A case study on how to conduct an information audit while doing a card sorting exercise to determine your top navigation in your intranet. Great for a resource strapped environment.

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BIRTH 10 20 30 40 50 60 LIFELONG
You, too, can information audit:
A Case Study of Information Architecture in SharePoint
Sarah Burns, MLIS
Knowledge Management Coordinator
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Image from: http://mjwmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/InformationArchitecture_thumb.jpg
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3. Initial Information Master title style
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• Site structure was Master text styles
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• Based on rough information audit
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Based on general ideas about what is useful information
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Menu was auto-generated when site was added
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• Created without content
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4. Problems with Initial IA
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• Staff expressed frustration over not being able to find anything.
• Confusion over what menu options meant
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• Field staff disliked having a Departments site under the
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“Organization” menu because each field office has their own
departments level menu linked solely to HQ department sites.
• Third and the
• No ownership of the “Programs” menu and confusion over what
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should exist within those sites led to a dormant menu.
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Image from: http://media1.break.com/dnet/media/2008/12/34%20Confusion.jpg

5. iShare Improvement Projecttitle style
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• Conducted listening tour
• Developed project plan
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• Main objectives:
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– Re-designedlevel
Second top navigation
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Training
– Clearer guidance
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– Vision & Mission statements
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– Clearer governance
– Site Owner guidance
– Etc.
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6. Card-Sorting with a Twist title style
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• Conducted four focus group
sessions with staff from all units
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• Traditional methods:
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– Group the information into groups
and•name them; or
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– Fit the information into pre-existing
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• What we did?
– Group the information into groups
and name them
– Add new information that you want
access to (Information Audit!)
– Group that information into the
groups or create new ones
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7. Main lessons edit Master title style
Click to from Card Sorting exercises:
1. There is a lot of information that staff want to access through
• Click thatedit not exist onadditions. need to develop a menu
iShare does
Master iShare yet,
to to include these text styles
that grows
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2. Need to provide users clear guidance on what information should
live where; whether in iShare or in other system (primarily if
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project information should live in iShare or in the new financial
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management system).
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3. Staff stressed the importance of having universal navigation for HQ
and field staff; the navigation should make sense to all staff.
4. Staff consistently wanted the same information on the home page.
5. All staff wanted HR/Finance and Policies/Forms as main heading.
6. All staff wanted Directory/About Us as main heading (that linked to
printable pages of contact information.
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8. Re-designed Information Architecture
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• Kept site structure from launch, implemented HTML menu
• Click some pages of content to styles
• Createdto edit Master textmatch requests for information
• Used sub-headings to group items within the menu
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9. Three take-aways Master title style
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1. Don’t have time for an information audit? Conduct a Card-
Sorting with a Twist exercise to find what information users
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want, to edit Master text styles
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mental models.
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2. Build menu structure based on how users interact with
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information, not how it will be structured in the background
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to suit SharePoint permissioning and other considersations.
3. Build menu structure based on what information users want
on the intranet, not the content that currently exists, so that
the menu can expand and still meet needs as content grows.
Image from: http://ingridsnotes.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/einstein1.jpg
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10. Click to edit Master title style
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• Third level THANK YOU
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For more information, please visit www.pathfinder.org
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