Information Architecture 101

Information Architectureblueprints for the web

Christina Wodtke & Tom Wailes, Yahoo! Inc.

What we’ll cover• Why IA matters

• A foundation of techniques

• Persona creation 101

• Content organization

• Navigation design

• Search

Information Architecture

• Many definitions (BAH!)

• Our working definition: Architecture in information spaces.

It is the design behind the design

Diagram from Jesse James Garett’s Elements of User

Experience

Where it fits in design

Who does it?

• Graphic Designer• Interface designer• Information architect• Interaction designer• Product manager• Project manager• Business strategist

The elements and goals of IA

Content

architecture

Organization of content for information retrieval

findability

Interaction

DesignDesign of system behavior to promote

usability

Information /Interface

design

Design of information presentation to promote

understandability

Information Architecture

Why do we care so much

Once there were people with cowsAnd people without cowsThe people with no cows were hungry

They took the roadAnd met at the marketAnd the people with no cows bought cowsThe people with cows had fewer cows, but

money for other things

Now there are people with informationAnd people with no informationThe road is the computerAnd the market is the web

But the market is really bigAnd the people can’t find each otherSo we have ignorant peopleAnd people with no money

The cows are okay with this

Business is not.

The Goal

• The players– Users, seeking information (cowless)– Businesses with information (with cows)– Intermediaries such as search engines and

directories, profiting on the exchange (marketplaces)

• The goal is to get the users seeking the data to the businesses offering the data

Missing information is expensive

Recently in the news, government’s information management problems

Missing information is expensive

“The Fortune 1000 stands to waste at least $2.5 billion per year due to an inability to locate and retrieve information.”

“While the costs of not finding information are enormous, they are hidden within the enterprise, and…are rarely perceived as having an impact on the bottom line.”

The High Cost of Not Finding InformationAn IDC White Paper, July 2001.

Missing information“Like all primary care physicians, Dr. Bob Goldszer must stay on top of approximately 10,000 different diseases and syndromes, 3,000 medications, 1,100 laboratory tests, and many of the 400,000 articles added each year to the biomedical literature. That's no easy task. And it is, quite literally, a matter of life and death. The Institute of Medicine's 1999 report, To Err Is Human, suggests that more than a million injuries and 90,000 deaths are attributable to medical errors annually. Something like 5% of hospital patients have adverse reactions to drugs, another study reports, and of those, 43% are serious, life threatening, or fatal. Many knowledge workers have problems similar to Dr. Goldszer's (though they're usually less life threatening). No matter what the field, many people simply can't keep up with all they need to know.”

--Harvard Business Review, Jul 1, 2002

Missing information

Lost sales -

Expensive support -

Duplicated effort -

Lost trust -

Lost lives?

Classification and Consequences

• A physician who doesn’t see a new cure• A poor student who can’t find financial

aid• A store where a product isn’t found

People and Information

People search for different things

What can we help with?– Known-item searching– Multiple-item seeking– Comprehensive seeking

Information and IA

Information Architecturemanages information tomake it findable

– Tagging with metadata– Organizing with CV’s– Creating navigation

systems – Optimizing search

Which we’ll cover today!

Understanding your problem through requirements

Understanding your problem

Requirements for success

Understanding

How do you approach– A redesign?– A new site?

Do you just open Photoshop?

Requirements gathering Don Norman’s three legged stool• Product is built on

– User desires– Business needs– Technologically possible

This is for software.. With web,a fourth leg appears: content.

How do you know what’s needed?

Lou and Peter’s Venn“An information architect must learn about business goals and context, content and services, and user needs and behavior; and then work with colleagues to transform this balanced understanding of the information ecology into the design of organization, labeling, and navigation systems that provide a solid but flexible foundation for the user experience.”

--Peter Morville

Tom and Christina’s LunchboxIt’s possible to design with missing element

But risky

A balanced meal is Business, Users, Technology, Content

Requirements gathering

What do you need to know?– Business, Users, Technology, Content

Who has the information?What does it mean for your design

choices?

