Week 5 - Lesson 5 Readings & Take Aways

Assigned : READINGS - This week, read Chapters 10 - 11 from the "polar bear" text.

Book: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web 3rd Edition, by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld, ISBN 100596527349

CHAPTER 10
(page 231)
Explore the process and methods for creating information architecture.

Graphic designers, software developers, content managers, usability engineers, and other experts.

Agreement on the structured development process.

(page 232)
Early days=HTML code

Figure 10.1 Process of information architecture development
Program:
1 Research
2 Strategy
3 Design
4 Implementation
5 Administration

1. Research phase: review existing background materials
2. Strategy phase: contextual understanding=top-down perspective, highest two or three levels of site's org and navigational structures//bottom-down perspective document types and a rough metadata schema
3. Design phase: detailed blueprints, wireframes, metadata schema=graphic designers, programmers, content authors, production team
4. Implementation phase: designs are put to the test as site is built, tested and launched
5. Administration phase: continuous evaluation, improvement of site's IA, tagging, weeding, feedback, opps for improvement

(page 234)
Research Framework

1. Context=purpose, investigate the business, environment, goals
2. Background research=IA questions-goals, bus plan, politics, schedule, budget, audience, why will users want this, types of task needed, how/who will manage, technical infrastructure, whats worked in the past

(page 236)
3. Strategy mtng=face-to-face meetings, small, informal, ask questions: see above questions

(page 237)
4. Content mngt mtng=owners, mngrs have detailed info/questions, establish rapport
5. Information Technology mtng=system admins who will support the site and questions: how can create metadata registry to support tagging, CMS handle automated categorization of documents

(page 238)
Stakeholders Interviews=opinion leaders open ended questions their assessment of current information environment and vision

Some questions: role of org, vision for competitive advantage, challenges they face, dept's share knowledge, strategies/teams for redesign/maintain

(page 239)
Technology Assessment=what is in place, what is in process, who's available to help, gap analysis/identify any disconnects between business goals, user needs, limitations infrastructure

Content=the stuff in your website, findability precedes usability.

Heuristic Evaluation=resdesigning existing web sites rather than creating new ones

(page 240)
heuristic eval=expert critique test site against formal/informal guidelines

Guidelines:
1. should provide mulitiple ways to access the same information
2. indexes/sitemaps should be employed to supplement the taxonomy
3. navigation system should provide users sense of context
4. should consistently use language appropriate for audience
5. searching and browsing should be integrated and reinforce each other

(page 241)
Content Analysis
-bottom up approach to information
-identify gaps between top down vision and bottom up reality
-informal survey/detailed audit
-page by page content audit
-Noahs Ark approach - checkn by a couple of items at a time

Check on:
-format
-document type
-source
-subect
-existing architecture

(page 242)
law of diminishing returns=when you reach a point when you are not learning anything new

(page 243)
Analyzing Content
Structural metadata=hierchy info of object
Decriptive metadata=think of all the different ways to describe an object, topic, audience, format?
Administrative metadata=describe object as it relates to the business context

** How can I make this object findable?

(page 244)
Benchmarking=informally indicate a point of reference from which to make a comparative measurement/judgement, comparative benchmarking, before/after benchmarking, competitive benchmarking

(page 246)
Users=respondents, visitors, actors, employees, customers, clicks, impressions, advertising, revenues, sales=ulitmate designers of your site

(page 247)
Usage Statisticsgoogle analytics/page information, visitor information=path users trace as they move through a web site=clickstream

Search Log Analysis=Best Bets strategy-looking at search logs provides valuable education for IA's/Metacrawler metaspy=real people are using to search right now

(page 250)
Customer Support Data=feedback from customers, help desk operators, call center reps, librarians, admin assistants=rich sources of info

(page 252)
Surveys=which part is most valuable, what frustrates users, any ideas for improvement, level of user satisfaction

Contextual Inquiry=anthropologist being tapped into to apply thier ethnographi research methods to product design

(page 253)
Focus Groups=potential users ask scripted questions what would they like to see/demonstrate prototype

(page 254)
Interviews=background, information use, intranet use, document publishing, suggestions

(page 255)
Card sorting=stack of index cards shuffled, have user put words on cards into piles that make sense-analyze data, can use post its

(page 256)
diff dimensions of card sorting
-open/closed
-phrasing
-granularity
-heterogeneity
-cross listing
-randomness
-quantitative/qualitative

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CHAPTER 11

(PAGE 264)
-elements of IA strategy
-guidelines for moving from research to strategy
-metaphors, scenerios, condeptual diagrams to bring strategy to life

(page 265)
Information Architecture Administration=create realistic stratgey
Technology intergration=leverage existing tools and identify needs for addtl technology
Top-down or bottom-up emphasis=current status of the site, political environment, IA model
Ogranization and labeling systems (top-down)=schemes for the site
Document type identification(bottom-up)=document and object types, articles, white papers, financial calculator, online course module...
Metadata field definition=define administrative, structural and descriptive metadata.. or global
Navigation system design=how will this leverage top-down or bottom-up strategies

(page 269)
Strategy development process diagram Figure 11.2

(page 270)
Articulate=ideas informal scriblles, diagrams, notes, whiteboard

Communicate=effective ways ideas to target audience

(page 271)
Test=no excuse not to test, prototypes, metaphors(organizational, functional, visual)

(page 281)
Weather.com

(page 287)
Metadata

example:

Metadata element Example

author Terrell Johnson
publisher Jody Fennell
title Antigua hardest hit by Jose
date Thu Oct 21 1999
expiration date 1031999 12:01:23
links /news/102199/story.htm
document type news story.glossary term
subject area tropical storm
keywords Jose, Antigua, damage, intensity
related to breaking weather, news stories, severe weathermaps
geographic access levels local city, local regional, national
geographic areas Antigua, North Carloina, South Carolina

Thesaurus=building blocks to help users find info more easily