Information Architecture & Design

1. Information Architecture & Design • Week 5 Schedule • Group Project Plan Due • Planning IA Structures • Other Readings • Research Topic Presentations

2. Thesauri, Vocabularies & Metadata • The Structure of Your Content (Part of the Plan) • What Do You Do With Your Project Data? • Context • Descriptive • Prescriptive • Quality • Accuracy • Recency • Characteristics • Media / MIME • Uses • Represent the Relationships Between Systems

3. Controlled Vocabularies • Establish Consistencies • For the Content • For the Developers • Just Synonyms? • Lists of Equivalents (Index) • Aliases (Authority File) • Also an Implied or Overt Hierarchy • “Synonym Ring” • Based on User’s Understanding • Improved Upon by IA • Not Just for Search

4. Classification Schemes • Taxonomy (more than one) • Front End • Users • Interface (Browse) • Back End • Information Architecture • Content Management • System (Search) • CS Types • LIS & CS • Top-Down & Bottom-Up • Content & Task • ALL

5. Semantic Relationships • Equivalence (Alternate Names) • Derived (Rules) • Vocabulary (Uses) • Hierarchical (Relationships) • Strong (Inherited) • City - Austin • Instance (Classes) • Texas - Austin • Associative • Based on Understanding of Content • Based on Understanding of Users

6. Taxonomy of Decisions & Actions • Purpose of the Search • Method to Find Information • Content of the Information Being Searched • GVU Survey Question • Recent instance of important information found • Critical Incident Technique • Complete Instances • Known Consequences (Results) • Morrison 2001

7. Taxonomy pt. 2 • Taxonomies of Web Activities • Why people searched the Web • How search the Web • What information searched • Analysis of Responses from Survey into Experiment • Purpose Taxonomy • Method Taxonomy • Content Taxonomy

8. Human Information Behavior • Information Seeking (Strategies) • Information Searching (Strategies) • Information Use • Physical Actions • Mental Actions • Focus on the User • Wilson 2001

9. New Models of Info Behavior pt. 2

10. New Models of Info Behavior pt. 3 • Problem Solving • System Actions • Integration of Actions

11. Rapid Ethnography • Like Rapid Prototyping & Usability Inspection • Field Work • Ethnography • People (Practice) • Environments (Native) • Activities (Context) • Cultural Observation and Analysis • Elicit User Requirements • More Focused (Decisions) • Millen 2000

12. Rapid Ethnography pt. 2 • Short Studies • Comparisons to Other Studies • Zoom in On Key Activities • Multiple Datasets (Critical Incidents) • Observations • Recording • Activity Walkthroughs • Interviews (Structured) • Selection of Instances that Yield Incidents • Key Times • Key Users

13. Rapid Ethnography pt. 3 • Automated Data Analysis • Team Data Analysis • Scenario Analysis (storyboards) • Pictorial Storytelling (metaphors) • Lightweight Deliverables • Drawings (Sketches) • Notes (not Reports) • Incomplete • Prototypes • Cognitive Mapping (assumptive) • Substitute for Full or Complete Studies

14. How Do We Really Use the Web? • Reading vs. Scanning • Quality of Elements • Quantity of Elements • Purpose of Pages • Satisficing • Guessing with Speed • Low Penalties (Back) • Testing Boundaries • Muddling and Forging Ahead • Stick with what works • Not concerned with understanding • Krug 2000

15. Semiotics of the Web • Site Structure and Cognitive Design • Typography • Medium use • Browsers • Message content • Paper • Web • Appeal • Attention (interest) • Relevance (needs and motives) • Confidence (expectation & achievement) • Accessibility • Culture • Physical • Smart, et al. 2000

16. Learning and Interests (Users) • Learning is Remembering What You’re Interested In • Cultivating Interest • Relevance • Interests vs. Obligations • Examples for Understanding • Metaphors • Content Presentation • “Architecture is Making Connections”

17. Designing for Users • Permutations • Connections • Facts vs. Ideas • Discovery vs. JITI