User requirements

Who is the user? Research should uncover• Demographics• Psychographics• Behavioral information

User requirements

Who knows the answers?– Marketing knows about demographics and often

psychographics– User Research/usability specialists understand

behavior– Data analysts can get quantitative information– You can do the research

• On Wednesday see: Discovering User Needs: Field Techniques You Can Use

Business requirements

What is the business model?What user behavior is profitable?What is the brand position?What are resource and time constraints?

But avoid the (b)org…

Business requirements

Who knows the answers?– Business development– Marketing (again!)– Product Management

Technology requirements

What technology capabilities does your company have?– Database type– CMS– Backend(s)

What is the user’s typical platform?

Technology requirements

Who knows these requirements?– Engineering– Data mining group– Web Developers

Content requirements

What content is currently in site? What content will be in site?What format is content in?Who will maintain it?

Content requirements

Who knows these requirements?Content often forgotten, leftover chore.Merchandiser, if ecommerce site.Sometimes a librarian.Sometimes a database engineer, or data

entry drone.

Exercise: requirements gathering

Exercise

• Divide into groups• Each person take a paper, you will be

that person.• One (or more) with no paper, you are

the IA. • Interview others to discover the

requirements for your project

ExerciseYou are an Information Architect hired to create a new feature for BIGGmusic.com: a mix-CD creator.

This section of the site will allow users to make mixed-music CD’s, then have them burned and shipped to users. You’ve been hired to design the organization of the site.

Exercise• You’ll start by interviewing the business

strategist, marketing head, user researcher and lead engineer.

• Write down the user, business and technological requirements that you uncover.

• GO! You have 15 minutes, then a couple groups will present.

Personas

Never leave your user

Personas

Persona developmentPersonas are:• A key to user-centered design• Not “The User” but “one particular user”• Inform the entire design process

• Who are we designing for?• What are we designing?• How will we design it?• Does this design work?

Persona development/user profiling

Personas are:• Archetypal users

• Conglomerates based on user data

• Built collaboratively by team

• Useful for keeping users front-of-mind

Grace (62/ female/ widowed/ Little Rock, AR.)“I like playing my favorite games online, but if I can play with friends, well that’s even better!”

Personal Background: Her husband has passed on. She has two grown kids, both of whom live far away. She misses the kids, but has a fairly large circle of friends that she spends time with.

Technical Proficiency Profile: Limited. Can use her browser and her email. MS Word confuses her, and she doesn’t like using it. Doesn’t know what an OS is. Tends to click yes if the browser prompts her to do anything, and will click wildly until things work.History with Shockwave and/or AtomFilms: Plays crossword puzzles daily and saves them. Plays card games, PhotoJam, but is offended by South Park cartoons

Shockwave’s opportunity: If Grace can be convinced to participate in community activities, she will become a loyal user of the site. She needs to be sheltered from the sick and twisted content, however.

Scott (17/ male/ single/ Shaumburg, IL.)“I want something cool and really on the edge. Something you can’t get on TV”#2 most common user Profession: Full time student (studies exercise and sport science)Personal Background: Youngest kid in family of five. Likes to be seen as a little rebellious. Excited to be in college, but not really brave enough yet to actually do anything rebellious, so uses Internet to express his self-image.History with Shockwave and/or AtomFilms: he’s been to Shockwave a few times, and usually clicks games as soon as the navigation bar loads. He likes playing arcade games, and “shoot ‘em up’s.” Spend two hours playing “King of the Hill paintball” recently.Shockwave’s opportunity: he is already hanging out in the games section regularly. If shockwave can introduce him to it’s sick and twisted material, it can keep him on the website longer, and use his tendency to send out links to spread the word.

Persona development/user profiling

How to create personas: • Summarize research, distribute to stakeholders.

• Hold a work session with stakeholders & development team to brainstorm personas.

• Prioritize and cull lesser personas to develop primary and supporting personas.

Exercise: rapid persona creation

Prioritize personas

primary

secondary

special

Prioritize personas

primary

secondary

special

Use personasKeep them near

• Hang them on your wall

• Make poster, placemats, puppets

• Role-play personas

• Evaluate with them

Persona Posters

• Personas in context of use

• Embedded in deliverables

• On the wall, nearby

• Good for team, good for strangers

Designing with what you’ve learned

• Persona Scenarios – the power of story telling

– Storytelling is one of the most effective tools humans have for understanding.

