Designing Structure Information Architecture
Oct 17, 2014
Designing Structure
Information Architecture
A SHORT HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE
Cave
Hut
Stone Age City
VITRUVIUS
firmitas, utilitas, venustas : : durability, convenience, beauty
Durability
“Durability will be assured when foundations are carried down to the solid ground and materials wisely and liberally selected” Vitruvius
The hotel had several design features that made up for its foundation:The reflecting pool (visible in the picture above) also provided a source of water for fire-fighting, saving the building from the post-earthquake firestorm;[1]
Cantilevered floors and balconies provided extra support for the floors;A copper roof, which cannot fall on people below the way a tile roof can;Seismic separation joints, located about every 20 m along the building;Tapered walls, thicker on lower floors, increasing their strength;Suspended piping and wiring, instead of being encased in concrete, as well as smooth curves, making them more resistant to fracture.[2]
Technical Earthquakes
I’m searching for “my architect, not
“movies, directors, actors”
Social Earthquakes
If people post jobs in discussion areas, any user can
move them to job board
If people use connection invites to spam/market, they
can be reported.
Convenience
“When the arrangement of the apartments is faultless and presents no hindrance to use, and when each class of building is assigned to its suitable and appropriate exposure” Vitruvius
Sound familiar? We’re talking
usability!
Rackspace headquarters in in a former mall. The building is so usable for moving people around, it's easily repurposed. Robert Venturi calls this a “decorated shed”
Malls online epitomize convenience, and are typically extremely usable. Anthropologie is elegant and functional.This simple model could be repurposed for any side dealing with objects and metadata
Bilbao did not leak. I was so
proud.
The MIT project, they were interviewing me for MIT and they sent their facilities people to Bilbao. I met them in Bilbao. They came for three days.W: This is the computer building.G: They were there for three days and it rained every day. And they kept walking around. I noticed they were looking under things and looking for things, and they wanted to know where the buckets were hidden, people putting buckets out. I was clean. There wasn't a bloody leak in the place. It was just fantastic. But you've got to -- yeah, well, up until then, every building leaked.W: Frank had a sort of -- sort of had a fame -- his -- his fame was built on that in L.A. for a while. You know, Frank, you've all heard the Frank Lloyd Wright story when the guy -- the woman called and said, "Mr. Wright, my -- I'm sitting in the couch and the water's pouring in on my head," and he said, "Madame, move your chair."G: So, some years later I was doing a little house on the beach for Norton Simon, and his secretary was kind of a hell-on-wheels type lady -- called me and said, Mr. Simon's sitting at his desk, and the water's coming in on his head, and I told him the Frank Lloyd Wright story.W: Didn't get a laugh.G: No. Not now either. http://www.ted.com/talks/frank_gehry_asks_then_what.html
I call it the "Then What?" Okay, you solved all the problems, you did all the stuff, you made nice, you loved your clients, you loved the materials, you loved the city, you're a good guy, you're a good person... and then what? What do you bring to it?
See his great TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/frank_gehry_asks_then_what.html
“Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.” Frank Lloyd Wright
Beauty (delight)
“when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, and when its members are in due proportion according to correct principles of symmetry.” Vitrvius
“Less is more.” ~ Mies
SEAGRAM BUILDING (Philip Johnson did interiors, 1957)
This logical and elegant 38-story skyscraper (525' H) has alternating horizontal bands of bronze plating and bronze-tinted glass and decorative bronze I-beams which emphasize its verticality. Placed to the rear of its site and set back from Park Avenue, it incorporates a large plaza in the front as part of the design--thus avoiding the need for set-backs. It uses granite pillars at the base and has a two-story glass-enclosed lobby.
Seagram Building
New York City
1957
Is this Beautiful?
“Less is a bore.” ~ Venturi
Is this Beautiful?
Do we dictate what is beautiful by constraining
user choice?
Or support passionate use that may not meet our
aesthetic standards?
Beautiful
ConvenientDurable
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Information Architecture
Architecture Retrieval
Information Architects
• What is IA?• IAI definition
1. The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability.
2. The structural design of shared information environments.
3. An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.
Findability
In the physical world
• Things that have fixed locations– We find with
maps and signs-- wayfinding
• Things that don’t– We find with
organization and wayfinding
In the digital world
• Nothing is fixed• Wayfinding and organization is the two
keys to findability• Role of IA is to shape the digital space to
enable findability.
Make things findable
• Organization– Build on Metadata– Browse systems– Search systems
• Wayfinding– Labels– Visual cues
Make things appear
• Serendipity systems– See also– Related– Popularity relationships– Also built on metadata
The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content.
