Seth Earley, CEO & President, Earley & Associatesasset.uie.com/AYCL/handout/UIE_vs88_sharepoint.pdf · •Founder of Taxonomy Community of Practice ... Research and Discovery ...
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• This is a conceptual representation of the IA approach roughly broken into five work streams: Strategy and Vision Research and Discovery Design and Development Testing and Validation Maintenance and Enhancement
• These are not necessarily discrete sets of activities, there is overlap
• Each document icon (last column) represents a deliverable which summarizes activities
in that work stream. These may be combined into a single document.
• Chevrons represent tasks and activities. Not all need to be addressed or they may be addressed as parts of other tasks.
• Steps are not necessarily sequential. For example, Governance and Socialization happen at all levels
• Some deliverables are required as inputs for other processes. For example, Use Cases and User Scenarios are required for testing
Strategy is not unique to SharePoint Testing is fairly typical: based on use cases and scenarios SharePoint Governance is part content curation, part IT governance One critical factor is making the correct decision about design elements
• Problems are identified through interviews, surveys, working sessions
• In each forum, we are making observations about the current state: how people accomplish tasks, bottlenecks in processes, problems with information access and findability, challenges around inaccurate and incomplete information
• Need to translate observations about the information environment into a vision of how those issues can be resolved.
• User centric IA requires that we understand the mental model of the user: the tasks they need to execute and how they go about accomplishing their work
• Steps to the process: Observe and gather data points Summarize into themes Translate themes into conceptual solutions Develop scenarios that comprise solutions Identify audiences who are impacted by scenarios Articulate tasks that audiences execute in scenarios Build detailed use cases around tasks and audiences Identify content needed by audiences in specific use cases Develop organizing principles for content
What are the specific problems and challenges that users are identifying?
• We can’t locate information about policies for specialty coverage • We need to look in multiple systems to find prior experience data
when underwriting new policies in high risk areas • Different terminology is used in different systems making queries
difficult
Summarize into themes What are the common elements to observations, how can symptoms and pains be classified according to overarching themes?
Inability to locate policy and underwriting information using common terminology
Translate themes into conceptual solutions
Wouldn’t it be great if we could…?
We could access all policy and prior experience data across multiple systems using a single search query and return consistent results?
Develop scenarios that comprise solutions
What would a day in the life of a user look like if this solution were in place?
At a high level, describe how underwriters go about their work in writing policies for specialty and high risk clients. Describe each potential situation and how they would go about their work
Identify audiences who are impacted by scenarios
Who are the users that are impacted?
Risk managers, underwriters, sales personnel
Articulate tasks that audiences execute in scenarios
What are the tasks that need to be executed in each scenario?
For a given scenario, articulate tasks (research options, review loss history, locate supporting research, etc.)
Build detailed use cases around tasks and audiences
What are the specific steps to accomplish tasks?
For a single task, list the steps to execute (this level of detail is not needed in all cases). Step 1 – log on to claim system Step 2 – search for history on the coverage type in geography, Step 3 – etc.
Identify content needed by audiences in specific use cases
What content and information is needed at each step in the process?
Arrange the things they need according to process, task or other organizing principle
Begin with “is-ness”. What is the nature of the information? Then determine “about-ness”, the additional characteristics of the information. How would you tell 100 documents of that type apart?
• Taxonomy is the foundation for information architecture
• Every design element in SharePoint requires a consistent set of organizing principles
• If we start with the core organizing principles first, the IA is a matter of structuring these into the constraints and constructs of SharePoint elements
Site collection hierarchy - How multiple sites relate to one another, global navigation across sites
Site navigation – Organizational construct within a site, how document libraries are named and organized
Document library organization – How libraries sort, organize and view documents
Content model construction - Metadata fields (columns) that comprise content types
List definition – Values that drive fields (columns) that use controlled vocabularies
Faceted search – Metadata fields that are exposed to users to perform attribute based search. Facets depend on user context and content model
Roles for security and personalization – Types of users that have specific privileges or who may be interested in specific subjects
Relationship of Taxonomy to Information Architecture
Organizing principle Icon Element Disambiguating principle
Site collection Sales
You could have a collection of sites called “sales”. Within them you would have to further distinguish sales sites. What is the difference between one sales site and another?
Site North American Sales
One possible way to consider this would be to distinguish between regions in different sites
Library Brand A Sales If we distinguished between regions at the site level, we might consider different libraries for various products
List Products for Sale The actual product names would comprise a sales related list
Column Product types for Sale
A column is a metadata value. A field called sales does not have much meaning. This may be a kind of sales
Content Type Product Description A content type is a collection of fields. What is the conceptual unit around sales? Product page or description.
Term Product Name The controlled vocabulary term would be the actual name of the product in a list
Document Set Sales contracts and agreements
A collection contains things that comprise a transaction or natural grouping (process or task based).
• Home or Landing Pages – A page is the substrate on which design elements are organized
• Web Parts - modular bits of functionality that allow modification of content, appearance and behavior of web pages. Consider web parts as windows or views into content and data contained in lists, libraries and other data sources
• Managed Metadata Service – A collection of defined, centrally managed terms that are applied by publishers as metadata attributes for content items Term Store – A database that is used to house both Managed Terms and “Enterprise Keywords”.