– Makes interaction of human and machine real

Personas in action

We typically use scenarios in three ways:– As a design tool– As an evaluation tool– As a communication tool

Scenarios for DesignTo design with personas

• Get your personas out

• Tell ideal user experience for one persona

• Adjust for business constraints

• Build for this scenario

Get your persona out…“I don’t have time to get lost on

someone’s site—I’m not playing here.”. 32. Male. Single. Los Angeles, CA.. T1 at work, DSL at home. 15–20 hours/week online.. Technical proficiency: fair. Searcher/speed browser. Mostly reads news online

Example Persona ScenariosMichael is doing his morning surf; he’s just left indiewire.com and has come to indieword.com. He reads through the new stories on Sundance and spots the link to the Festival Planner. He remembers he was just agonizing over having to wade through the huge number of films. He hopes this might make it simpler.

Michael looks over the Festival Planner intro page. He wants to make sure this is going to save him time and not waste his time. He sees he can play with it without having to sign up, which is a relief; he sees he can set up a schedule for the day based on his preferences. It seems painless; he sets his watch alarm for five minutes—at that time he’ll decide if he wants to continue. Preferably, he’ll be done.…

… Festival Planner now gives him a schedule to review, with three films to pick from and an option to “see all for this time slot.” One film for each time slot is indicated as his “best pick.” Each shows how well it meets his taste and needs. And he can choose to “rest” and not select a film for that time period.

Michael goes through the schedule; his wristwatch beeps, and he absent-mindedly shuts it off. He selects his films. As he chooses, he notices an option to get a report on any film when its available—he’s very excited by that. If he can’t see them all, at least he can get a sense of what he’s missing!

Finally, Michael has a schedule that satisfies him. He notices he can e-mail the schedule to anyone. He sends a copy to his P.A. and to himself.

1. Emphasis on goals ^

2. Avoiding interface design >

Next stepTask analysis

• Step by step breakdown of scenarios

• Helps define interface/interaction needs

• Flushes out potential opportunities for errors

Task analysis

• Start with scenario

• Break it up into discreet tasks

• Subdivide into smaller steps

Task analysisPurchasing a purse at nordstroms.com might include the tasks:

1. locate purse 2. add purse to shopping cart3. check out

Task analysis“CHECK OUT” BECOMES

a. Select checkoutb. Sign in/sign up

c. Input shipping addressd. Input billing address

e. Input paymentf. Review order

g. Finalize checkout

Purchasing a purse at nordstroms.com might include the tasks:

1. locate purse 2. add purse to shopping cart3. check out

Task analysis“CHECK OUT” BECOMES “INPUT BILLING ADDRESS”

BECOMES

a. Select checkout d. Input billing address (prepopulate all fields from c.)

b. Sign in/sign up i. Input first name

c. Input shipping address ii. Input family name

d. Input billing address iii. Input street address

e. Input payment iv. Input street address

f. Review order v. Input state (dropdown of standard abbreviations)

g. Finalize checkout vi. Input country

And so on…

Example Task analysis

Another Task Analysis

digramming

Content Architecture Part I

Content Architecture

Make it make sense

What is this?

What are these?

They are all birds(ornithologist)

The Cassowary is not a bird!

(the Karam)

76From “Why the Cassowary is not a bird”, R. Bulmer, Man, Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967)

77From “Why the Cassowary is not a bird”, R. Bulmer, Man, Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967)

Who Cares?

• Ornithologists• The Karam • Information Architects

Dewey Decimal System

• 200-299 – Religion Categories• 40+ categories related to Christianity• 1 for Judaism• 1 for Islam (& related)

Who Cares?

• Religious Scholars• Librarians• Information Architects• Jews and Muslims

• Classification reflects social and cultural organization

• Information Architect must understand this context

Get to know your audience…

1. Who are they?

Football Fan

1. Who are they?

Football Fan?

1. Who are they?2. What do they care about?

Are the Patriots going to make the

playoffs?

