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Design Patterns for Enterprise UI Architectures | IA Summit b2005: Montreal Karl Mochel | Oracle Corporation | karl.mochel@oracle.com. Approach. Take an overview of three architectures Discuss issues in evolution of a Marketing application
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Design Patterns for Enterprise UI Architectures|IA Summit b2005: MontrealKarl Mochel | Oracle Corporation | karl.mochel@oracle.com
Approach • Take an overview of three architectures • Discuss issues in evolution of a Marketing application • Comment on the evolution of enterprise information architecture
Introduction • Enterprise applications are transactional systems • Two flavors: Self-service and Professional • Can easily have hundreds of pages • Processes are often convoluted and indeterminate
PTA - Persistent Tab Architecture • Objects: Complex, but with little external relationships • Tasks: Tend to be object-centric • Good for applications whose objects are naturally siloed
TLA – Tabless Architecture • Objects: Simple, Hub and Spoke • Tasks: • Generally simple, without long processes that drill down several levels • Checklists • Good for applications with short-term processes and internalized structures
CTA – Contextual Tab Architecture • Objects: Single primary object with relationships to many other objects • Tasks: Complex and part of a larger process • Good for complex applications that have a monolithic object with long-term processes and externalized structure
The Then > values in the database • Information architecture directly reflects objects in database • Functionality is derived from direct actions against objects • Views and actions are tactical
Campaigns Events Programs Schedules Structural Issues • Structure confuses relationships of objects • Hierarchy of significant objects not apparent • Business processes not apparent • Attributes of every type of object are visible • Each tab aggregates every instance of each object type Plan > Implement > Execute > Track
Real Estate Issues 1024 x 768
Flow Issues • Assumes important actions are tactical updates • Requires steps to find and verify actions’ appropriateness
Design Approaches • Remove chafe • Make decision-making accessible • Shift architectural weight off tabs into virtual structures • Normalize primary objects: Programs, Campaigns, Activities, Schedules • Move to contextual architecture
Architectural Shift New Old
Effect • Programs, Campaigns, Schedules, and Events are templates • User can make decisions about elements in comparison and in context • Processes are reflected using tabs • Navigation paths are perceived to be shorter • Reduction in architectural weight • Reduction in perceived page count
The Now > data in context • Information architecture reflects business processes • Additional functionality has been added to evaluate and act on state of processes • Strategic views with tactical actions
Information Flow • Decisions are enabled (darkest blue) • Easy access to updates enabled • Secondary emphasis on creating and evaluating relationships between objects (light blue)
Issues With Current Architectures • Lack of a holistic view into the state of the process • Current • Trends • Strategic Planning and Editing still decoupled
Design Approaches • Design visualizations that enable planning and decision making • Collapse architectural space around the visualization space • Enable aggregate actions
The Future > usable information • Visualization provides views based on business decisions, architecture supports. • Interactive visualization provides basis for evaluating and acting on relationships between processes • Addition of strategic actions
Knowledge Flow • Strategic actions are now enabled (darkest blue) • Updates happen in concert (light blue)
Conclusion Enterprise UI architecture is still immature Keep in mind… • The users questions, not their tasks • Whether it is appropriate to split an application into multiple spaces • Different dimensions around which to structure the IA • Planning, decision making, and comparison activities can be well served by visualization • Look for an ontology of taxonomies that can provide a language to depict different applications spaces similarly but with the flexibility needed to present each spaces unique structures • Information architecture issues have many solutions
Q&A Q & A www.kalmdesigns.com/iasummit2005_kalm.ppt