Information Architecture and Intranets March 3, 2008 Colin Furness

1. Information Architecture and Intranets March 3, 2008 Colin Furness

2. Outline 1 • What is Information Architecture? • Principles and Concepts • Business Needs • User Behaviour • Information Organization • Information Design • Interaction Design • Navigation Regimes • Searching and Finding • Content Maintainability • IA and Intranet Development • Web Sites vs Intranets • Intranet Taxonomies • Intranet Characteristics • Getting Started • Dynamic and Static Intranets • References

3. Preface 2 • Information Architecture is new and interdisciplinary • It can be approached from multiple theoretical and practical perspectives • There is no generally accepted set of credentials for an Information Architect • There is considerable disagreement about the boundaries between • Information Architecture and related disciplines such as • user interface design, graphic design, business analysis, • project management, even programming • Definitions and conceptualizations of Information Architecture • vary considerably depending on the perspective adopted • The perspective presented here: • Rooted in psychology, human-computer interaction, information studies • Professional practice in New York and Toronto

4. What is Information Architecture? 3 Definition • Term coined by Architect and Designer Richard Saul Wurman in 1976 • Referred to information design and graphical displays of information • on paper and in physical space • Term reappears in reference to the design of web sites in the mid-1990s • Rosenfeld & Morville (1998): five functions of the Information Architect • Clarifies mission and vision of the web site • Balances needs of the business and the audience • Determines what content and functionality the site will contain • Structures information for retrieval by organization, navigation, • labeling, and searching • e. Maps out how the site will handle change and growth over time What’s wrong with this definition?

5. What is Information Architecture? 4 It takes a village to raise a child … or The village will raise your child whether you like it or not The “information architect” is an artificial construct to recognize that problems of information organization, storage and retrieval will not solve themselves So, it is better to avoid defining “information architect” beyond stating that it is a person most responsible for making a site effective (for its users and its owners) in its information structures, features and functionality The colloquial definition: the person whose job it is to make sure that when you visit a web site, you don’t get lost, confused, frustrated and annoyed It is easier to define “information architecture”, because it can be framed as a function that is intertwined with functions from other disciplines

6. What is Information Architecture? 5 The “village” of information architecture: Corporate Strategy &Brand Target Audience Graphic design IA Project Management Engineering

7. IA mission & vision balancing audience needs Structuring information maintainability functionality What is Information Architecture? 6 Rosenfeld & Morville’s (1998) conceptualization of information architecture: Corporate Strategy &Brand Target Audience Graphic design IA Project Management Engineering

8. What is Information Architecture? 7 Two similar questions: • What is good information architecture? • What is good art? Answer: “it depends”: it is in the eye (and context) of the beholder • But we can measure quality on five dimensions of usability: • ease of learning • efficient/ergonomic use • minimal errors • retention over time • subjective satisfaction

9. Principles and Concepts 8 Business Needs What does the business need to get done - what are its goals? What are the benefits and limitations of the current approach? What are the potential benefits and limitations of the proposed approach? What resources are available for development? Should this be done internally or with outside help? How will decisions be made? What will be the staffing and training requirements for the new system?

10. Principles and Concepts 9 Audience Needs • The Target User: a homogeneous group of users • If the group is not homogeneous, then there are >1 distinct groups • The more that is known about the target user, the more effective IA can be • Information we would want to know about target users: • Who are they and where are they located? • What are their information needs? For what purpose(s)? Is the planned implementation expected to change this? • Are they likely to be skimming (foraging) or reading (learning)? • Are there physical artifacts they use that need to be considered? • What skills and expertise do they possess? • What limitations do they carry? • What cultural considerations are there? • What is their vocabulary? • What kind of equipment will they be using?

11. Principles and Concepts 10 Audience Needs • Physiology and Psychology (Cognition) is important too: • Some examples: • Blue is the worst colour for rendering text • Colour blindness sufferers cannot distinguish red from green • Short term memory capacity: 7 +/-2 items • A unit item depends on the knowledge and experience of the user: • All the days of the week = 1 item • Familiar telephone area codes = 1 item • A random list of names = 1 item for each name • A word written in an unfamiliar alphabet = 1 item for each letter/element

12. Principles and Concepts 11 Information Organization 1. Information Shape: 2. Classification: • Two golden rules: • Mutually exclusive categories • Collectively exhaustive categories

13. Principles and Concepts 12 Information Design • Labels and Semantics • This is a cornerstone of information architecture • Effective labeling leverages the audience’s knowledge • But this isn’t enough on its own – consider: • Labels are crucial: • they can support or undermine an information organization scheme • they can properly define a functional feature or can disguise it • Programs • Projects • Products/Initiatives • Strategy

14. Principles and Concepts 13 Information Design Semantic Confusables: Consider these elevator control buttons: Things that are cognitively very similar require considerable additional mental processing to discriminate Example: Flooz (internet “currency”) SPEND FLOOZ SEND FLOOZ (buy Flooz) (use Flooz)