Show me photos!

What happened in the last game?

1. Who are they?2. What do they care about?3. How do they think of the information

and content?

Conference, division…

Schedules, standings…

1. Observe others2. Study Competitors and similar sites3. Review your search logs4. Do a card sort

Now what?

• Organize your information so it makes sense to your audience

• Structure your information to help users find it

• …using metadata

Metadata: what is it?

“metadata is data about data"

Metadata: what is it?

“Metadata tags are used to describe documents, pages, images, software, video and audio files, and other content objects for the purposes of improved navigation and retrieval”

‘Information Architecture for the World Wide Web’, 2nd ed., (2002) Rosenfeld, L. & Morville, P.

Types of Metadata

• Descriptive: the nature of the thing, what is it related to?…

• Intrinsic: composition of the thing, size, shape…

• Administrative: how can the thing be handled? Workflow…

Types of Metadata

Yahoo! Travel<meta name='description' content="Yahoo! Travel is a comprehensive online travel

destination, where you can reserve flights, rental cars, hotel rooms, cruises and vacation packages, all in one place. Research trips from a wealth of planning resources including

destination and city guides, user and expert reviews, local weather and currency information, and much more. Yahoo! Travel has competitive prices on everything from

airfare to lodging, it's easy to find great deals and special offers">

agents vacations cruise cruises cruiselines business travel busines corporate hotels discounts car cars rental lasvegas tickets travel reservations online travel travel bookings

online bookings book airfare fare wars discount fares sales lowest vacation planning information travel agencies travel sites disney world florida orlando miami atlanta ATL

Dallas DFW DCA LAS LAX NYC ORD SFO atl dfw dca las lax nyc ord sfo Washington D.C. washington dc los angeles Los Angeles new york New York new york city New York City

San Francisco sanfrancisco family trips family vacation family vacations'>

Types of Metadata

• Descriptive: Patriots, NFL, AFC East…

• Intrinsic: HTML page, 40k…• Administrative: update daily with

news feeds, update when new game…

Web Page: New England Patriots

Types of Metadata

• Descriptive: Patriots, NFL, AFC East…

• Intrinsic: jpg file, 4k…• Administrative: rights owner-NFL,

replace when logo changes…

Logo: New England Patriots

Not all Metadata is equal

• What are users interested in?• What do you want users to be able to

find?• What metadata makes management

• Tag content for findability• Tag content for management

Exercise

• Listen• Write five descriptive words (or short

phrases) on your post-it• One word (or phrase) per post-it

• Don’t share– yet! Hold on!

Content Architecture Part II

Controlled vocabularies

Master of your domains

I’ve got

I want music.

When humans and computers interact

Hip Hop

Rap.Rock.

Dance.

Humans are good at figuring things out

Jiggy tunes

Most of the time

Acidregga

No matches found

But computers are literal

Add more on how they are literal

AcidReggae

Let’s give them “Dance and DJ”

And need help

Thus Controlled vocabularies (CV)Amy Warner defines a controlled vocabulary

(CV) as “organized lists of words and phrases, or notation systems, that are used to initially tag content, and then to find it through navigation or search.”

Of course, the IA can’t always be there…

I define them as

Documented relationships of words and concepts to assist people finding stuff.

Same dif.

Controlled Vocabularies

• Levels of control

Simple Complex

SynonymRings

AuthorityFiles

ThesauriClassificationSchemes

Equivalence Hierarchical Associative

(Vocabularies)

(Relationships)

Controlled Vocabulary Types

• Relationships

A=B AB

A BEquivalenceChristmas=Xmas

HierarchalWinter Holidays > Christmas

Associative Christmas | Santa Claus

Controlled vocabularies

• Simplest type• Helps with search, indexing• Simplifies maintenance

Synonym rings

• Acronyms: BBC, British Broadcasting Company; MPG, miles per gallon

• Variant spellings: cancelled, canceled; honor, honour

• Scientific terms versus popular use terms: acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin; lilioceris, lily beetle– From Synonym Rings and Authority Files

by Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel

Synonym rings include

• Sometimes on intranets, CV’s are skipped

• You think you can force people to use proper terms

• But people are lazy

I’m tired of typing “Controlled Vocabulary--- CV is shorter.

