Tags // Information Architecture
Getting Started in Information Architecture for the Web
A good IA primer by Tom Watson at Blue Flavor:
"I hear all the time that there isn’t one “correct” way to do a process, and that’s true but not thinking about information architecture is like setting sail on creating your website without charting a course. The site will get built, and it will likely go astray, get lost or never reach port. Without at least thinking about the information architecture your site will likely not be that useful, fun-to-use, or exciting to users. Setting that course is critical."
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Friday, November 30, 2007
Intranet Information Architecture
Latest by Jakob Nielsen on intranet IA:
"In our study, task-based structures often endured better than intranets organized departmentally. In our user testing of intranets, we've also found that task-based navigation tends to facilitate ease-of-learning. Thus, the benefits for IA durability are just one more argument in favor of adopting a task-based structure for your intranet."
information architecture, intranets Add tag Permalink | Thursday, November 29, 2007
Step Two: Intranet redesign for Canon Australia
Nice case study of the Canon Australia intranet. The problems faced and the methodology to solve these problems are explained well. For example, there is the typical taxonomy problem - you create two seemingly distinct levels but then find items which can occupy both levels. The solution they went with was to use the levels as the organizing principle and provide cross-links as the safety net.
There are, however, some topics that do not fit cleanly into either section. Examples include: health and safety, environment, facilities and corporate philosophy. The information architecture attempts to address this by separating these subjects into the aspects which directly affect staff (placed in Info for staff) and aspects that relate to corporate policy and 'PR' (placed in About Canon).
Additionally, cross links between the two sections attempt to get staff to the right information if they happen to look in the 'wrong' section.
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Better Writing Through Design
When building websites, information architecture is not the only structure there is. There is also the visual structure and then the most important of them all: the structure of the copy or the written text. A good IA may support a bad visual structure but it surely can't support a bad copy.
Good copywriting takes time. It is a design process. And like all design processes it requires one to do the research and build a strategy. This is why a copywriter should be involved right from the start, and not as an last-minute add-on when everything is complete. I still believe the it is much better to teach subject matter experts good copywriting skills than hire an external copywriter for short durations to fix broken content.
This article got me thinking on the role of the IA in supporting the visual language:
Ideally, you should work with a writer from day one to design the voice of the copy in conjunction with the visual language of the site. And getting a writer involved early can help you solve lots of other problems—from content strategy issues to information architecture snags. Remember that writers are creatives too, and they are, in many cases, the keepers of the content your design ultimately serves.
information architecture, content strategy, writing Add tag Permalink | Saturday, August 04, 2007
The Holy Grail of Information Architecture
Christopher Fahey writes about our tendencies to box our design deliverables -- try to get at a procedure or a master process document, the holy grail as he calls it. He suggests that we have an open mind and try out different ideas when communicating design:
Every client/project is unique. We simply cannot assume that any deliverable template will work for every job. Templates are great for “normal” design tasks, but more and more interaction design tasks simply aren’t normal.
This is the first reason why the Holy Grail will never be found.
[via maxdesign]
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, February 06, 2007
2001 to 2006: Five Years of Information Architecture
Karen Loasby of the BBC nicely recaps the last five years of IA -- from structuring of websites to tagging and cross-channel designs. And then she talks about the 'IA sprit':
But I know an IA spirit when I see one. They have a passion for the complex combined with a desire to help out. They are the sort who, on discovering the library books pulled from their shelves, would relish sorting the mess out rather than bemoaning the terrible transgression.
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Thursday, December 21, 2006
Information Architecture 3.0
Peter Morville has written a brilliant piece of the state of IA and how it will grow in the coming years. I like how he explained the difference between IA and the current fad, interaction design:
I’ve been an interaction designer since 1994. I’ve designed online communities, software products, graphical user interfaces, and Ajax-enabled mapping mashups that leverage tags and taxonomies.
I’ve been an information architect since 1994. I’ve designed online communities, software products, graphical user interfaces, and Ajax-enabled mapping mashups that leverage tags and taxonomies.
Both of those statements are true, though it’s also fair to say that I am mostly known as (and self-identify as) an information architect.
information architecture, interface Add tag Permalink | Thursday, November 30, 2006
6 Ways to Fix a Confused Information Architecture
Jakob Nielsen explains what to do when you have 2 sections (or labels) that mean the same thing (at least to the user). His suggestions are:
- Merge the two sections
- Rename the two existing sections
- Explain the two choices
- Restructure the site
- Move information around
- Add cross-reference links
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Goal Based Information Retrieval Experiences
Nice article by Joe Lamantia on organizing informaiton based on the user goals as opposed to "search".
A better way of framing information retrieval is in terms of opportunities to meet genuine user goals and objectives by supporting more varied modes of activity. Users often have broad goals in mind while they pursue information retrieval activities; buying a car, making a good investment decision, or learning how to manage their health care plans. And yet the information architecture of many environments still overemphasizes searching as a way of accomplishing goals.
Update: Joe has a follow up article on how to discover user goals.