Definition
Information Architecture for the World-Wide Web Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville
Organizing info so
people can find stuff>
PLAY WITH YOUR BALLSSort into groups. Name groups
MAKE A HOMEPAGE FOR YOUR BALL SITE
4 KINDS OF INFORMATION SEEKING
KNOWN ITEM
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/
What works
• Search• A-Z index• Navigation
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/
EXPLORATORY
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/
What can help
• Navigation• Related Search• Search (with autocomplete, related terms)
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/
DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/
What can help
• Related information• Recommendations• Push technologies
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/
REFINDING
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/
What can help
• Favorites• Personalization• Visited link color
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-them/
Redesign
TASKS• Find a baseball • Find a gift for a upcoming party for a seven
year old• Make users aware some balls are on sale• Find again a good choice for that party
Classification has Consequences
• A physician who doesn’t see a new cure• A poor student who can’t find financial aid• A store where a product isn’t found
IA has Solutions
– Tagging with metadata– Organizing with CV’s– Creating navigation
systems – Optimizing search
Information Architecture manages information to make it findable
And IA can build brands.
Branding in 10 seconds
brand promises
brand experiences
create
fullfilled by
Brand managers
Brian Collins’ Model of Brand
Brand and the User Experience
Hugh Dubberly’s Model of Brand
Creating a good customer experience is the essence of good branding
IA Realizes Brand
Benabar n’est pas jazz?
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What is this?
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What is this?
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What is this?
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What is this?
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What are these?
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They are all birds(ornithologist)
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The Cassowary is not a bird!
(the Karam)
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From “Why the Cassowary is not a bird”, R. Bulmer, Man, Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967)
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From “Why the Cassowary is not a bird”, R. Bulmer, Man, Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967)
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Who Cares?
• Ornithologists• The Karam • Information Architects
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Dewey Decimal System
• 200-299 – Religion Categories
• 40+ categories related to Christianity
• 1 for Judaism• 1 for Islam (&
related)
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Who Cares?
• Religious Scholars• Librarians• Information Architects• Jews and Muslims
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• Classification reflects social and cultural organization
• Information Architect must understand this context
Context is King
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Get to know your audience…
1. Who are they?
Football Fan
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Get to know your audience…
1. Who are they?
Football Fan?
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Get to know your audience…
1. Who are they?
2. What do they care about?
Are the Patriots going to make the playoffs?
Show me photos!
What happened in the last game?
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Get to know your audience…
1. Who are they?
2. What do they care about?
3. How do they think of the information and content?
Conference, division…
Schedules, standings…
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Get to know your audience…
1. Observe others
2. Study Competitors and similar sites
3. Review your search logs
4. Do a card sort
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Now what?
• Organize your information so it makes sense to your audience
• Structure your information to help users find it
• …using metadata
METADATA
Pictures of you
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Metadata: what is it?
“metadata is data about data"
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Metadata: what is it?
“Metadata tags are used to describe documents, pages, images, software, video and audio files, and other content objects for the purposes of improved navigation and retrieval”
‘Information Architecture for the World Wide Web’, 2nd ed., (2002) Rosenfeld, L. & Morville, P.
Descriptive
• Ham• Cheese• Honey• Olivia’s
Intrinsic
What does the camera know? What does the system know?
Administrative
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Not all Metadata is equal
• What are users interested in?• What do you want users to be able to find?• What metadata makes management
easy?
• Tag content for findability• Tag content for management
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Exercise
• BALL• Write as many descriptive words (or short
phrases) on your post-it• One word (or phrase) per post-it
• Don’t share– yet! Hold on!
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Next
Content Architecture Part II
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Controlled vocabularies
Master of your domains
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Cardinal Richelieu
Grandfather of controlled vocabularies
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The French Academy
• Founded in 1635• Multiple dialects• Goal: purify the French language• Goal: unify the nation (ensure that the
State and all citizens speak the same language)
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The French Academy today
…but…
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So what?
• How will you ensure they continue to do so?
• So what are your goals?
• How will you ensure that your users and your system speak the same language?
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I’ve got music
I want music.
When humans and computers interact
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Hip HopRap.Rock.Dance.
Humans are good at figuring things out
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Raggamuffin ?
Most of the time
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Acidreggae
?
No matches found
But computers are literal
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AcidReggae?
?
Let’s give them “Reggae” and “Trance”
IA
And need help
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Thus Controlled vocabularies (CV)Amy Warner defines a controlled vocabulary (CV)
as “organized lists of words and phrases, or notation systems, that are used to initially tag content, and then to find it through navigation or search.”
Of course, the IA can’t always be there…
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I define them as
Documented relationships of words and concepts to assist people finding stuff.
Same dif.
Controlled Vocabularies
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• Levels of control
Simple Complex
SynonymRings
AuthorityFiles
ThesauriClassificationSchemes
Equivalence Hierarchical Associative
(Vocabularies)
(Relationships)
Controlled Vocabulary Types
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• Relationships
A=B AB
A BEquivalenceChristmas=Xmas
HierarchalWinter Holidays > Christmas
Associative Christmas Tree | Santa Claus
Controlled vocabularies
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• Simplest type• Helps with search, indexing• Simplifies maintenance
Synonym rings
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• Acronyms: BBC, British Broadcasting Company; MPG, miles per gallon
• Variant spellings: cancelled, canceled; honor, honour
• Scientific terms versus popular use terms: acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin; lilioceris, lily beetle– From Synonym Rings and Authority Files
by Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel
Synonym rings include
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• Sometimes on intranets, CV’s are skipped
• You think you can force people to use proper terms
• But people are lazy
I’m tired of typing “Controlled Vocabulary--- CV is shorter.
