INFM 700: Session 2

Principles of Information Architecture

Paul JacobsThe iSchoolUniversity of Maryland

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United StatesSee http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ for details

iSchool

Today’s Topics Recap – Info. Architecture, Some Key Concepts

User information needs What do users want? How do users behave? Role of users in information architecture

Information architecture components (“tools of the trade”)

Organization systems (start) Structuring the information space Static and dynamic components How to support different user needs

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Review and Loose Ends Some Key Concepts of Information Architecture

The Process

Explanation of Some Ideas from the Readings

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)

iSchool

Explanation of Important Themes

Structured vs. Unstructured (Content)

Content vs. Metadata

Big IA vs. Little IA (Not “One Size Fits All”)

Top-down vs. Bottom-up (Analysis, Methods)

User-driven vs. System-driven (Approaches)

iSchool

User Needs: Overview Characterizing User Behavior

Responding to User Needs

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

The IA Circles (“Ecology”)

from M&R, p. 25

Context

Content UsersUsers’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Another View

Content

Users

Systems

Context

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

The “Black Box” User asks question

“Black magic” (search, navigate, browse)

User gets answer

Fin

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

from M&R, p. 31

iSchool

Some Complications User need not fully specified

User doesn’t know what he/she wants Need is broadly defined (e.g., “surf”, “learn”) Users express themselves badly (e.g. word choice,

clicking in wrong place) Interaction with organizational needs

System performance imperfect Search engines fail Problems with labels, navigation Absence of information

Process inherently structured or iterative Need or desire changes Refinement (e.g. “drill down” in search, navigation) Complex specification of need

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Common Information Needs

The right thing

A few good things

Need it again

Everything

from M&R, p. 35

exploratory seeking

known-item seeking

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Precision vs. Recall

The right thing

A few good things

Everything = Recall-oriented Searching

= Precision-oriented Searching

Exploratory seekingKnown-item seeking

Orthogonal concepts:

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Additional Dimensions ( Not necessarily just computers! )

Retrospective vs. prospective

Focused vs. unfocused vs. serendipitous

Finding information vs. finding [people, objects , … ]

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

User, Task, Context Characteristics of the User

Expert vs. layman Current state of knowledge …

Characteristics of the Task Duration and scope of need Complexity of the task …

Additional context Requirement for specific sources Reference to external events …

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

“Relevance” The property of how “good” the information is

Harder to pin down than you think! Complex function of user, task, and context

Types of relevance: Topical relevance: is it about the right thing? Task-based relevance: does it help in what I’m doing? Utility: is it actually useful? Can I act on it?

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Q0

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q5

A sketch of a searcher… “moving through many actions towards a general goal of satisfactory completion of research related to an information need.”

Picking Berries

Marcia J. Bates. (1991) The Berry-Picking Search: User Interface Design. In M. Dillon, editor, Interfaces for Information Retrieval and Online Systems: The State of the Art. New Jersey: Greenwood Press.

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

The Growing Problem

1950 1990 2050

Human performance

transistorsspeed

storage...

Computer performance

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Observations about Users Users don’t read

Users don’t scroll

Users are easily lost

Users are easily frustrated

Users are strangely persistent

Users are different!Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Timeout for Humor

http://boagworld.com/design/10-things-a-web-designer-would-never-tell-you/

iSchool

Segue – Users to 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

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

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

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

Loosely, “structured”

Loosely, “unstructured”

iSchool

Architecture Components (“browsing aids”) 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)

from M&R, pp. 49-52

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Architecture Components (“content and tasks”) Headings

Embedded links

Embedded metadata

“Chunks” (e.g. sections, chapters)

Other (e.g., sequential aids, special icons or graphics)

from M&R, pp. 49-52

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Architecture Components (“invisible components”) Controlled vocabulary

Retrieval (and other) algorithms

“Best bets”

. . .

from M&R, pp. 49-52

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Organization Site organization

Content organization

Different organization methods/tools

Expressing organization/blueprints

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Organization of Information Probably as old as writing itself

Many different approaches: Library and Information Science: thesauri, indexing, etc. Computer Science: knowledge representations Cognitive Science: how do humans grasp concepts? Philosophy: epistemology (“the nature of knowledge”) …

Hmmm… where did I put that tablet?

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Analogy: Printed Book Organization System:

Chapters Sections Paragraphs

Navigation System: Table of contents Index Page numbers Cross-references …

Established over 500 years… Not all present at the dawn of printing

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Hierarchical Organization Systems of organization are mostly hierarchical

Represents a specific mode of thinking: reductionistic, decompositional, general-to-specific

Why? “Natural order” Convention and familiarity Physical limitations Cognitive limitations

Hierarchies are everywhere: Human organizations Computer file systems Physical file systems Biological organisms

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Depth vs. Breadth“shallow but wide”

“narrow but deep”

What are the tradeoffs?

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Non-Hierarchical Systems Hypertext

Direct links between different information segments Pre-dates the Web

Social tagging “Wisdom of the mob” Shows what everyone else likes Web 2.0 (hype?)

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

“Exact” Systems Alphabetical

Chronological

Geographical

Organizational (for Intranets)

Any inherent attribute of entities

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

“Inexact” Systems Topic

Task

User

Metaphors

Hybrid

Organizational (in general)

ProcessUsers’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Hypertext

Diana

Philip

Elizabeth

Charles

Balmoral

Tony

ElizabethUsers’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Social Taggingdel.icio.us

flickr

YouTube del.icio.us

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Other Organizational Tools Relational databases/tables

Wizards

Hybrids

. . .

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Ideas in Tension Does a hierarchical organization system defeat

the entire point of hypertext?

Does a hierarchical organization system decrease emphasis on users?

Does social tagging eliminate the need for organization systems?

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Organization and Behavior Bookmarks

Arrangement of tabs and windows

Social tagging

Personal homepage

Blogs

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

So what do we do?

Type of task/content Type of organization system

User generated content (e.g. blogs) Structured database/formOverall site content/task Hierarchy (e.g. “buy a book”, “contact us”) Chapter/sectionLocal site content/task User Tags (e.g. “cars for sale”, “product specs”)Local site content/task Hypertext (e.g., “today’s news”) Calendars/mapsFrequently consulted content Task/User/OrganizationRelated/required content

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Blueprints Blueprints are diagrams outlining the organization

system of an information space

Can provide overview at different levels Conceptual level Physical level (i.e., how pages are actually linked)

Keep it simple and uncluttered! Choose the appropriate level of detail

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Blueprint: Conceptual

MainHomepage

Teaching ResearchOther

Activities

LBSC 690

INFM 718R

INFM 700

Ph.D. Students

Publications

Projects

IRColloquium

TREC

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Blueprint: Physical

Index Page

Index Page

“other”“teaching” “research”

“teaching” “research” “other”

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems

iSchool

Recap User needs and behavior

Information architecture components

Organization systems

Users’ Needs

Architecture Components

OrganizationSystems