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Monday, June 26, 2006
Peter Morville on why information architecture matters
Interview with Peter Morvile on IA. Here's a snippet in which he talks about IA and trust [via infodesign]:
"B.J. Fogg's Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University has led what I consider to be some of the most interesting research into Web design in the past five or six years. They look at which elements of Web design influence people to believe in, and trust, what they're seeing on the Web. In one of their early studies, they learned that users were placing look and feel—visual design—and information architecture very high among the factors that influenced whether they trusted a particular Web site."
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Friday, May 26, 2006
The ABCs of the BBC: A Case Study and Checklist
This Boxes and Arrows article talks about A-Z lists — some tips and tricks to look out for.
Because there are already a number of excellent articles online that talk about the value of A-Zs, I’d like to outline instead what we did at bbc.co.uk in the first half of 2005: namely, repositioning the site index as a viable secondary navigation tool. I’ll also offer a checklist of eight areas to consider when thinking about creating an A-Z site index. The list has already proved useful in advising BBC colleagues with no background in indexing or information architecture on how to painlessly create local A-Zs for their particular areas of content.
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Friday, January 13, 2006
The Web, Information Architecture, and Interaction Design
Jonathan Korman of Cooper Designs writes about the differences in interaction design (IxD) and information architecture (IA):"IA calls for exercises like card sorts, usability testing for category labels, hierarchical structure diagramming, and so forth. IxD calls for exercises like workflow analysis, usage scenarios, wireframed walkthroughs, and so on. The work done, and the skills needed to do it, differ considerably between the two. Just as few people can fully master the skills of both graphic design and IA, few people will master the skills of both IA and IxD. It serves both organizations and practitioners for people to specialize."
information architecture, interaction, card sorting Add tag Permalink | Thursday, September 29, 2005
Mapping An Information Architecture’s Scent
From HOT Labs, Carleton University:
"In this research I use the concept of scent as a framework in which to evaluate an information architecture's usefulness -how well it guides users to the target information. Evaluating an IA's usefulness required an approach for operationalizing scent, mapping multiple scent trails and measuring usefulness."
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Enterprise Information Architecture in Context
James Melzer shares this 'enterprise information architecture roadmap' that he drew to help his team have a common understanding of a project. I found it a little difficult to follow and extrapolate, but again, my context is a little different.
"My diagram is pretty specific to the federal government landscape in the US, but you can extrapolate the kinds of inputs that are relevant in your organization."
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Thursday, May 19, 2005
Enterprise IA Roadmap
Lou Rosenfeld has updated his enterprise information architecture roadmap. The roadmap lists the activities that need to be done to organize information. It also provides a nice starting point for discussing an enterprise's IA needs.
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 09, 2005
What is information architecture?
Step Two Designs has published a new article that "provides an introduction to information architecture, discusses the evolution of the discipline and provides a 9-step guide for how to create an effective information architecture."
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 02, 2005
Information Hunters
This is a brilliant synthesis of research on information foraging -- the finding that the human behaviour when searching for information was similar to that of the hunter-gatherers and animals in search for food. Here are some recommendations:- create representations of information with a strong information scent
- optimise the information architecture to produce short, direct, optimal paths
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Why e-learning is so difficult to eat
Nice post by Patrick Lambe on the difficulties in implementing an e-learning project. He focuses on the different perspectives of the two major stakeholders in such implementations: HR teams and the IT dept. "To do enterprise e-learning really well, beyond the technical competencies present already in HR and IT, you have to be able to marry deep understanding of the operational needs at the front line, strategic direction, consulting and change management skills, quality and performance metrics, information architecture and usability design, workflow analysis and process redesign, culture influencing, and superb communication and negotiation skills."information architecture Add tag Permalink | Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Information Architecture Heuristics
Nice list of points to consider when doing site eval. The points are categorized under the following:- Main page
- Search interface
- Search results
- Site-wide navigation
- Contextual navigation
information architecture, interface Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Learning [Information Architecture] From the Internet Giants
At first glance this article, Learning From the Internet Giants, from the latest MIT Sloan Management Review (costs $6) looks like any other run-of-the mill article on some new Internet hype and thus not worth reading. This is exactly what went through my mind. But when I saw Larry Prusak's name as one of the authors, I decided to download and read the article. Larry is a KM guy and I wanted to know what he's doing with an article like this. It turns out that this article is on Information Architecture (IA), although surprisingly the discipline is never mentioned in any specific detail. The problem tackled in this paper is that of "findability", although this also is never mentioned in the paper. Here's the premise of the paper: "IDC estimated that an organization employing 1,000 knowledge workers might easily incur a cost of more than $6 million in lost productivity as employees fail to find existing knowledge they need, waste time searching for nonexistent knowledge and recreate knowledge that is available but could not be located. Imagine the impact on an organization of 50,000 or more employees." The authors' solution to this malady is to study how Amazon.com, eBay and Google solve their customers problems by offering superior search and find experiences. Here are their recommendations.
What strikes me hard about this paper is the complete ignorance about the existence of the discipline of IA, whose main goal is to solve the findability issue. On the positive side however, I think this paper will be an ideal one to give senior managers and decision makers to think about their knowledge worker productivity in terms of findability and then follow them up with a talk on IA.
information architecture Add tag Permalink | Monday, August 30, 2004