School of Information, Fall 2007 University of Texas A. Fleming Seay Information Architecture Class Four

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,

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 DeliverablesDeliverables 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.A Taxonomic Analysis of What World Wide Web Activities Significantly Impact People's Decisions and Actions Wilson, T. D. (2000). Human Information Behavior. Informing Science: Special Issue on Information Science Research, 3(2). Human Information Behavior Millen, D. (2000). Rapid Ethnography: Time Deepening Strategies for HCI Field Research. Paper presented at the DIS '00, Brooklyn, NY.Rapid Ethnography: Time Deepening Strategies for HCI Field Research