Why Bother?

• On the internet you want to be found

• You’ve got cows• But people can’t spell

“cows”• Plus users use short

queries– Average queries are 2.5

words– 30% of searches are one word queries

I want a cannon camera.

Why Bother?

It may be the Canon PowerShot S30

Bizrate takes good advantage

Cannon S30

Powershot S30

Canon S30

But what do people call it?

A page for each synonym

And they can be number one

• Addition of preferred terms and variants• Preferred terms

– Protects brand– Sensitivities– Educates

Christmas | Xmas, X-mas, Nöel,

Authority File

There is a right spelling

• Includes non-equivalent relationships• Includes hierarchal informal• Useful for navigation• Useful for helping people broaden their

search

Classification schemes

• Types of relationships• Sibling:

Gap.com directories» Men» Women» Maternity» Body» Boys» Girls» Baby boy» Baby girl

Parent / Child

(amazon.com)

Classification Schemes

Other RelationshipsAlphabetical (administrative metadata)Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Moore, Alan

Chronological (administrative metadata)

New for You > New Releases > Books

Topic (descriptive metadata)Comics > Graphic Novels > Horror

Amazon uses all of these, and more….

• Cadillac of Controlled Vocabularies• Includes associative relationships

Preferred term

Variants Siblings Parent Associated

Christmas X-mas, Nöel

Hanukah, Kwanzaa

Winter holidays

Santa Claus

Thesauri

Associations

• Amazon uses buying patterns to determine associations

Associations

Exercise

Card sortTake your keywordsOpen your packetsSort the items into similar piles. Label the piles with post-its

Discuss

Building your own

1. Understand requirements2. Harvest terms3. Create groupings4. Implement5. Test6. Maintain

What kind of CV do you need?

• What do you want your CV to accomplish? • To integrate with your navigation system? • To improve searching? To improve browsing?

Both? • How much vocabulary control do you want to

provide? Synonym ring? Facets? What level of vocabulary control is appropriate?

• What can your technology support?

Pareto’s Principle:a.k.a. the “80/20 Rule”

"A minority of input produces the majority of results.”

(www.paretolaw.co.uk/principle.html)

Useful IA guidelines• 80% of your site's users belong to 20% of the

site's audiences

• 80% of users' information needs are served by 20% of the site's content

• 80% of users' information needs are addressed by the top 20% of all searches

• 80% of IA effort should be invested in 20% of total architecture

Getting answers

• Content - specificity and stability• Technology - tools and integration. • Users – who are they• Maintenance- who will do it?

Content Inventory

• Link ID• ROT• Document type• Topics/Keywords• Location

• Maintainer• Expiration• Access• Author• Existing/planned

Identify all content and attributes

Term harvesting

• Look Inward– Your site– Current keywords

• Look outward– Magazines– Competitors– Discussion lists

• Log harvesting– Search engines– Overture

• Ask people– Interviews– Card sorts

Sorting Terms

A Card Sort for Architects

• Multiple Groupings– Equivalent UF cheese=fromage– Broader terms BT cheese | dairy– Narrower terms NT cheese | cheddar– Related term RT cheese | crackers

Sleeping Bags BT Camping NT Down Sleeping Bags NT Synthetic Sleeping Bags NT Family Sleeping Bags NT Cold Weather Sleeping Bags NT 2-Season Sleeping Bags NT 3-Season Sleeping Bags NT Back Packing Sleeping Bags NT Expedition Class Sleeping Bags NT Ultralight Sleeping Bags RT Backpacks RT Ultralight Backpacking RT Sleeping Bag Liners RT Sleeping Pads RT Stuff Sacks RT Pillows

From Creating a Controlled Vocabularyby Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckelhttp://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/creating_a_controlled_vocabulary.php

Sorting conflicts

• Cheese goes in dairy or in sandwich materials?

• A cheese basket?• String cheese?

Choices fit strategy

Associations

• What is related• What is required?• What else is interesting?

