1. INFM 700 Course Review Paul Jacobs The iSchool University of Maryland Tuesday, May 5, 2009 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ for detailshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

2. iSchool Today’s Topics Course outline Review of highlights and tricky issues Ground rules for exam Q & A

3. iSchool Course Outline Introduction Principles, organization and navigation (M&R chs. 1-7) (2 sessions) Techniques and technology (M&R chs. 10-12 plus case studies) (2 sessions) Taxonomies and metadata (M&R ch. 9) Search (M&R ch. 8, Manning chs.) (2 sessions) Software and business issues (M&R chs. 15-18 plus survey)

4. iSchool Information Architecture What is it? (for starters) Architecture – structural design [of web sites] to support function and form Information – organized [electronic] content So our goal is to master the design of web sites for organizations that effectively deliver information to their users Consider: the information ecology (users, context, content) Goals; signs of good and bad architecture Basic skills and techniques for achieving goals

5. iSchool The IA Circles (“Ecology”) from M&R, p. 25 Context ContentUsers

6. iSchool The Process Understand user and system requirements Design (and build) organization, navigation, and metadata systems Evaluate the user experience Figure out what’s needed Design itBuild it Figure out if it works (compare with physical architects)

7. iSchool Users and Methods Users are tough, fickle, inarticulate, lying, complaining, ignorant, obtuse, inconsistent, … …but user experience is still our main measure of success So what do we do? Use varying strategies/components Apply “90-10” or “80-20” rules (you can’t please everyone) Accommodate variability in our measurements/design

8. iSchool Information Architecture Components Organization systems “How we categorize information” Labeling systems “How we represent information” Navigation systems “How we browse or move through information” Searching systems “How we search information” from M&R, pp. 49-52 Loosely, “structured” Loosely, “unstructured”

9. iSchool Architecture Components (examples) Major organization systems (e.g., by topic, task, community, chronology, …) Major navigation systems (e.g., navigation bars, breadcrumbs, top-level links) Local navigation systems “Contextual” navigation systems Indices and guides (e.g., sitemap, table of contents, site guide) Search Invisible components from M&R, pp. 49-52

10. iSchool Organization Systems Hierarchical organization What is a hierarchy? Why organize hierarchically Shallow and broad vs. deep and narrow (why the tradeoff, where is the optimum) Relation to navigation, layout, blueprints

11. iSchool Navigation Systems Global Shown everywhere Tells the user “what’s important” Local Shown in specific parts of the site Tells the user “what’s nearby” Contextual Shown only in specific situations Tells the user “what’s related”

12. iSchool Research & Strategy Research: identify goals & issues User needs Organizational/context Content and other issues Strategy: build and sell the plan Context ContentUsers Business goals, funding, politics, culture, technology, human resources Data types, content objects, metadata, volume, existing structure Audience, tasks, user behavior, experience, vocabulary MR, p. 233

13. iSchool Process Overview (More Detail) “The Elements of User Experience” Jesse James Garrett http://jjg.net

14. iSchool Research and Strategy Methods User and requirements analysis (inc., e.g., interviews, competitive analysis) Content analysis Role of user studies (e.g., surveys, user testing, card sorting) From research to strategy Relationship to documentation

15. iSchool Design and Documentation Deliverables Conceptual Diagrams Blueprints (structural) Wireframes (physical) Text (e.g., reports) Presentations and meetings

16. iSchool Blueprints - Process Mostly “Big Projects,” scaled down for small projects - yearly, quarterly Mental Model Content Model Align MM & Content Define the Audience Prioritize IA & Interaction Diagrams and Prototypes

17. iSchool Top-down and bottom-up

18. iSchool Metadata Literally “data about data” “a set of data that describes and gives information about other data” ― Oxford English Dictionary Why do we need this? Types of metadata Descriptive/subjective/content (e.g. author, subject, keywords, …) Administrative (e.g. owner, rights, cost, creation date, version, …) Technical (e.g. format, size, dependencies, programs).... In practical terms: Metadata helps users locate, navigate, interpret content Metadata helps organizations manage content Metadata helps systems manipulate content

19. iSchool Related Concepts & Uses Taxonomies Anything organized in some sort of hierarchical structure Tagging Adding almost any kind of metadata to content, but now often descriptive and user-provided Thesauri Focus on relations between terms Focus on “concepts” Ontologies Usually model a specific domain or part of the world Generally machine-readable Increasing complexity and richness

20. iSchool Goals for Search Sessions Understand the basic issues in information retrieval (searching primarily unstructured text) (e.g. words vs. concepts, word problems, recall and precision) Know the techniques generally used by modern search engines (vector space model, term weighting) Learn how search engines can be used most effectively in information architecture (e.g. configuring search, integrating search and browsing, tricks like “best bets”)

21. iSchool What we control (the IA part)? Requirements and search engine selection Developing search requirements Build vs. buy Vendor evaluation/selection Consultants? Content selection What to search/zones/etc. Tags Search engine configuration Zones, what gets indexed, sometimes how Number of results, sometimes recall vs. precision Others (very often interface-related) Interfaces

22. iSchool Software Tools: Overview Maybe the most important decision you make Trends in the industry Increasing complexity Consolidation Interoperability (e.g., objects, XML) Key IA software tools Back-end databases Content management systems Portals “Middleware” Personalization, other utilities

23. iSchool Business Issues (Early On) Many mentioned already (e.g., politics, enlisting stakeholders, money, existing infrastructure. etc.) Making the business case: ROI vs. “Columbus and the New World” Budgets and total cost of ownership “Buy in” Defining the strategy Align actions with business goals Show examples Iterate, and involve users

24. iSchool Business Issues (What Goes Wrong) We’re late, and we’re over budget – why? Overly optimistic projections Done in by the vendor/consultant sales team Client doesn’t supply needed input Can’t find the right people (“mythical person month”) Nothing seems to work – why? Other vendor/people issues It looks great to me, but the client doesn’t agree Requirements creep Management changes Business changes

25. iSchool Ground rules for exam What can be on it Anything that’s “really” covered, not passing mention Focus on concepts, but can include definitions, examples Style of exam As objective as possible Mostly multiple choice, some matches, short answers Designed to fit in < 1.5 hours Degree of difficulty and grading Prepare, but try to make the most of it and enjoy!