15. Principles and Concepts 14 Information Design 2. Representation (Baecker, 2002) • Metaphors can convey powerfully a mental model of how something works • Eg the “deskttop” metaphor for Mac O/S and Windows • Eg the “cassette player” metaphor for audio & video files • Eg. the “radio button” metaphor for that selector interaction style • Metaphors can confuse and undermine clarity • Eg “global village” internet information service research • Icons can leverage visual cues for clarity • Eg file folder icons • Icons can often confuse the user instead • Poor rendering • Culturally rooted • Need to be learned • Note: research comparing icons, semantics, labeled icons • found icons alone to be worst

16. Principles and Concepts 15 Information Design 3. Communication (Baecker, 2002) • Legibility • text font size, type, spacing, contrast • Readability • text layout, density, scrolling • Clarity • non-textual elements as unambiguous • Emphasis • use of headings, lines, weight of elements on a page • Simplicity • including only what is important

17. standard buttons Principles and Concepts 16 Interaction Design • Norman (1988) on industrial design: • a. Affordances: The characteristics or properties of an object • that provide clues as to how it is meant to be used • Some • Examples: • b. Constraints: Constraints are the opposite of affordances – • characteristics or properties of an object • that discourage or prevent its incorrect use • Some • Examples: - text that is “greyed out” • - radio buttons only allow for one option to be selected • - drop-down menus that prevent typing errors Target graphics that look ‘pressable’ Blue underlined hyperlinks check boxes

18. Principles and Concepts 17 Navigation Regimes • Do you remember Gopher (the precursor to the Web)? • hierarchical, text-based lists • navigation is up and down only But the Web is non-linear: the greatest curse in the history of humanity? • 1. Global navigation: • Links that are persistent across every page in the site • Usually across the top and/or the left pane and/or across the bottom • 2. Local navigation: • Links that appear “globally” within a section of a site • Local navigation can be secondary, tertiary, even quarternary

19. Principles and Concepts 18 Navigation Regimes 3. Opening windows& interleavable tasks a link can open a new window (e.g. a pop-up) can swap between multiple windows/tasks (or not) • 4. Navigation Sign-Posts • a. “Breadcrumbing” • A linear representation of depth and place in a hierarchy • b. “On-state” • The link representing the section currently viewed is displayed differently • (e.g. no longer a link, or shown in a different colour) • c. “Footprints” • A visited link permanently changes colour for the duration of site visit

20. Principles and Concepts 19 Navigation Regimes • 5. Sitemaps • A sitemap is like a table of contents • A sitemap is like the index at the back of a book • A sitemap is helpful for showing the ‘bird’s eye view’ of the site • A sitemap is a crutch to compensate for poor IA • Good examples of sitemaps are hard to find – why? • Sitemaps CAN • Provide filtering on many different attributes • Provide an alternate organization for information on the site • Be personalized • Act as a navigation learning tool • Be a useful shortcut to deeper areas of the site

21. Principles and Concepts 20 Searching and Finding Why does searching happen? How different is it than browsing? What are users doing when they search – what are they looking for? What kinds of dimensions might be searched? How can this be supported in metadata? Authority files/thesaurus? Sometimes, a controlled vocabulary What should be displayed in search results? Really Bad example: Harper’s Bazaar www.bazaar.com Somewhat Good example: Goodkind Labaton Law Firm www.glrs.com WHY are search results often so bad?

22. Principles and Concepts (20)

23. Principles and Concepts (20)

24. Principles and Concepts 21 Content Maintainability Scalability Rosenfeld & Morville (1998): The IA should anticipate how the site will grow over time. But how can this be done? Up-to-Dateness • Records management policies • Manual or automated or a hybrid? • Accountability and staffing • Remote publishing tools • Tools (ie. functional forms) can be built to assist with maintenance • Is content to be published centrally or in a distributed fashion? • What security is needed?

25. Outline 22 • What is Information Architecture? • Principles and Concepts • Business Needs • User Behaviour • Information Organization • Information Design • Interaction Design • Navigation Regimes • Searching and Finding • Content Maintainability • IA and Intranet Development • Intranets vs Web Sites • Intranet Taxonomies • Intranet Characteristics • Getting Started • Dynamic and Static Intranets • References

26. IA and Intranet Development 23 Intranets vs Web Sites • Web Sites • Usually a broad, vaguely defined audience • Information needs are diverse • Usefulness of functionality is often guesswork • Domain knowledge cannot be assumed or leveraged • Often aim for the “lowest common denominator” • Branding issues (‘public face’) can take precedence over effective use • Future growth can be difficult to predict • Intranets • Always a finite, known and accessible audience • Information needs can be mapped • Useful functionality can usually be defined • Domain knowledge can be leveraged • Effective use is often a real primary goal • Future growth often predictable