Relevancy is king

Possible Relationships

• Process/agent (camp fires/matches)

• Action/product of action (baking/cakes) • Agent/counteragent

(allergies/antihistamine) • Raw material/product (wool/sweater).

examples

Implement

• Implementation dependant on situation and tools.

• May be slow painful data entry– know this and prepare.

• Test with users – did you get it right?

– Browse Testing– Search Testing– Monitor quantitative

– Refine, refine, refine

Maintain

• Who maintains it?• What the rules for new terms?• Document your decisions.

Interface and Navigation

Interface & Navigation

IA made visible

“Like putting an Armani suit on Attila the Hun, interface design only tells how to dress up an existing behavior.” – Alan Cooper

Most IA is invisible

• A lot of work no one sees

• Synonym rings, etc

• If it was seen, is would be too much

• We show only a subset

Legal turn

One-way street

No turns between 3pm and 6pm

Concrete barrier

Pedestrian walkway

Speed limit 35

Road passes overheadDestination on the leftHighway 101

Yahoo! Maps

The magic number?

• 13 tabs– no one saw them. Six tabs, everyone saw them

But not everything is simple

masthead

Global links

Folders

Mail tools

Other properties

upsell

Web search

Related Services

upsell

Mail tools

Log out

inbox Write mailAnd there isn’t even content!

Navigation orders complex pages

Understanding NavigationMessage and Access

Where Am I?

What's RelatedTo What's Here?

Global Navigation

Content Lives Here,With ContextualNavigation Inline

Or Separate.

Global navigation

• Where you are– Brand/masthead

• Where you can go– Top level categories

• Safety nets– Where’s my (shopping cart/account/help???)

Global Navigation

Global navigation

Local Navigation

• I’ve started down the path• Now what?

• What are the categories of items?• What are the siblings of what I see?• What are the subcategories?

Local Navigation

Contextual navigation

• Inline links• Related items• Document management

Inline links

Related items

Examples of data manipulation

• Pagination• Ad negotiation• Print/email/clip• Sort

Content

architecture

Interaction

Design

Information /Interface

design

Pagination

Useful to reduce page download speed and cognitive overload.

Annoying for printing.

Ad negotiation

Print/email/clip

Secondary Navigation

• Site Maps• Indexes• Table of Contents

Have you ever seen this page?

How about this one?

You can make it helpful“After testing several different sitemap designs on users, I decided to try putting one on every page of my small Columbian web site. I then decided to track how often it was used for navigation. It turns out the sitemap is used for over 65% of all navigation done on the site.” -- Usability Report by Peter Van Dijck of poorbuthappy.com (Guide to Columbia)http://www.webword.com/reports/sitemap.html

Conventions It is certainly probable,

then, that placing these objects in expected locations would give an e-commerce site a competitive edge over those that do not…

-- Examining User Expectations for the Location of Common E-Commerce

Web ObjectsUsability News

4.1 2002

ConventionsIf 90% or more of the big sites do things in a single way, then this is the de-facto standard and you have to comply. Only deviate from a design standard if your alternative design has at least 100% higher measured usability.

If 60-90% of the big sites do things in a single way, then this is a strong convention and you should comply unless your alternative design has at least 50% higher measured usability.

If less than 60% of the big sites do things in a single way, then there are no dominant conventions yet and you are free to design in an alternative way.

-- Jakob Nielsen, November 14, 1999 Alertbox column

Conventions

• Some things are becoming de rigor

• Deviate when you’ve got something better

• Not because you are bored

Homework: Prioritization

Now combine

• Follow expectations based on conventions

• Design a hierarchy based on task importance

• Err on the side of simplicity

Understanding Search

The Web, your web

Does search stink?

“…studies show that search is still the primary usability problem in web site design.”

Vividence Research: Common Usability Problems1.Poorly organized search results2.Poor information architecture

Source: Flexible Search and Navigation using Faceted Metadata (UC Berkeley SIMS, Submitted 2001-2)

“Most of the complaints we get are due to the way users search; they use the wrong

keywords.”--Manufacturing Manager in Must Search Stink? by Forrester

Research

Vision

• Search is a tool, important in every aspect of users’ lives

• Yet users don’t like to invest effort

“Type words in little white box. Click "Search." Wait. See results pop up. Click on first link. Skim webpage. Log off.

