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Information Architecture IBE312. Ch 3 – User Needs and Behaviors & Ch 4 The Anatomy of IA 2013. Information Architecture. The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation schemes within an information system.
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InformationArchitectureIBE312 Ch 3 – UserNeeds and Behaviors & Ch 4 The Anatomyof IA 2013
InformationArchitecture • The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation schemes within an information system. • The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content. • The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and intranets to help people find and manage information. • An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape. Some notes from Morville
Things that Information Architects do… • Understand user and system requirements • Design (and build) organization, navigation, and metadata systems • Evaluate the user experience Figure out if it works Figure out what’s needed Build it Design it (compare with physical architects)
Why is IA Important? • Cost of finding(time, frustration) • Cost of not finding(bad decisions, alternate channels) • Cost of construction(staff, technology, planning, bugs) • Cost of maintenance(content management, redesigns) • Cost of training(employees, turnover) • Value of education(related products, projects, people) • Value of brand (identity, reputation, trust)
Why is IA Important? (examples) • Employees spend 35% of productive time searching for information online. Working Council for Chief Information Officers • The Fortune 1000 stands to waste at least $2.5 billion / year due to an inability to locate and retrieve information. IDC • Poorly architected retailing sites are underselling by as much as 50%. Forrester Research • 50% of web sales are lost because customers can’t find content fast enough. Gartner Group • Content on a typical public corporate website grows at an 80% rate annually. The CMS Report
Vividence Research • The Tangled Web • Vividence found poorly organized search results and poor information architecture design to be the two most common and serious usability problems
Ch3 UserNeeds & Behaviors • Howinformationneedsvary • Howinformationseekingbehaviorsvary • How and why to learn more about info seekingbehaviors
Misconception: findinginformationcan be addressedwith a simple algorithmicapproach • So wethinkwecanmeasuretheexperienceoffinding by howlong it takes, or howmanymouseclickts it takes, or howmanyviewedpages it takes to findthe ”right” answerwhenthere is no right answer. (p.32) • SearchAnalytics – should have bothquantitative and qualitativeapproaches. Web stats + userprovided (taskanalysis, surveys, focusgroups)
Informationneeds – fishingmetaphor • The perfectcatch – looking for a specificfact • Lobster trapping – looking for more than just a single answer. Hope whateverambles in will be useful. • Indiscriminate driftnetting – leavenostoneunturnedon a topic. Exhaustivesearch. • I’veseenyoubefore, MobyDick…-tag it so youcanfind it again. Bookmarking (del.icio.us)
Type ofneeds – fishingmetaphor • The perfectcatch – know item seeking – know whatyouarelooking for • Lobster trapping – exploratoryseeking – learnsomething from theprocess – a fewusefulitems – openended – springboard for newsearches • Indiscriminate driftnetting – exhaustivesearch-wanteverything • I’veseenyoubefore, MobyDick…-need it again – refinding a piece ofusefulinformation - tagging
Precision vs. Recall Everything = Recall-oriented Searching Orthogonal concepts: A few good things Exploratory seeking Known-item seeking Users’ Needs OrganizationSystems NavigationSystems Page Layoutand Design The right thing = Precision-oriented Searching
Informationseekingbehaviors • Integration – do searching, browsing and asking in the same findingsession • Iterations – do it in severalcycles to refine findings
Berry-picking: search and browse and search… • Aftersearch – youcanbrowse a sub-category • Afterbrowsing – youcansearch
Ch 4 Anatomyof IA • Visualizing IA & categorizingcomponents • Organization systems • Navigation systems • Search systems • Labeling systems • Welldesigned IA is invisible to theusers
IA components • Organization systems – contentcategories –categorizeinformation (subjects, chronologically) • Navigation systems – helpusersmovethroughthecontent –browse or lookthroughinformation • Search systems – allowusers to searchthecontent (query, index) • Labeling systems – describecategories, options and links to languagethat is meaningful to users (controlledvocabularies, thesauri)
Aids • Browsing aids – organization systems, site-wide and localnavigationsitemaps/TOC, siteindexes, guides, and wizards, contextual links. • Search aids – searchinterface, querylanguage, retrievalalgorithm, searchzonesand results • Content and task – headings, embedded links and metadata, chunks, lists, sequential aids, identifiers, • ”Invisible” components – controlledvocabularies, thesauri, rulesets.
Wheream I • How do I search for it • How do i getaroundthissite • What’simportant • What’savailable • What’s happening here • Do theywant my opinion • Howcan i contact a human • What’stheiraddress
A different type ofpage – bulk ofthepagepoints to contentelsewhere 1 • Whereweare • Helpsusmove to othersrelatedpages • Helpsmovethroughsitehierarchy • Helpsmanipulatecontent for betterbrowsing • Gettinghelp 5 4 3 2
Bottom-up IA – contentstructure (e.g. recipe format), sequencing, tagging – helpanswerwheream I, what’shere, where to og from here.. Findwhat I need from middlewithoutlearningthetop-downorganization.
Findability “Findability will eventually be recognized as a central and defining challenge in the development of web sites, intranets, knowledge management systems and online communities.” Peter Morville, The Age of Findability • “A case of librarians trying to muscle into the usability field with their own spin…findability is just a subset of user-centered design.” http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/002595.php
Ambient Findability surrounding, encircling, enveloping the ability to find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime
David Rose ambientdevices.com