1. Information
Architecture for
SharePoint
Johanna Dietrich & Andrew J Wright
#ia4sp

2. Why are you here?

3. Because…
You use SharePoint
• … and you’ve had problems in the past
You hear things like:
• “I know it’s there but I can’t find it”
• “The intranet doesn’t work”
• “I don’t get it” – new employee

4. You want to make
your SharePoint site better.

5. Information architecture n.
The combination of organization, labeling,
search, and navigation systems within web sites
and intranets.
* Excerpt from Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Peter Morville & Louis Rosenfeld

6. SharePoint is a powerful* tool
ü Sites
ü Communities
ü Content
ü Search * when you have a plan
Plan
ü Insights
ü Composites

7. The Plan
• Context and users
• Content analysis
• Labeling and navigation
• Content attributes
• Search
• Evaluation

8. Context
Information
Architecture
Users
Content

9. Users
• Develop a list of audiences/users
• Identify the tasks and/or information
needs of each group

10. User research methods
http://nform.com/cards

11. Context
Define your context by answering
these questions:
• What is the purpose of your site?
• Be specific
• What expectations exist for your site?

12. Broader Context
• Resourcing (budget, hardware,
software, people, expertise)
• Timelines
• Technology

13. Content
• Content review
• Inventory
• Analysis
• Content ownership
• Content planning
• Content migration

14. Content Review
Content Content
Inventory Analysis
Can be
Automated
Must be
Manual
Details • a list of all • the current state of
current the content
content • whether content can
be leveraged, deleted
or archived
• content gaps

16. A completed content
analysis will allow you to:
• evaluate the volume and quality of existing
content
• identify :
• content owners
• the structures in which the content resides
• types of content
• file types
• content duplication, and
• content gaps

17. Content Owners
• Identify
• Confirm
• Engage them early

18. Migration
Options for planning content migration
Manual
Hybrid
Automated

19. Migration Considerations
• Volume of content
• By type
• By location on current site
• Site structure similarity
• Types of resources available

20. Migration Considerations
• State of content
• Types of resources available
(technical vs. business/content
owners)

21. Organizing Content
• There is no single “right” way
• Understand the user’s perspective
• Laying the groundwork for navigation

22. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sewpixie/2408704780/

23. Navigation Types
Structural
Associative
* Adapted from Fiorito and Dalton’s model, after James Kalbach

24. Global Navigation
• Easy access to top level categories
• Takes the form of SharePoint sites
• Backbone of your IA

25. http://www.ibm.com/ibm/green/data_center.html

26. Local Navigation
• Browse more specific categories
• Sites, pages, document libraries*,
lists*, discussions*, …
• Only show what’s relevant

28. Associative
Navigation
• Teleport between topic areas
• Push related content

29. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16657122

30. “My Links”
• We all play “favourites”
• Provide personalized shortcuts

31. Labels
• Headings, link text, and navigation
• Speak the language of the end-users
• Validate and Evaluate

32. <title>Metadata</title>
• Data about data.
• Taxonomy or Folksonomy?
• Managed Metadata
( a.k.a. controlled vocabularies )

33. Ya, but what’s metadata
good for?

34. It’s good for…
• Defining meaningful Content Types
• Effective document storage and
document retrieval
• Associative navigation

35. Search
• Search is only as good as the
information it has to work with
(Garbage IN = Garbage OUT)

36. What is…
Garbage* Not Garbage
• Expired content • Meaningful, healthy content
• Poorly named pages and sites • Clear, concise page titles
• Overuse of “Create site” button • A sitemap that users understand
• Absence of metadata • Consistent metadata application
• Inconsistent metadata • Managed metadata terms
(a.k.a. Tagging free-for-all)
* Not necessarily “garbage,” just not very good for SharePoint search

37. Scopes = Structure + Content Types
Refiners = Metadata
Results = Content
Metadata + Structure + Content = a great SP search experience

38. Context
Investigated Context
Users
Researched Users
Content
Inventoried/Analyzed Content
Evaluate
Planned Migration
Organized Content
Created Navigation
Defined Metadata
Defined Content Types

39. Takeaways
• Plan to plan.
• Don’t assume anything
• SharePoint doesn’t manage itself.
• Follow the process.

40. SharePoint is a powerful* tool
* when you have a plan
Plan

41. Thank you.
Andrew J Wright
andrew.wright@nform.com | @andrewjwright
Johanna Dietrich
johanna.dietrich@nform.com