School of Information, Fall 2007
University of Texas
Information Architecture
Class Four
A. Fleming Seay
Agenda
Quiz
Research Topic Presentation Order
Discuss Readings, Chapters 1-5
Class Work: Planning a Site
Group Work: Building a Site Plan
Research Topic Presentations
Somebody had to be first – deal with it.
Three per week
Starting next week
You are teaching the class / leading the discussion
Defining IA – The Architecture Analogy
Planning / Design / Construction / Maintenance
Web sites & buildings support different activities
Rooms, departments, buildings
Shopping, reading, resting
Structuring, Organizing & Linking
Finding & Managing
What IA is and isn’t
Context, Content, Users
Interfaces
Search & Browse
Knowledge Networks
Information Seeking Behavior
Navigation Systems
Graphics
Maps & Logos
Controlled Vocabularies (labels)
Metadata
What isn’t IA? (p 9)
Huh?
Important AI Concepts
Information Architects? Yes or No
Yes, they take many disciplines & update for
today’s technology & users
Yes, it is a foundation of theory that is being built
upon
Yes, someone has to be the focal point of
Information Design & Development
No, we really need Solutions, no matter where they
come from
No, we need better tools to make IA flow from the
process
Who agrees with Andrew Dillon?
Information Seeking Behaviors
Searching – Browsing – Asking
Known-Item Seeking – user knows what and where
Exploratory Seeking
not sure exactly what you’re looking for
open ended
no definitive right answer
Exhaustive Search
I want everything
Refinding
marking for later
favorites, tagging <toberead> ,<tobeforwarded>
User Needs & Behaviors
Integration
Searching, Browsing and Asking used in same session
Iterative
Session/behavior results feedback into next action
“Berry-picking”
Quick Exercise
Find This Picture
Anatomy of IA
Search
Interface
Query Language
Index & Algorithms
Results (Zones)
Browse
Taxonomies & Hierarchies
Global (site-wide) & Local Navigation Links
Tables of Contents, Site Maps, Indices
Guides, Pathfinders, Wizards, Tasks
Content & Contextual Links
“Invisibles”
Controlled Vocabularies (language use)
Thesauri
Rule Sets (Canned search results)
Organization Schemes
Shared characteristics of content items that
influence their logical grouping
Alphabetical
Directories (Big) & Lists (Smaller)
Chronological
Geographical
Organization Schemes - Ambiguous
Topic - Consumer Reports
Task - Ebay (task & topic)
Audience – Dell.com
Metaphor – Children’s Sites
Hybrid – University Sites
Organizational Structures
Hierarchy: Top Down
Centralized
Not always just one
Balance of Breadth & Depth
Consider Context
New website likely to grow –> Broad and shallow
Organizational Structures
Granular: Bottom Up
Content Driven
Metadata, tagging
Technology Driven
Databases & automation
IA Deliverables
Paper prototypes
Wireframes (templates)
Blueprints (Site maps)
Controlled vocabularies
User scenarios (storyboards)
Metadata schemas
Metaphors
Design palettes
Content inventory
Concept Maps
Wireframes
Storyboards
Block Diagrams / Flow Maps & Charts
Class Work: Planning a Site
What kind of site will you build?
Informational
Entertainment
Portfolio
Content display
Context with links
What resources do you have?
Content
Ideas
Circumstance
Write up your ideas (Time Limit)
Group Work: Building a Site Plan
Discuss your ideas with your neighbor
Do you have too much initially planned?
Who is your user audience?
What will the site be used for?
Why would someone want to use your site?
What are the goals of the site?
For Next Week
Write up of your site plan and discussion from class
Presentations
SILVAS, Metaphors in Web Design and Navigation
MASON, Taxonomies & Classification for Organizing Content
TSE, User IA – blogs, RSS and WIKIs
Reading
Rosenfeld, Information Architecture: Chapter 9
Morrison, J. B., Pirolli, P., & Card, S. K. (2001). A Taxonomic Analysis of What World Wide
Web Activities Significantly Impact People's Decisions and Actions. Proceedings of CHI 2001,
Seattle, WA.
Wilson, T. D. (2000). Human Information Behavior. Informing Science: Special Issue on
Information Science Research, 3(2).
Millen, D. (2000). Rapid Ethnography: Time Deepening Strategies for HCI Field Research.
Paper presented at the DIS '00, Brooklyn, NY.