Groups - From a taxonomy perspective, a group is a flat list or hierarchical collection of related attributes comprised of one or more Term Sets.
Term Set - A flat list or hierarchical collection of related Terms that belong to a Group. Term - A word or phrase that can be applied by publishers and system users as metadata to content.
• Views – Leveraging metadata to create different ways of looking at content stored in a list or library. Created within a list or library.
• Folders – never ever use folders
• Navigational tools – Global and local navigation, attributes for filtering and searching of content
Global navigation Library – The container for documents organized according to a process or concept Think of a collection of information for a process. For example, a repository of Case Studies that marketing produces
Case Studies Library
Case Study Content Type
Title Author
Date
Client
Industry
Content Type – The container for information. May be a word document, a page, an image, other rich media like an audio or video file. Think of the individual piece of information that you might hand to someone to read or surface on a web site or intranet.
Column – The metadata that describes a piece of content. Think of a Column in a spreadsheet Terminology Check: Column = Metadata = Field = Attribute = Facet
Case Study Content Type
Title Author
Date
Client
Industry
Body of Content
Automotive Construction Consumer Products Energy Engineering Financial Services Healthcare Insurance Legal Manufacturing Pharmaceuticals Retail Services …
Industry Column
A Content Type is defined by Columns – The metadata that describes a piece of content by “is-ness” and “about-ness”. Ask “What is this thing?” “What is it about?”
A Content Type in SharePoint can also define workflow and information lifecycle and policies.
A certain type of column, the Managed Metadata Column, Contains a Term Set – The actual values within a metadata field Think of the values that would be chosen by a user in a drop down field
Automotive Construction Consumer Products Energy Engineering Financial Services Healthcare Insurance Legal Manufacturing Pharmaceuticals Retail Services …
A Few Words About the Term Store and Taxonomy Management
• The Term Store is mistakenly called a Taxonomy Management Tool. • It is a step in the right direction but lacks many of the features and functions for
taxonomy management. Not intended to be a general purpose taxonomy tool Difficulty importing, exporting and adapting to other environments Tools for building and leveraging enterprise taxonomies including auto-categorization and
search enhancement
• Enterprise taxonomy management requires a centralized place to define and store Preferred terms and their relationships (hierarchical, associative, equivalence) Term definitions and scope notes Governance processes including workflow, change management, security Multilingual translations Custom attributes System integration (via tagging, search and navigation)
• If common vocabularies are required across multiple systems, a dedicated taxonomy management tool will be needed
• Determine what content is important for your use case or user scenario
• Prioritize on that content, subset the content areas that will be the focus of the user experience
Content Prioritization Based on Scenario
Scenario: Fran is a new consultant. She’s recently graduated from University of Washington Information School and this is only her third project with Acme. She’s been assigned to work on a project in the healthcare field around content reuse and component authoring for physician order sets. She needs to get up to speed on similar projects and wants to leverage the Methodology Playbook that Acme has developed for this purpose. She’s been asked by the project manager to assemble a kick off deck and the project management templates as well as interview guides and content audit spreadsheets.
• Determine what content is important for your use case or user scenario • Prioritize on that content, subset the content areas that will be the focus of the user
experience • Design how the content model will be leveraged in libraries, navigation and search
Developing Content Model
Process Step Search or Navigation Parameters
Content Area
Step 1: Review the current project SOW and Cost Sheet
SOW, Cost Sheet, Final version, approved, Project name, Client, Project type
Sales materials, Accepted proposals
Step 2: Search Methodology library for “Component Authoring” and “Healthcare”
Component Authoring, Single Source Content
Delivery Practice Areas
Step 3: Browse the Case Study library for similar projects
Healthcare, Content Architecture, Life Sciences, EHR, EMR
Case Studies
Step 4: Review Templates and Exemplars for starting points for the project.
Template Library, Project Deliverables marked as “exemplar”
• Module 1: Getting Started Introductions Framing the Problem What is Information Architecture? Information Architecture Process Introduction to the Course Project (Acme Consulting)
Seth Earley CEO _____________________________ EARLEY & ASSOCIATES, Inc. Cell: 781-820-8080 Email: [email protected] Web: www.earley.com Follow me on twitter: @sethearley Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sethearley
Desired Capability Gap Current State Assessment Preliminary Gap Closing Actions
27. Information is secure and only available to people with authorized access.
Major Gap
People have access to restricted information (electronic and paper), access permissions are not aligned with sensitivity policies.
Ensure that access control lists and permissions align with information sensitivity policies.
28. Trust in the currency and integrity of a record.
Major Gap
No consistent processes, methods and controls for versioning documents, removing duplicate copies, and managing document lifecycle state.
Develop clear and effective version control policies, procedures, and methods, and document lifecycle metadata. Configure and utilize ECM version control and lifecycle mechanisms. Educate employees.
29. Master Data is harmonized across systems Gap
No common language or framework for describing data across various systems to enable aggregating and analyzing data.