Why Bother?
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• On the internet you want to be found
• Plus users use short queries– Average queries are 2.5
words– 30% of searches are one word queries
• On large scale sites, there is enough data to do this programmatically, but on small sites, not.
I want a cannon camera.
Why Bother?
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It may be the Canon PowerShot S30
Bizrate built a business off mispellings
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Cannon S30
Powershot S30
S30
Canon S30
But what do people call it?
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A page for each synonym
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And they can be number one
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• Types of relationships• Sibling:
Gap.com directories» Men» Women» Maternity» Body» Boys» Girls» Baby boy» Baby girl
Classification schemes
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Parent / Child
(amazon.com)
Classification schemes
LATCH
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Classification Schemes
Other RelationshipsAlphabetical (administrative metadata)
Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Moore, Alan
Chronological (administrative metadata)
New for You > New Releases > Books
Topic (descriptive metadata)
Comics > Graphic Novels > Horror
Amazon uses all of these, and more….
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• Cadillac of Controlled Vocabularies• Includes associative relationships
Preferred term
Variants Siblings Parent Associated
Christmas X-mas, Nöel
Hanukah, Kwanzaa
Winter holidays
Santa Claus
Thesauri
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Associations
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• Amazon uses buying patterns to determine associations
Associations
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Associations
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Content Inventory
• Link ID• ROT• Document type• Topics/
Keywords• Location
• Maintainer• Expiration• Access• Author• Existing/planned
Identify all content and attributes
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Term harvesting
• Look Inward– Your site– Current keywords
• Look outward– Magazines– Competitors– Discussion lists
• Log harvesting– Search engines– Overture
• Ask people– Interviews– Card sorts– Free Listing
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Sorting Terms
A Card Sort for Architects
• Multiple Groupings– Equivalent UF cheese=fromage– Broader terms BT cheese | dairy– Narrower terms NT cheese | cheddar– Related term RT cheese | crackers
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Sleeping Bags BT Camping NT Down Sleeping Bags NT Synthetic Sleeping Bags NT Family Sleeping Bags NT Cold Weather Sleeping Bags NT 2-Season Sleeping Bags NT 3-Season Sleeping Bags NT Back Packing Sleeping Bags NT Expedition Class Sleeping Bags NT Ultralight Sleeping Bags RT Backpacks RT Ultralight Backpacking RT Sleeping Bag Liners RT Sleeping Pads RT Stuff Sacks RT Pillows
From Creating a Controlled Vocabularyby Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckelhttp://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/creating_a_controlled_vocabulary.php
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Sorting conflicts
• Cheese goes in dairy or in sandwich materials?
• A cheese basket?• String cheese?
Choices fit strategy
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Associations
• What is related• What is required?• What else is interesting?
Relevancy is king
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Possible Relationships
• Process/agent (camp fires/matches)
• Action/product of action (baking/cakes) • Agent/counteragent
(allergies/antihistamine) • Raw material/product (wool/sweater).
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Implement
• Implementation dependant on situation and tools.
• May be slow painful data entry– know this and prepare.
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Test
• Test with users – did you get it right?
– Browse Testing– Search Testing– Monitor quantitative
– Refine, refine, refine
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Maintain
• Who maintains it?• What the rules for new terms?• Document your decisions.
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Is that all?
NO!
Life beyond enumerative classification….
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Faceted Classification
was developed, prior to the existence of computers, by S. R. Ranganathan, a Hindu mathematician working as a librarian.
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Ranganathan’s 5 Facets
• who: personality• what: matter• how: energy• where: space• when: time
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Essential Qualities of a Facet
• Mutually exclusive; represents a characteristic of division not found in any other facet
• Cannot be further sub-divided• Relationships between facets are non-
hierarchical (though within facets…)
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The broad categories into which the subject area is divided. A facet consists “... of a group of terms that represents one, and only one, characteristic of division of a subject field....no two facets may contain terms that could represent the same concepts.” —Louise Spiteri
Facets
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Ordinary stuff?
Epicurious uses facets to help users find recipes
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Yahoo! Personals
• Faceted classification by Yahoo! Personas
• Content by the users
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What’s the difference?
Electronics
Camera
Digital
Film
PDAs
Televisions
Camera facets
Pixels
Zoom
Price
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Music
Enumerative
• Modern– Rock
• Alternative– Seattle– Atlanta
Faceted
• Mood• Tempo• Artist• Use
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FACETS, ANYONE?Create ball facets
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Making Facets
1. Consider the universe of documents to be indexed.
2. Consider user finding strategies.
3. Analyze each document to identify the facets.
4. Group isolates (simple-concept subjects) into the facets.
5. Apply the notational system.
(I skipped some steps, to avoid wonking out….)
Is this all there is?
Homework
• Content inventory: what’s in your site?• Organizational Scheme
– Hierarchal?– Faceted?– Combination?
• Portfolio Piece: Site map (a la Dan Brown’s Communicating design Chapter 5)