Slides from Peter Morville's talk at UX Lisbon 2012.

1. The Architecture
of Understanding
Peter Morville, UX Lisbon 2012 1

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5. #dtdt
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6. Polar Bear IA
in•for•ma•tion ar•chi•tec•turen.
• The structural design of shared
information environments.
• The combination of organization,
labeling, search, and navigation
systems in web sites and intranets.
• The art and science of shaping
information products and experiences
to support usability and findability.
• An emerging discipline and
community of practice focused on
bringing principles of design and
architecture to the digital landscape.
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9. Fragmentation
Fragmentation into multiple
sites, domains, and identities is
clearly a major problem. Users
don’t know which site to visit
for which purpose.
Findability
Users can’t find what they need
from the home page, but most
users don’t come through the
front door. They enter via a web
search or a deep link, and are
confused by what they find.
Even worse, most never use the
Library, because its resources
aren’t easily findable.

10. Web Strategy
1. One Library
2. Core Areas
3. Network Intelligence
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13. Search is a Complex, Adaptive System
Source: Search Patterns (2010) 13

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15. Where architects use
forms and spaces to design
environments for inhabitation,
information architects use
nodes and links to create
environments for understanding.
Jorge Arango, Architectures
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17. “Desire Lines” 17
Photo: Berkeley Path Gallery by Kevin Fox

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21. Experiences Across Channels

23. World’s Best
Information Architect
Source: Subject to Change (2008)
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26. Desktop
Mobile
Kiosk
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27. Sensors
• Location (GPS)
• Orientation (Compass)
• Motion (Accelerometer)
• Orientation/Motion (Gyroscope)
• Touch (Multi-Touch, Gestural)
• Light (Ambient)
• Proximity
• Device (Bluetooth)
• Audio (Microphone)
• Image/Video (Camera)
• RFID (Soon)
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29. “After a half-hour, a three-tone alert sounds…If the
bottle still has not been opened, the system makes an
automated reminder phone call to the patient or a
caregiver. The GlowCap system compiles adherence data
which anyone can be authorized to track. That way the
doctor can make sure Gramps stays on his meds.”
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33. BrainPort
Camera in glasses
captures video.
Image recreated on
grid of 400 electrodes.
User feels the shape
on the tongue.
Brain learns to see
through the tongue.
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34. Touchpoint Taxonomy Media
Book
Channel Platform Newspaper
Web Web Magazine
Product Social Media iOS Video
Packaging Email Android Audio
Print Catalog Messaging Poster
Mac OS X Billboard
Telephone
Call Center Print
MS Windows
Website
Blog Context
Facebook Home
Twitter Work
Walking
YouTube Device Driving
Email Desktop Shopping
Direct Mail Laptop
Scale
Plane
Radio Mobile Party
Covert
Tablet Personal
Television Television
Mobile
Social
Personal
Kiosk Location
Environmental
Time
Architectural
Task
Urban
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35. Design Principles
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36. Cross-Channel Strategy
http://findability.org/archives/000652.php
Composition multi- or cross-channel; mix of
platforms, devices, media; coherence
Consistency brand, features, organization, interaction
balanced against value of optimization
Connection links, tags, signs, maps; call to action
Continuity bookmark, resume playback, flow
Context personal, social, location, time, task
Conflict 36
identify/resolve, org chart, free-riding

37. Adapted from Cross-Platform Service User Experience
portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1851637 37

38. Craft beautiful designs that deliver a quality experience
to your users no matter how large (or small) their display.
1. Fluid Grids
2. Flexible Images
3. Media Queries
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40. Why Separate Mobile & Desktop Web Pages at Bagcheck?
With a dual template system, we were able to optimize:
1. Source Order
2. Media (Speed, Quality, Interaction)
3. URL Structure Navigation
4. Application Design at Top
Navigation at
Bottom
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41. To make the right decisions about composition and
consistency, you need a cross-channel strategy.
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42. Design for Connection
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43. Over 50% of REI
online business is
picked up in a store.
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46. Barcode
Identifies a Product (e.g. Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes 14 oz.)
QR Code
Initiates a Response (e.g., URL, Message, Phone, SMS, Email)
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48. Price Check
Product Detail
Endless Aisle 48

49. Continuity
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50. Conflict
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51. Context
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52. Cross-Channel
We must leave our
Marathon
comfort zones, cross-train,
and collaborate.
Triathlon 52

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55. Source:delightability.com
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58. morville@semanticstudios.com
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59. morville@semanticstudios.com
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60. morville@semanticstudios.com
UX Swimlanes
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61. morville@semanticstudios.com
“There is nothing more
basic than
categorization to our
thought, perception,
action, and speech.”
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63. What architects do for
buildings, information architects do
for…

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65. “There is a problem in discussing systems only
with words. Words and sentences must, by
necessity, come only one a time in linear, logical
order. Systems happen all at once. They are
connected not just in one direction, but in many
directions simultaneously. To discuss them
properly, it is necessary to use a language that
shares some of the same properties as the
phenomena under discussion.”

66. "In an era of cross-channel
experiences and product-service
systems, it makes less and less
sense to design sitemaps and
wireframes without also..."

67. “…mapping the customer journey, modeling the system dynamics, and
analyzing impacts upon business processes, incentives, and the org chart."

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70. morville@semanticstudios.com
Richard Saul Wurman’s Sandcastles (1971). Stolen from The Nature of IA by Dan Klyn (2010).

71. IA Therefore I Am
Peter Morville
morville@semanticstudios.com
Understanding IA (Prezi)
http://is.gd/iaprezi
Blog
http://findability.org/
Twitter
@morville
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