Chapter 1- Lost and FoundPeter Morville

findability

• Definition: – The quality of being locatable or navigable– The degree to which a particular object is easy to

discover or locate.– The degree to which a system or environment

supports navigation or retrieval

• Keywords have become apart of our everyday life and the one thing we are dependent upon in finding things.

• Information Overload has become second nature to all of our lives — never before has the consumer had so much information prior to making the purchase.

ambient

• Definition: – Surrounding; encircling: e.g. ambient sound– Completely enveloping

Together “ambient findability” describes a fast emerging world where we can find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime.

Why care?

• Why should I care about findability?• Why should you learn more about social

software, the semantic web and search engine optimization?

• What can findability do for you?

• http://findability.org• http://www.orielly.com/catalog/ambient

What’s Holistic Findability

• Why should it make things easier?– For users to find the site– To find the site’s content– And, to find your way around the site

• Questions to ask?Can users find what they need from the home page? Sure, it’s an important question, but what happens if the user doesn’t start from the home page — as many users don’t.

Why care?

• If we don’t care about findability — then we get:– Poor information architecture– Weak compliance to web standards– No workable metadata– Content buried in databases that are invisible to search

engines– A nonchalance or cavalier attitude toward search engine

optimization– Ignorance of your users search needs

Ambient Findability

• AF is less about the computer and more about complex interactions between human beings and information

• Peter Morville says, “ While the web’s architecture rests on a solid foundation of code, its usefulness depends upon (sic) the slippery slopes of semantics. It’s all about words —words as labels — words as links —keywords.”