"That's how searching the World Wide Web seems to work for most people," explains Purvi Shah.

--Desperately SeekingAlison Balmat, Penn State Research

Understanding search

• Search is a question whose answer is not always a web page

• Query: 2003 Camry prices– Does this user want a website?– Does he want a page on pricing cars?– Does he want to know what cars are going

for?• But what we’ve got: web pages

A Yahoo AnswerDirect display of answers

Your answers?

• Do you have Answers?• Or at least the right

web pages.

• What can you do today?

• HP offers best bets on a few critical searches (80-20)

What is a perfect user experience?

• Fast• Easy

Search is a FAST experience

• Users spend only seconds on a results page

• User WANT to spend only seconds on a results page

• Actual load time must be fast• Perceived load time must be faster• Cognitive scan time must be faster

Search must be fast

Design for speed of scan

• What is the critical information for users?

• What is secondary?• What are power-user features?

Smart things we did• Search term

in bold• URL in color

that recedes• Power-user

features in gray

• Progressive rendering

Search must be EASY• Average queries are 2.5

words– 30% of searches are one word queries

• Can we be mind readers?

• Can we seamlessly elicit more information?

People are lazy.

From E-Sex to E-Commerce: Web Search Changes-- Amanda Spink, Pennsylvania State University, Bernard J. Jansen, US Army War College, Dietmar Wolfram, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Tefko Saracevic, Rutgers University

– Entice – longer search boxes– Articulate – related searches– Synonym rings for success!

Search can be easy

Remember your contextYou aren’t Yahoo! or Google…

Take advantage of you

• Gap knows their users• Gap knows you are

shopping for clothes• Gap has pictures• Gap has prices• Gap knows what

category things are in• Search engines– not

so much.You can be great.

No Search?

• Should you have search?– Do you really have so

much stuff?– How do people look for

things on your site?– Do you have to

resources to do it right?

• If you have Search, make it Good Search.

Using an on-site search engine actually reduced the chances of success, and the difference was significant…. Our data showed that today’s on-site search engines are worse than nothing — significantly worse.

-- Jared Spool

Smart things IMDB did

• Used a synonym ring– Corrected spelling– Found foreign

matches

Clearly shows your entry, so you can learn from your mistakes

Smart things L.L. Bean did

• Section devoted to disambiguation on terms important to users

• Grouping by category• Images and prices• Included associated

terms– but not on top.

Smart things Launch did

• Grouped results – Albums– Artists– Songs

• Made advertising relevant

• Made it a viable navigation tool

Dumb IBM search?

• You type “content management system”

• They have a content management system for sale

• What here can help you?

• What could IBM learn from LL Bean and the Gap?

How will you be smart?

• What do your users need and want?• What do you know about your content• How can you make sure your users

never fail?

Conclusion

• Look, listen, learn• Understand the context• Know your user• Design with purpose• You can be great!

Christina Wodtkewww.yahoo.comcwodtke@yahoo-inc.com

Tom Wailestwailes@yahoo-inc.com

LEARN MORE!book : : www.blueprintsfortheweb.comzine : : www.boxesandarrows.comblog : : www.eleganthack.compeeps : : www.aifia.org

Reading ListThe Age of Findability by Peter Morville http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/the_age_of_findability.phpUnraveling the Mysteries of metadata and taxonomies by

Christina Wodtke http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/unraveling_the_mysteries_of_metadata_and_taxonomies.phpAll About Facets & Controlled Vocabularies

by Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckelhttp://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/all_about_facets_controlled_vocabularies.phpSynonym Rings and Authority Files by KarlFast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/synonym_rings_and_authority_files.phpBuilding a Metadata-Based Website byBrett Lider and Anca Mosoiu http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/building_a_metadatabased_website.phpA Taxonomy Primer. Amy Warner.http://www.lexonomy.com/publications/aTaxonomyPrimer.htmlIndexing from A to Z. Wellisch, Hans. (1995).. New York: H.W.

