell=1&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=www&ip=XX X.XXX.X.104 HTTP/1.1" 200 8283 146 0.16 XXX.XXX.XX.130 - - [10/Jul/2013:10:24:38 -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=ww

46. Logs from the call center

47. Reports from analytics applications

48. “Learnings” fromVoice of the Customer research

49. Reports from CRM applications

50. Surveys behind Net Promoter Score

51. Studies from the research center

52. Analysis of social media

53. Brand architecture research

54. No shortage of evidence But how do we make sense of it?

55. What Why

56. Methods employed: quantitative versus qualitative

57. Goals: help org or users Organizational goals Users’ goals

58. How they use data: measuring world we know versus world we don’t Measuring the world we know   Exploring the world we don’t

59. Descriptive data Statistical data

60. The blind men and the elephant The insight gap

61. The operations gap

62. WeWork’s Polaris 1. Siloed research 2. Gaps in research memory 3. Reports instead of insight

63. WeWork: "nuggetization" + metadata

64. WeWork: "nuggetization" + metadata content objects metadata

67. WeWork: ﬁlter/search this stuff content objects metadata

68. WeWork: an insight content objects metadata

69. 4 Falling back in love with information architecture

70. Opportunity Information architecture   for enabling operations

71. metadata

72. metadata

73. metadata!!!!

74. from DevOps: https://devops.com/2014/04/07/evolve-devops/ DevOps => DecisionOps DevOps

75. from DevOps: https://devops.com/2014/04/07/evolve-devops/ DevOps => DecisionOps DevOps DesignOps

76. from DevOps: https://devops.com/2014/04/07/evolve-devops/ DevOps => DecisionOps DevOps DesignOps ResearchOps

77. from DevOps: https://devops.com/2014/04/07/evolve-devops/ DevOps => DecisionOps DevOps DesignOps ResearchOps InsightOps

78. from DevOps: https://devops.com/2014/04/07/evolve-devops/ DevOps => DecisionOps DevOps DesignOps ResearchOps InsightOps Operations is nascent… and requires IA CreativeOps, Social Media Ops, DataOps…

79. Opportunity Information architecture   enables Artiﬁcial Intelligence

80. “AI requires machine learning, machine learning requires analytics, and analytics requires the right data and information architecture (IA). In other words, there is no AI without IA.”    — RobThomas, general manager at IBM Analytics. From VentureBeat, January 2018 https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/12/the-road-to-ai-leads-through-information-architecture/

81. From presentation “AI and ML Demystified”; Carol Smith at Midwest UX 2017:   https://www.slideshare.net/carologic/ai-and-machine-learning-demystified-by-carol-smith-at-midwest-ux-2017/16-AI_and_ML_Demystified_carologic

82. From presentation “AI and ML Demystified”; Carol Smith at Midwest UX 2017:   https://www.slideshare.net/carologic/ai-and-machine-learning-demystified-by-carol-smith-at-midwest-ux-2017/16-AI_and_ML_Demystified_carologic Information architect as teacher of algorithms

83. Opportunity Information architecture   improves everyday experiences

84. Reconsidering the IA of books… FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS What do you mean by “content everywhere”? The way I talk about it, “content everywhere” doesn’t mean splattering your message in every corner of the Web. It’s about investing in content that’s flexible enough to go wherever you need it: multiple websites, apps, chan- nels, and other experiences. Why? Because devices of all shapes, sizes, and capabilities are flooding the market, and users expect to get your content on all of them, which you can read about in Chapter 1. Right now, most organizations can barely keep up with their large, unwieldy desktop websites, much less multiple different sets of content for all these different experiences. Content everywhere is all about learning how to pre- pare one set of content to go wherever it’s needed—now and in the future. What do you mean by structured content, and why is it so important? Today, most digital content is unstructured: just words poured onto a page. To signify where one part ends and another begins, writers use formatting, like upping a font size to be a headline or putting an author’s name in italics. This works fine if your content is only going to be used on a single page and viewed on a desktop monitor, but that’s about it. Structured content, on the other hand, is created in smaller modules, which can be stored and used in lots more ways. For example, you could display a headline and a copy teaser in one place, and have a user click to read the rest—something you can’t do if the story is all one blob. You can give the same content different presentation rules when it’s displayed on mobile, such as resizing headlines or changing which content is prioritized or emphasized—automatically. In this way, adding structure actually makes content more flexible, because it allows you to do more with it. You can learn about this in Chapter 5. But don’t I need different, simpler content for mobile? Inserted an FAQ before the TOC for additional context, navigation, and orientation

85. Reconsidering the IA of books… FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS What do you mean by “content everywhere”? The way I talk about it, “content everywhere” doesn’t mean splattering your message in every corner of the Web. It’s about investing in content that’s flexible enough to go wherever you need it: multiple websites, apps, chan- nels, and other experiences. Why? Because devices of all shapes, sizes, and capabilities are flooding the market, and users expect to get your content on all of them, which you can read about in Chapter 1. Right now, most organizations can barely keep up with their large, unwieldy desktop websites, much less multiple different sets of content for all these different experiences. Content everywhere is all about learning how to pre- pare one set of content to go wherever it’s needed—now and in the future. What do you mean by structured content, and why is it so important? Today, most digital content is unstructured: just words poured onto a page. To signify where one part ends and another begins, writers use formatting, like upping a font size to be a headline or putting an author’s name in italics. This works fine if your content is only going to be used on a single page and viewed on a desktop monitor, but that’s about it. Structured content, on the other hand, is created in smaller modules, which can be stored and used in lots more ways. For example, you could display a headline and a copy teaser in one place, and have a user click to read the rest—something you can’t do if the story is all one blob. You can give the same content different presentation rules when it’s displayed on mobile, such as resizing headlines or changing which content is prioritized or emphasized—automatically. In this way, adding structure actually makes content more flexible, because it allows you to do more with it. You can learn about this in Chapter 5. But don’t I need different, simpler content for mobile? Inserted an FAQ before the TOC for additional context, navigation, and orientation Navigation

86. Story arc from Donna Lichaw’s The User’s Journey (Rosenfeld Media, 2016) …and conferences

87. PARTY!

88. PARTY!

89. PARTY! delayed Climax!

90. Now is the time! • Tribal information architecture is over • Moving beyond website information architecture • More gaps than ever before • The ethics of ﬁnding and using information more important than ever

91. if we have time a thought about  Venn diagrams

92. From https://uxdesign.cc/ux-venn-diagrams-82e11e35570e

93. From http://peoplevendor.com/ux-design-services/

94. From http://jemrosario.com/portfolio-item/camh-content-strategy/

95. From https://www.pinterest.co.uk/source/ux.stackexchange.com/

96. From https://ia.net/topics/the-spectrum-of-user-experience-1

97. It’s all about the intersection

98. It’s all about the intersection convergence

99. It’s all about the intersection It’s your journey; surrender to it convergence

100. Thanks! slides   https://rﬂd.me/2JQeGgH Lou Rosenfeld @louisrosenfeld lou@rosenfeldmedia.com www.rosenfeldmedia.com • @rosenfeldmedia

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