Information Architecture

Information ArchitectureDesign informs even the simplest structure, whether of brick and steel or prose.

—E. B. White

Website Design and Implementation 2

Primary Aims

• Organize the site content into taxonomies and hierarchies of information;

• Communicate conceptual overviews and the overall site organization to the design team and clients;

• Research and design the core site navigation concepts;• Set standards and specifications for the handling

of HTML semantic markup, and the format and handling of text content; and

• Design and implement search optimization standards and strategies.


Topics

•Organizing Your Information•Site Structure•Presenting Information Architecture


Organizing Your Information


5 Basic Steps in Information Architecture

1. Inventory your content: What do you have already? What do you need?

2. Establish a hierarchical outline of your content and create a controlled vocabulary so the major content, site structure, and navigation elements are always identified consistently;

3. Chunking: Divide your content into logical units with a consistent modular structure;

4. Draw diagrams that show the site structure and rough outlines of pages with a list of core navigation links; and

5. Analyze your system by testing the organization interactively with real users; revise as needed.


Content Inventories

• A content inventory is a detailed listing of basic information about all the content that exists in a site to be redesigned or, in some cases, a site to be newly created from existing content resources.• Content inventories are most useful in the initial project planning and information architecture phases, but a detailed content inventory will be useful throughout the project for both planning and build-out of the site.


Web Content Inventories

• Unique ID number for project purposes

• Page title• Page template or type• URL• General type of content

• Person responsible for the content

• Keep/revise/discard decisions

• Create new content?• Review status

Basic information collected include:


Hierarchies and taxonomies

•General categories become high-ranking elements of the hierarchy of information• Specific chunks of information are positioned lower in the hierarchy• Chunks of information are ranked in importance and organized by relevance to one of the major categories


Taxonomies and controlled vocabularies

• Taxonomy is the science and practice of classification.• In information architecture, a taxonomy is a hierarchical organization of content categories, using a specific, carefully designed set of descriptive terms.


Five hat racks: Themes to organize information

•Category•Time• Location•Alphabetic•Continuum


Chunking Information

• Few web users read long passages of text onscreen.• Discrete chunks of information lend themselves to web links.• Chunking can help organize and present information in a modular layout that is consistent throughout the site.• Concise chunks of information are better suited to the computer screen, which provides a limited view of long documents.


Site Structure


Don’t make a confusing web of links. Designers aren’t the only ones who make models of sites. Users try to imagine the site structure as well, and a successful information architecture will help the user build a firm and predictable mental model of your site.


Browse Functionality

Examples of the “Goldilocks problem” in getting the site structure “just right.” Too shallow a structure (left) forces menus to become too long. Too deep a structure (right) and users get frustrated as they dig down through many layers of menus.


Site Search

The “long tail” of web search. Large sites are just too large to depend solely on browsing. Heavily used pages are likely to appear on browsing menus pages, but obscure pages deep within the site will only be found and read through web search technologies.


Structural Themes

•Web sites are built around basic structural themes that both form and reinforce a user’s mental model of how you have organized your content.• Three essential structures can be used to build a web site:– sequences, – hierarchies, and – webs.


Structural Themes: Sequences


Structural Themes: Hierarchies


Structural Themes: Webs


Choose the right site structure for your audience and content.


Presenting Information Architecture


Site Diagrams

• Site diagrams visualize the developing information hierarchy and help communicate the organizational concepts to the team and to stakeholders and project sponsors.• Site diagrams can range from simple hierarchical “org chart” diagrams to more complex and information-rich maps that show both the major divisions of the site as the user experiences them, but also act as an overview of the site directory and file structure.


Site Diagrams

Major Elements:• Content structure and organization: major site content divisions and

subdivisions• Logical functional grouping or structural relationships• The “click depth” of each level of the site: How many clicks are required to

reach a given page?• Page type or template (menu page, internal page, major section entry point,

and so on)• Site directory and file structure• Dynamic data elements like databases, RSS, or applications• Major navigation terms and controlled vocabularies• Link relationships, internal and external to the site• Levels of user access, log-ins required, or other restricted areas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss




Wireframes


Wireframes: Standard Elements

• Organizational logo• Site identity or titles• Page title headlines• Breadcrumb trail

navigation• Search form• Links to a larger

organization of which you are a part

• Global navigation links for the site• Local content

navigation• Primary page content• Mailing address and

email information• Copyright statements• Contact information


Where To Put Things and Why

Classic rules of composition and our reading habits combine to govern how we approach information displays.


Where To Put Things and Why

Eye-tracking studies show that our page- scanning patterns are dominated by top-left scanning for the most important words and links on a page.


Where users expect to find standard web page components


Where users expect to find standard web page components

Information ArchitectureReference:Web Style Guide, 3rd editionby Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton

http://patricklynch.net/

http://sarahhortondesign.com/

Information Architecture

Education