Wilson, 1995. BookMetadata creation—down and dirty. James L. Weinheimer.http://www.princeton.edu/~jamesw/mdata/MetadataCreation.ht

Faceted classifications and thesauri. Barbara Perles.http://is.gseis.ucla.edu/impact/f95/Papers-projects/Papers/perles.htmlFacet analysis: Using faceted classificationtechniques to organize site content & Structure. LuiseGruenberg.http://www.asis.org/Conferences/Summit2002/Gruenberg.ppt

(PowerPoint presentation)The design of browsing and berrypicking techniques for the online search interface.

Marcia J. Bates.http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/berrypicking.htmlFrom E-Sex to E-Commerce: Web Search Changes (PDF)

http://ist.psu.edu/pdfs/Spink040302.pdfAnalyzing Card Sort Results with a Spreadsheet Template by

Joe Lamantia http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/analyzing_card_sort_results_with_a_spreadsheet_template.phpSitemaps and Site Indexes: What They Are and Why You Should Have Them

by Chiara Foxhttp://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/sitemaps_and_site_indexes_what_they_are_and_why_you_should_have_them.phpMetadata: cataloging by any other name…. Jessica Milstead

and Susan Feldman. Online, January 1999.http://www.onlinemag.net/OL1999/milstead1.html

Reading ListBoxes and Arrows: Defining Information Architecture Deliverables

http://www.sitepoint.com/article.php/326Blueprints for the Web: Organization for the Masses By Christina

Wodtkehttp://www.informit.com/content/index.asp?product_id=

%7B8548A2A9-3B1C-4AC8-B231-8367F921769C%7D IntranetJournal -- Information Design Using Card Sorting

http://intranetjournal.com/articles/200202/pkm_02_05_02a.html

Metadata Harvesting –by Karl Fast PowerPoint Presentationhttp://www.asis.org/IA03/fast.ppt

Controlled vocabulary and thesauri creation for describing images in a database Controlled Vocabulary.com

http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/imagedatabases/index.html

Software for Information Architects by Peter Morvillehttp://argus-acia.com/strange_connections/

current_article.htmlExtracting Value from Automated Classification Tools

By Kat Hagedorn, March 2001 http://argus-acia.com/white_papers/classification.htmlTools for information Architectshttp://aifia.org/tools/

Perfecting Your Personas by Kim Goodwinhttp://www.cooper.com/newsletters/2001_07/

perfecting_your_personas.htmReconciling market segments and personas By

Elaine Brechinhttp://www.cooper.com/newsletters/2002_02/

reconciling_market_segments_and_personas.htm

Taking the "You" Out of User: My Experience Using Personas by Meg Hourihan

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/taking_the_you_out_of_user_my_experience_using_personas.php

Bringing Your Personas to Life in Real Life by Elan Freydenson

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/bringing_your_personas_to_life_in_real_life.php

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville BOOK

Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Webby Christina Wodtke BOOK

Information Architecture 101

Business

Transcript of Information Architecture 101

Information Architecture · information architecture? Information Architecture Information architecture is the art and science of organizing and labeling Web sites, software, intranets,

ARCHITECTURE 101 Mid-Century Modern

ARCHITECTURE 101 - Frank Lloyd Wright Trustflwright.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Architecture-101.pdf · ARCHITECTURE 101 How many times have ... Exterior Materials ... The Chicago

For the lesson architecture 101 part iii

Politics and Architecture 101

Architecture 101: Part 1

Final Portfolio- Architecture 101

Architecture 101 part update

Computer Architecture 101 - Circuits Systems

Architecture 101 " trascending the in-between "

Architecture 101

Secure JEE Architecture and Programming 101

Architecture Design 101 Midterm

Information Architecture Week 1. Information Architecture CALENDAR.

Booklet from architecture 101

Catalogof submissionscspecial architecture 101 track

Complete Information Integration A Shared Architecture for Operational and Analytic Integration Andy Flower Vice President Session # 101.

WEB SECURITY & ARCHITECTURE 101

Booklet for Architecture 101 Part1

Architecture 101 Learning Portfolio