Information Architecture & Design
• Week 5 Schedule
- Planning IA Structures
- Other Readings
- Research Topic Presentations
• Email Nadalia your Presentations
- Class Work: User Analysis
- Group Project Plan Review
- Group Work: Planning the Project Site
• Send email to the list from your project account
- URL of your working designs
- URL of your working specifications
Thesauri, Vocabularies & Metadata
• The Structure of Your Content (Part of the Plan)
• Models the Information for the User (Content
Modeling)
• What Do You Do With Your Project Data (Content)?
- Context
• Descriptive
• Prescriptive
- Quality
• Accuracy
• Recency
- Characteristics
• Media / MIME
• Uses
• Represent the Relationships Between Systems
Controlled Vocabularies
• Establish Consistencies
• For the Content
• For the Developers
• On the Site – Apparent to the Users
• Just Synonyms?
• Lists of Equivalents (Index)
• Aliases (Authority File)
• Also an Implied or Overt Hierarchy
• “Synonym Ring” p 178
• Based on User’s Understanding
• Improved Upon by IA
• Iterative Process to Discover Alternate Words and
Concepts
• Not Just for Search
Building Your “Authority File”
• The list of preferred terms or acceptable
values. P 180
• The Mission Statement for your Content
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Acronyms, Abbreviations
Multiple terms (“term rotation”?)
Cases (Upper, Lower and Mixed)
Button and Graphics too
• Use a Central File to Keep Current
• Responsible Role during the IA Method
Classification Schemes
• Taxonomy (more than one)
- Front End
• Users (Personalized)
• Interface (Browse)
- Back End
• Information Architecture
• Content Management
• System (Search)
- Technical Approaches
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LIS & CS
Top-Down & Bottom-Up
Content & Task
ALL
Semantic Relationships
• Equivalence (Alternate Names)
- Derived (Rules)
- Vocabulary (Uses)
• Hierarchical (Relationships)
- Strong (Inherited)
• City - Austin
- Instance (Classes)
• Texas - Austin
• Associative (Checklist for Approval)
- Based on Understanding of Content
- Based on Understanding of Users
Thesauri
• Hierarchical Relationship
• Equivalence Relationship
• Associative Relationship
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Preferred Term
Varian Term (synonyms)
Broader Term (preferred’s parent)
Narrower Term (preferred’s child)
Related (“see also”, synonyms)
Use (rules for where and when)
Scope (restricts meaning)
Thesaurus Types
• Classic
- Links
- Keywords
• Subject Index
• LoC
• Index
- Browsable
• Appearance
• Ordering (Multiple orders)
- Relational
• See also
• Hierarchy
• Document versus Site
Faceted Classification
• Multiple Dimensions
• Now More Applicable to Digital Information
- Personality, Matter, Energy, Space, Time
- Topic, Product, Document Type, Audience,
Geography, Price
• Commerce Examples
• What other kinds of views?
Taxonomy of Decisions & Actions
• Now – not just the taxonomies of content, but
how people work
• Purpose of the Search
• Method to Find Information
• Content of the Information Being Searched
• GVU Survey Question
- Recent instance of important information found
• Critical Incident Technique
- Complete Instances
- Known Consequences (Results)
• Morrison 2001
Taxonomy pt. 2
• Taxonomies of Web Activities
- Why people searched the Web
- How search the Web
- What information searched
• Analysis of Responses from Survey into
Experiment
• Purpose Taxonomy
• Method Taxonomy
• Content Taxonomy
Human Information Behavior
• Information Seeking (Strategies)
• Information Searching (Strategies)
• Information Use
- Physical Actions
- Mental Actions
• Focus on the User
• Wilson 2001
New Models of Info Behavior pt. 2
New Models of Info Behavior pt. 3
• Problem Solving
• System Actions
• Integration of Actions
Rapid Ethnography
• Like Rapid Prototyping & Usability Inspection
• Field Work
• Ethnography
- People (Practice)
- Environments (Native)
- Activities (Context)
• Cultural Observation and Analysis
• Elicit User Requirements
• More Focused (Decisions)
• Millen 2000
Rapid Ethnography pt. 2
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Short Studies
Comparisons to Other Studies
Zoom in On Key Activities
Multiple Datasets (Critical Incidents)
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Observations
Recording
Activity Walkthroughs
Interviews (Structured)
• Selection of Instances that Yield Incidents
- Key Times
- Key Users
Rapid Ethnography pt. 3
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Automated Data Analysis
Team Data Analysis
Scenario Analysis (storyboards)
Pictorial Storytelling (metaphors)
Lightweight Deliverables
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Drawings (Sketches)
Notes (not Reports)
Incomplete
Prototypes
• Cognitive Mapping (assumptive)
• Substitute for Full or Complete Studies
How Do We Really Use the Web?
• Reading vs. Scanning
- Quality of Elements
- Quantity of Elements
- Purpose of Pages
• Satisficing
- Guessing with Speed
- Low Penalties (Back)
- Testing Boundaries
• Muddling and Forging Ahead
- Stick with what works
- Not concerned with understanding
• Krug 2000
Semiotics of the Web
• Site Structure and Cognitive Design
- Typography
• Medium use
- Browsers
• Message content
- Paper
- Web
• Appeal
- Attention (interest)
- Relevance (needs and motives)
- Confidence (expectation & achievement)
• Accessibility
- Culture
- Physical
• Smart, et al. 2000
Learning and Interests (Users)
• Learning is Remembering What You’re Interested
In
• Cultivating Interest
• Relevance
• Interests vs. Obligations
• Examples for Understanding
- Metaphors
- Content Presentation
• “Architecture is Making Connections”
Designing for Users
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Permutations
Connections
Facts vs. Ideas
Discovery vs. JITI
Class Work: User Analysis
• Who are your target users?
• All of the possible users?
• Rapid Ethnography
Group Project Plan Review
• Comments on Your Plans
- Current
- Future
Group Work: Planning the Project Site
• Who are your target users?
• All of the possible users?
• Rapid Ethnography