1. School of Information, Fall 2007
University of Texas
Information Architecture & Design Tuesday 6:30–9:30pm SZB A. Fleming Seay

2. Course Overview
Syllabus Requirements & Preferences IA & Design Readings Group Projects Do’s and Don’ts IA Overview What is IA? Information Architect as a Profession

3. Syllabus and Topics Overview
Weekly Work
Readings
Primary
Secondary
Class Work
Discussions in class
Participation is the key to getting something out of this course
Cooperation & Collaboration with others in class

4. Assignments Discussions Presentations IA Work Site critique
Class discussions
Presentations
IA Topic
Site design (your final assignment)
IA Work
Small assignments due every other week
Site critique
Examine a Web site for information structure, design, navigability, general usability & underlying design technology

5. Rules for Assignments
Assignments due at the absolute beginning of class
Do not be late to class
Late assignments are penalized 20% per 24 hour period
You are responsible for making sure the assignment is received
E.g. Due at Noon today, turned in tomorrow at Noon = -20%. Turned in a week later = 0.
Arrangements can be agreed upon for known issues
Travel, Serious Illness or Work

6. Rules for Assignments (continued)
Do not mail attachments to me unless agreed upon
Make assignments Web accessible
When required, notify class of your assignment via class listserv
Posting or sent times count as submission times
For Web pages, DO NOT use MS Word or FrontPage No “Save As…”
Learn to use Web markup tools & see the XHTML code

7. Class Work Mailing list (listserv)
Go to .
Log in or create an account
Click subscribe in left margin.
Follow instructions.
To post a message to the mailing list, address your to:

8. IA Course Requirements
Use Fundamental IA Tools
HTML Editors
Graphics Editors
Site Mapping Tools
Site Organization Tools
Learn and Use IA Methodology
Work Through the Phases of the IA Process
Create and Maintain a Design Specification
Use Structured Development Techniques

9. IA Course Preferences IA Technologies Innovative Design using:
HTML, XHTML, XML
Javascript and Databases
Innovative Design using:
Content
Interfaces
Organization schemes (“architectures”)
Work on a Real Project
Developing Requirements
Defining and Implementing Designs
Dealing with changes & deadlines

10. Do’s and Don’ts for IA1
Do turn in assignments at the very beginning of class. Don’t be late for class. Don’t use Microsoft Word’s “Save As…” feature or FrontPage to build any Web pages. Do try new Web designs. Do use Web dev tools you haven’t used before. Do embrace different aspects of the IA roles.

11. Introductions
Where are you from? What program are you in and what year? How much experience in building pages/sites?

12. Information Architecture Overview
What is Information Architecture? What Do Information Architects Do? Approaches to Information Architecture Information Architecture Process Design and Information Architecture Designers and Information Architects Information as Product

13. What is Information Architecture?
Builds on Skills, Methods & History of Architecture
IA is not just an analogy
IA is Process-Oriented
IA is both Art & Science
Built upon Theory (Knowledge & Experiments)
Realized in Practice (Skills & Experience)
IA is a Dynamic Discipline
Technologies are continually changing
People have accelerating needs & expectations

14. What defines Info Architectures?
Convey organization & information
Provide a logical, understandable structure for current (& future) information
Seem well-designed (perception)
Provide Just in Time information
Support reference & retrieval
A picture worth a thousand words
An architecture to find those 1,000 words & more
Not always a simple picture

15. DNA is information, now this is IA

16. This IA is useful too

17. IA has Density

18. Site Maps Communicate structure Where to go Where you’ve been
How much is there

19. Not just graphics
Tables of content Index Shelves of Books List of links

20. What Do Info Architects Do?
Use Tools and Methods
Apply Experience & Understanding of Users
Manage the IA Process
Roles Include
Application Development
Content Development
Design
MIS
Education
Product Management

21. What Do Info Architects Do?
Work through an IA Methodology
Plan
Analyze
Design
Construct
Verify
Maintain
Iterate the process
Adapt to technology, information & customer needs

22. AKA IA?
Experience Design Experience Modeling (X-Mod) User Modeling Usability Engineering Webmaster Interaction Design Multimedia Developer Instructional Designer Web Developer The Visio job search…

23. Information Architecture is …
Proactive
Strategic for Information Systems
Tactical for Technologies
Profitable for the Organization
Central to Business
Applicable to Any Endeavor
Not just Web sites
Information & Process
Fluid
Indispensable

24. IA in Context Information Architecture Learning Information Seeking
Information Retrieval
How people interact with information.
Browsing
Strategy
Analytical
Strategy

25. Approaches to IA
Mediator of the Design Process Interpreter of User Needs and Uses Applying Theory to Practice (Top-Down) Designing & Extending from Examples (Bottom-Up) Visionary Producer, Director Artist or Scientist Objective / Subjective Project Lead – IA – Designer – Usability - QA

26. What about Design? Design as Problem Solving
View of the world as an information space
Improving the information space
Products that solve these problems
Information as Product
Connections & Organization as Product
Processes that solve problems
Education (eLearning)
Business Transformation (Web 2.0)
Information Architecture is critical for good Application Design

27. Design & IA
Creating & managing information Visualization alone isn’t enough Users. Content. Context.

28. Design is an Attitude
View of the world as a problem space Improving the problem space Solving problems that no one even knew existed Creativity put to use Applying solutions from one domain to another (synthesis)

29. Designers & Information Architects
Focus on the Users Apply Theory Understand the system Use tools proficiently Extend the system Create new systems Solve problems

30. Our IA Methodology Planning Analysis Design Construction Verification
Technology Independent
Technology Dependent
Construction
Verification
Maintenance

31. IA Methodology Planning Analysis Design Verification Construction
Maintenance

32. Principles of UI Design & IA
Allow feedback control
Expose the UI functionality
Make functionality clear & distinct
Reduce working memory load
Show progress & context of task
Support experts & novices
Let user select the right interface
Reveal UI & system functionality in phases
Amount of information shown, preferred

33. What about Visualization & IA?
Interactive GUIs are a good start Graphical views of information can provide an overview Is a picture (of an action) worth 1000 words? Is a picture of a dataset worth more? Graphics help with abstraction, how can they represent specifics? Visual metaphors may be one key Navigation as a mechanism for interpretation

34. Types of Visualization Interaction
Windows, Icons, Menus & Pointers Desktops, dialogs & forms Colors & Highlighting Panning & Zooming Focus-plus context Magic Lens, Fisheye lens

35. Web Categories

36. Drill down selection in a GUI
It’s like reading a sentence about growing complexity of a topic. Right to Left.

37. Visual Clustering

38. But let’s not go overboard.
GUIs are good for users
But let’s not go overboard.
“Although intuitively appealing, graphical overviews of large document spaces have yet to be shown to be useful and understandable for users. In fact, evaluations that have been conducted so far provide negative evidence as to their usefulness.”
Jef Raskin’s Humane Interface
Well architected information makes GUIs better
The information structure(s) should guide the interface

39. Deliverables for next week
Sign up for the listserv Course readings & discussion Tools Tutorials & Review in two weeks Using your iSchool account (FTP) Visio & OmniGraffle DreamWeaver