Informative Architecture [World IA Day 2017, San Francisco]

WORLD IA DAY 2017 | SAN FRANCISCO | FEBRUARY 18, 2017 | K. RUTTER | INFORMATIVE ARCHITECTURE: FROM FOUNDATIONS TO FLOURISHING
INFORMATIVE ARCHITECTURE
from foundations to ﬂourishing

Hello!
Principal, Intelleto.com
Co-Founder, Luxr.co
Sketchnoter, graphic recorder
Entrepreneurship + UX
@katerutter
http://intelleto.com

Also? I love crafting. crafts!

You…
?
?
?
?
?
?

Who has the phrase
“information architect 
in their job title?
?

IA

IA helps people…
Find something
Accomplish a task
And answer these questions:
Where am I? (am I in the right place?)
What is here? (do they have what I want?)
What else is here? (do they have something else I’d like?)
Be entertained
Connect with others

Metadata
Labeling
Controlled Vocabularies
Taxonomies
Ontologies
Other supercool concepts
Navigation & Wayﬁnding
Search
Organization structures
Content classiﬁcation
our wheelhouse…
our tools…

Superneat Idea
Stories from the ﬁeld
Opportunities to ﬂourish

Superneat Idea

3 orders of stuff

3 orders of stuff
1st order: the thing
2nd order:a thing with  
info that describes 
the thing
3rd order: just the info

3 orders of stuff
1st order: the thing
2nd order:a thing with  
info that describes 
the thing
3rd order: just the info !

Stories from the ﬁeld

So I did something
a little weird…

1. Service jobs don’t pay much.
2. When you do something out of the
norm, it’s uncomfortable.
3. It’s amazing what you can learn if
you get outside your comfort zone.

I fell in love with information
architecture again.
I spent each day immersed in
problems and experiencing
situations with the people.
And that changes everything.

I rekindled my enthusiasm for the
foundational work.
And I got excited about what the
future holds and how IA can
ﬂourish.

IA(BORN)
2

the stories

usenavigation
metadatasearch

search

search
OMG I CAN’T FIND
ANYTHING

…if you have
search in your
product?
?

Tune our search engines

How can you break it?
Where are there crappy
results?
Tune our search engines

icing:
26 results. Mostly edible.

frosting:
61 results. Mostly lighting.

frosting:
61 results. Mostly lighting.
And some poo.

More relationships = more complex.
Use our words

Cake
Decorating
Sugar Paste
Wilton
Decorating
Tips
Icing
Powdered
Icing Mix
Frosting
Liquid
Icing
Variant terms
Broader terms
Related terms
Narrower terms
Hierarchical AssociativeEquivalent
Use our words

…if you’ve looked at
your search logs within
the past 30 days.
?

Never underestimate  
the insights hidden in
search logs.
View the logs

metadata

metadata
DESCRIBE IT 
TO ME

…a dedicated indexer?
taxonomist?
cataloger?
?

…if you’ve created or
revised a metadata
schema in the 
last 30 days.
?

…a controlled vocabulary?
a synonym ring?
a thesaurus?
?

Metadata is the creative
material that stitches
together all the nouns into
something magical.
Make some metadata

Title
Publisher
Author
Call Number
No. of
pages
ISBN
Type
Price
Method
Size
Color
Weight
Region
Fruit
ID
Local ﬂavor
looks like…

How to use it?
■ Organizing
■ Searching
■ Browsing
■ Personalization and customization
■ Syndication
■ Auto-generation/population

There are caveats…

navigation

navigation
WHERE THE 
HELL AM I

Make maps

…if you’ve made a
map of your product in
the past 30 days.
?

As our spaces become less
physical, our maps become  
more conceptual.
And therefore more important.

• Detailed taxonomy
• Rich metadata & facets
• Robust search
• Context-appropriate
product offerings

Look to our taxonomies.
Actively evolve them.  
How we organize the world
dictates how people can function
within it.
Attend to our taxonomies

use

use
I JUST WANT TO
GET MY S**T DONE

wtf are people doing
with our stuff?!?!?!

How can we get our arms
(and heads) around 
all this stuff?

Do content analysis

…if you’ve done any
content analysis in the 
last 30 days.
?

3 approaches…
full inventory
partial inventory (sampling)
rolling inventory

Only when you know what
you have, you can organize it
in useful ways.

Confirm the shared goals (duh)
Talk & listen to users to find their needs and goals
Understand the domain by… 
• making maps 
• doing a content analysis of stuff both inside  
and outside the domain
Capture and structure the metadata
Consider what taxonomies, thesauri and controlled
vocabularies will be valuable
Identify how search will be used, and focus in on the
high-value finding tasks that can’t fail.
what’s next?

Opportunities to ﬂourish

splitting &
clumping
physical +
digital smear
eyes on 
the prize

physical +
digital smear

Physical and digital spaces are
smearing together.
It’s gonna get messy.

splitting &
clumping

Clumping & Splitting
Transforming products by
playing with metadata and
changing unit size.

obligatory Apple
story

metadata + splitting = new value
New contexts = new metadata  
= new possibilities.

metadata + clumping = new use
More efﬁcient interactions get
people what they need faster.

eyes on 
the prize

Be with the people.
Observe, learn, rinse, repeat.
‘nuff said.

xoxo
Thanks!
katerutter@gmail.com
@katerutter
http://intelleto.com

LINKS & SOURCES
➤ Dinosaur family explains IA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GToACPC3fUw | flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/boltron/4329185089/
➤ David Weinberg tapestry: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmarks/483631753
➤ Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_inventory | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_audit
➤ Jeff’s article: http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/doing-content-inventory/
➤ Kristina’s blog post: http://blog.braintraffic.com/2009/03/the-content-inventory-is-your-friend/
➤ Content Audits and inventories: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937434389
➤ The rolling content inventory: http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000448.html
➤ Flourish: http://www.franticstamper.com/Impression-Obsession-Cling-Mounted-Rubber-Stamp--Flourish-2_p_43204.html
➤ Tesco, 2 women: http://joekutchera.com/the-million-dollar-question-4-solutions-on-how-to-grow-e-commerce-in-latin-america/
➤ Tesco, 1 woman: http://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/lbs-case-study/case-study-tesco-virtually-created-new-market-based-on-country-lifestyle/
story/214998.html
➤ Virtual reality shopping: http://www.wsj.com/video/alibaba-offers-virtual-reality-shopping-on-singles-day/
8D484747-9555-4AFA-810B-596E2D684587.html
➤ Abba arrival: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ABBA_-_Arrival.jpg
➤ Mix tape image: http://www.getrichrapping.com/how-to-get-a-mixtape-buzz/
➤ Magic glue: http://chemibond.com.my/products/Magic-Glue-:-Shoe-Repair-Glue/34

Informative Architecture [World IA Day 2017, San Francisco]

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