27. IA and Intranet Development 24 Intranets vs Web Sites Leveraging the Audience The intranet audience is “expert” • Tradeoffs between designing for novices and experts: • Easy to learn vs powerful functionality • Constraining errors vs speed and efficiency • Managing a diverse vocabulary vs a controlled vocabulary

28. IA and Intranet Development 25 Intranet Taxonomies • Firestone (1999): the lack of an accepted term and/or definition derives from • competition and differentiation between vendors. • Some synonyms: • Intranet, Corporate Portal, Corporate Information Portal, • Business Portal, Enterprise Information Portal • Murray (1999): a functional taxonomy: • 1. information portals which allow users to access information • 2. collaborative portals with features to foster collaborative work, • 3. expertise portals to connect communities of practice • 4. knowledge portals which combine features of the other three • Dias (2001): an evolutionary taxonomy: • 1. search engine capabilities • 2. navigation (browsing) capability • 3. personalization (adaptive systems) & customization (adaptable systems) • 4. integration of disparate systems • 5. decision support and collaborative processing.

29. IA and Intranet Development 26 Intranet Characteristics • Eckerson (1999): 15 “core features” of an intranet (industry trade perspective): • Easy to use • Intuitive classification and searching • Collaborative information sharing • Universal connectivity to information resources • Dynamic access to information resources • Intelligent routing • Integrated business intelligence tool • Server-based architecture • Distributed services • Flexible permission granting • External interfaces • Programmatic interfaces (APIs) • Security • Easy deployment and maintenance • Customization and personalization Most, but not all, have implications for information architecture

30. IA and Intranet Development 27 Intranet Characteristics vs. Customization Personalization a.k.a. “adaptive interface” a.k.a. “adaptable interface” The information system can be configured by the user according to his/her own preferences The information system automatically behaves differently for different individuals and/or different job roles System adapts to user User can adapt system But is this a good idea?

31. IA and Intranet Development 28 Getting Started • Warning #1: • analyzing business goals, users, structure, and information flows • to design an intranet carries a key (and possibly fatal) assumption: • It is assumed that these are correct, but they often are not • Warning #2: • the introduction of a new means of sharing and exchanging information • will (should?) have an impact on how work gets done • Information flows are a moving target

32. IA and Intranet Development 29 Getting Started 1. Enumerating Content • a. Interviewing participants: • e.g. who gives you information, and to whom do you give information? • How do you get it, and what problems do you have? • b. Scouring shared/public drives • c. Brainstorming! 2. Enumerating Functionality • What electronic tools are in use? • b. What electronic tools may be developed in the future? • c. What are the technical limitations (e.g. security)

33. IA and Intranet Development 30 Getting Started • 3. Sorting out Semantics • In most organizations, there are “subcultures” • (e.g. members of a particular trade, profession, or department) • Subcultures may influence individuals to see, say, do things differently • (e.g. X as a project, program, programme, strategy, initiative … ) • Some approach to validation is needed • (e.g. card sorting exercises)

34. IA and Intranet Development 31 Getting Started 4. Mapping Information Flows accounting management Can be done graphically: sales shipping • 5. Designing Publishing Tools • Is content publishing to be centralized or distributed? • What are the data elements for each different piece of content? • What business rules (e.g. records policies) that need to be considered?

35. IA and Intranet Development 32 Dynamic and Static Intranets • Static: • Content is “hard wired”: 1-to-1 correspondence of information and pages • Updating is done manually • Everybody sees “the same thing” • Small, simple sites can be static • Dynamic: • content is database driven: there is no real “page count” • updating can be done automatically • different views can be shown to different users • Customization (adaptable interface) • Settings/preferences can be specified by the user • Personalization (adaptive interface) • The system responds differently depending on who the user is

36. 33 Questions? (“The Bench”, Wm. Hogarth, 1758)

37. References 34 Baecker, R.M. (2002). Lecture notes. CSC318H: the Design of Interactive Computational Media. University of Toronto. Available: http://www.kmdi.utoronto.ca/csc318F/lecture.htm Dias, C. (2001). “Corporate portals: a literature review of a new concept in information management”. International Journal of Information Management, 21, 269-287. Eckerson, W. (1999). “15 rules for enterprise portals”. Oracle Magazine, 13(4), 13-14. Available: http://www.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/99-Jul/49ind.html. Firestone, J.M. (1993). White Paper #13: Defining the Enterprise Information Portal. Available: http://www.dkms.com/eipdef.html. Murray, G. (1999). “The portal is the desktop”. Intraspect (May/June). Available: http://www.e-promag.com/eparchive/index.cfm?fuseaction =viewarticle&ContentID=166&websiteid= Norman, D. (1988) The Psychology of Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books. Rosenfeld, L., & Morville, P. (1998). Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Associates. Wurman, R.S. (1997). Information Architects. New York: Graphis Inc.