Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Knowledge organisation and the Web Nils Pharo, 6th November 2002

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Different levels Principles of thesaurus construction Topic maps Information architecture

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Thesaurus construction thesaurus definition: "The vocabulary of a controlled indexing language, formally organized so that the a priori relationships between concepts (for example as "broader" and "narrower”) are made explicit”

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Thesaurus

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Thesaurus construction guidelines for organisational web sites should be used with flexibility  Analyse the organisation  Content analysis  Controlled vocabulary  Create pages  Express hierarchy using links

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Topic maps Three characteristics topics associations (roles) occurrences

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Topic maps

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Topic maps vs. thesaurus principles 1 Similarities  Both approaches focus on concepts/topics and relationships  Both apply the idea of implementing relationships/associations as hypertext links  Both approaches facilitates hierarchical as well as associative linking (relationships)

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Topic maps vs. thesaurus principles 2 Differences  meta-level vs. resource level  Topic maps: no limitations on realised associations  A thesauri is a topic map

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Information architecture; definition 1 Information architecture (IA) is the art, science, and business of organizing information so that it makes sense to people who use it. (Stacy Surla, SIG-IA)

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Information architecture; definition 2 The definition: The art and science of organizing and labeling information to improve browsing and searching The thing: The structure of information and components for searching and browsing that information (Louis Rosenfeld, Sandefjord 2002)

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Information architecture; definition 3 The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and intranets to help people find and manage information (Rosenfeld & Morville, 2002)

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Information architecture; issues Defining IA IA or architects of information Big IA – little IA IA and usability The Web and IA How to qualify for performing IA (Andrew Dillon, JASIST 2002)

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Three questions 1. Where am I? 2. Where have I been? 3. Where can I go?

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Challenges of structuring web sites  Lingual ambiguity  Heterogeneous objects  Different perspectives  Internal politics

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Four elements in IA  Organisation systems  Labelling systems  Navigation systems  Search systems (IR)

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Organisation systems  organisation schemas  organisation structures

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Organisation schemas  exact  ambiguous

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Exact organisation schemas  Alphabetical  Chronological  Geographical

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Ambiguous organisation schemas  Topic  Task  Audience  Metaphor  Hybrids

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Organisation structures  Hierarchy  Database model  Hypertext

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Hierarchical organisation structure  powerful  principle of mutual exclusion  breadth vs. depth  number of clicks  magical number of 7  2  future growth

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Relational database organisation structure  on metadata or very structured data  advanced queries  consistency control  reuse of data

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Hypertext organisation structure  complex  chaotic  supplementary

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Labelling  creating tags for representing content  good first impression for users  securing consistency  increase IR efficiency  thesaurus construction principles

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Standard labels Home page, home, start page Search, find Contact us, webmaster Help, FAQ News About us

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Guide for label creation  Focus on the resource’s context  Use identical label on link to identical URL  Do not use identical labels to different URLs  Beware of icons

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Sources for labels  Other web resources  Controlled vocabularies (thesauri, subject lists)  Content of resource  Suggestions from users and content experts

Knowledge organisation and information architecture, Nils Pharo Navigation systems  client based functions  hierarchic structure  complementary systems