Presented at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge, UK on February 26. Thanks to @francisrowland for inviting me, and for the excellent blog coverage: http://ebiinterfaces.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/information-wayfinding-tyler-tate/

1. Information Wayfinding
Tyler Tate

4. Part 1
1. The role of metaphor
2. What is wayfinding?
3. Information seeking as wayfinding

5. Part 2
1. Elements of the information environment
2. Information wayfinding strategies
3. Heuristics for effective wayfinding design

6. The role of metaphor

7. “Mankind evolved in a world of space and
time. Our memories evolved to record events
that transpire in space and time. Modern
attempts to externalise and enlarge that
memory should not, and probably need not,
neglect its spatiotemporal dimensions.”
— George A. Miller

8. “Our concepts structure what we perceive,
how we get around in the world, and how we
relate to other people. Our conceptual system
thus plays a central role in defining our
everyday realities. If we are right in suggesting
that our conceptual system is largely
metaphorical, then the way we think, what we
experience, and what we do every day is very
much a matter of metaphor.”
— George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

9. What is wayfinding?

10. The wayfinding process

11. The wayfinding process
1. Developing a decision plan
2. Executing a decision from the plan
3. Processing environmental information

12. Information seeking as
wayfinding

13. Q3 Q5 Q6
Q4
Q2
Q7
Q1
The dynamic, or “berrypicking” model.

14. Recognize
Need
Use Find
Interpretation Information
Validate and
Interpret
Information
The information journey model.

16. Elements of the
environment
1. Districts
2. Layers
3. Nodes
4. Bits of information

17. Wayfinding strategies
1. Aerial descent
2. Teleport
3. Bottom-up
4. Conversational

18. Heuristics

19. Fluid survey views

20. Fluid survey views
1. Controls for both districts and layers

27. Fluid survey views
1. Controls for both districts and layers
2. Data visualization to enhance orientation

28. Unified interaction

29. Unified interaction
1. Search in context

40. Positional cues

41. Positional cues
1. Human-readable URLs

46. Positional cues
1. Human-readable URLs
2. Integrated breadcrumbs

50. Clear paths

51. Clear paths
1. Links between nodes

53. Clear paths
1. Links between nodes
2. Topic views

55. Information Wayfinding
Tyler Tate