Develop a mapping / ontology of data across systems that need to be aggregated for analysis (BI), reporting, dashboards.
30. Documents have the necessary metadata to facilitate access control, retrieval, retention, and destruction.
Gap Inconsistent definition and use of metadata.
Develop a master metadata schema (mapped to content types) that can be used for both physical records and electronic content. Configure and utilize ECM application (DL, SharePoint) mechanisms to populate metadata. Use authoritative sources to populate metadata.
31. We do not recreate content for different media or publications - we create once and reuse.
Major Gap
Video and photos are repurposed on an ad hoc basis. Sites are locally created and managed.
Implement DAM. Implement Web Content Management. Redesign content creation processes to facilitate content reuse. Develop reuse metrics and monitor performance
32. Able to predict and control the growth of electronic and physical storage.
Major Gap
No measurements or metrics in place.
Develop KPMs for physical and electronic storage and archive. Identify key areas of need and develop countermeasures. Target areas of major growth fn physical storage for movement to electronic solutions.
• Personal Profile • It took some doing, but Jonathan Miller
found a workable balance between being the single dad of a 6-year-old and working a full schedule at a venture capital firm. With childcare help from his mother, mother-in-law and a part-time babysitter, Jonathan’s daughter has returned to a semblance of the secure, reassuring existence she had when her mother was alive. With stability at home renewed, Jonathan has been able to focus time on his career.
• Jonathan’s role as a strategic investment analyst at the venture capital firm rose from the ashes of a company that shuttered its doors after the dot-com implosion. He was CFO at the defunct firm and had befriended the VP of the venture firm. Jonathan has dreams of becoming a partner of the firm but given the tough economic climate, that goal seems further off.
• Because Jonathan doesn’t compromise in spending time with his daughter, he often works on projects late into the night after he puts his daughter to bed. He doesn’t hesitate to avail himself of useful Internet tools and websites, but doesn’t have much time or interest for gratuitous surfing.
• Jonathan is talented at distilling risk management, insurance and financial advice into consumable reports for his bosses. He takes full advantage of the resources at his disposal: sophisticated research databases at the office and his extensive network of professional contacts. He will use the Web to the degree that it adds quality to his work product.
Jonathan Miller Domestic Business Customer
“I will take knowledge from whence it comes”
background • 44-year-old, man, widower, 6-year-old daughter, moderate • BS in Electrical Engineering, SMU; MBA Harvard • Works at venture capital firm in Boston; lives in Back Bay • $240K annual income / $2M net worth • Hobbies: Tennis, local politics, chess • Favorite Web sites: CNN, Yahoo! Finance, Hoovers, Edgaronline attributes • Heads-down, methodical, thorough • Highly intelligent, respectful, task-oriented • Confident in his abilities, but humble enough to incorporate others’ expertise site needs • Useful risk management information and tools that will help him analyze and decide • Comfort that ABC not only knows risk, but provides related advisory services; ease in navigating between the two • A comprehensive catalog of services that can be uncovered without excessive navigation • Clear contact information regarding different aspects of risk management
Featured Scenario:
Scenario
Features
Behavior
Jonathan has been asked by his firm’s VP of Business Development to assess the financial soundness of four business plans. The plans have one thing in common – they all involve enhancing or expanding global operations. Jon quickly assesses the revenue and cost profile, but does not have an adequate handle on the risks. He needs to quantify the risks, assess their impact on each plan, and validate their risk mitigation. Six months earlier at an HBS reunion, Jonathan met up with an old grad school buddy who told him about his wife who worked at ABC as an international underwriter. Jon decides to check out AIG’s website to see if it can provide him with information and guidance on international risk and specifics on each country.
• Product and services categorization • Risk assessment tools • Other tools, presentations, etc., to help him help us sell
• After tucking in his daughter, Jon points his browser to abc.com. He navigates (searches?) to “corporate risk” and finds highly relevant risk management information and tools (e.g., spreadsheet templates). • Jon clicks on a catalog of AIG’s risk advisory services, spots an entry titled “Global Risk Analysis,” and reads the short blurb. • Jon, convinced that ABC is capable of helping him, dials the number listed on the site, and schedules a conference call with the advisory group. • Jon makes approval of two of the plans contingent on the companies adding certain insurance coverage to their risk management plans – coverages he learned about on the ABC site.
Alternative Scenarios • A new ABC product is introduced; Jon wants to note which IPOs in his portfolio should consider it • Jon is already a customer • Jon is cross-sold life insurance • Jon wishes to begin researching savings options for his daughter’s college education
Jonathan uses the abc.com website to help him make business decisions through online information and tools
• Users can be identified by their characteristics, tendencies, preferences, and aptitudes through the development of user profiles and personas A profile is a description of a user role based on their job tasks and objectives A persona is a description of their personality and details of their lifestyle
• Use cases are specific, step by step interactions with a system
• Scenarios are a “day in the life”, higher level description of the things that they need
• Use Cases provide step by step instructions. They describe how each type of user interacts with an application. They are also depicted as diagrams that visualize the steps and paths needed to complete a task...
Workflow and Process
User Cases are used test the ability to locate specific content based on labeling and the hierarchy mental model