How Websites Learn:Information Architecture

that Adapts to Use

Peter Merholz

Work: http://epinions.com

Play: http://peterme.com/ http://peterme.com/ia2000/

Little Architects

A problem:

Increasingly, websites corral massive amounts of information

In fact, a strength of the Web is access to unlimited information

But how to present the information meaningfully?

A problem:

Providing a singular, top-down editorial structure isn’t feasible

But nor can you allow a morass like USENET or an unstructured Web

Another problem

Web sites don’t respond to use

They’re static, and assume all information is of equal importance

Case in point

Productopia, R.I.P.

Dozens or hundreds of employed people are costly

A potential solution

Adaptive information architectures

Bottom-up organization based on qualities of the information and how the information is used

Information spaces that metamorphose based on use

Rich information spaces are complex systems, the study of which can inform our designs

Structure based on the qualities of the information

Linguistic processing and categorization schemes like Autonomy and Northern Light

Display systems like Self-Organizing Maps (http://websom.hut.fi/websom/), Thinkmap (http://www.thinkmap.com/), Cartia (http://www.cartia.com/)

The use is more important than inherent qualities

While the Thing qua Thing is important,

It’s more important how people relate to and interact with that thing

Cognitive scientists have found that people categorize the world not on the inherent qualities of things, but on how they interact with those things. (Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, Lakoff)

So, what does all this mean?

What is an information space that adapts to use?

An obvious and popular example: The Bestseller List

- People are interested in what’s popular

Models for social effects

Self-policing

Word of mouth

Footpaths

The Agora

Self-policing – Epinions.com

Nearly 700,000 opinions—no editing

Community can

- Rate content

- Trust each other

Self-policing—Epinions.com

Generic

Word of mouth – Information structured through people

You tell people about a movie you saw, a book you read, a car you drive

Known experts are sought out for their input

Word of mouth – aligning yourself with others’ tastes

Epinions.com – Other products written about, other opinions worth reading

Launch.com – Collaborative filtering

Napster – Hot lists

Word of Mouth—Epinions.com

Generic Personalized

Word of Mouth – Google.com

That HREF tag carries a lot of meaning

PageRank – measures importance through linking

Footpaths

How is the information traversed and used?

Take advantage of what people do

Footpaths

Designers begin with a form…

http://fury.com/berkeleypaths

Footpaths

But people will make it their own…

Footpaths – Swiki : Icons representing use

http://swiki.sics.se/

Footprints and Dinosaurs

Explicates what’s there, doesn’t make new connections

The King – Amazon.com

People who bought X also bought…Creates meaningful relationships that can break

typical taxonomic bounds

Purchase CirclesLocalized Bestseller lists

The Page You MadePersonalized clickstream analysis

Amazon’s biggest lesson

Track use passively—don’t expect people will do the work for you

The Agora

People in the same place at the same time likely have something in common

Purple-moon.com

H2G2.com

A Meta-Web – Everything2.com

A bottom-up network of thought connected by

Hard links – explicitSoft links – implicit

Ranked by voting

Tiered community

‘Who’s online’

….They’ve got it all!

Except a sense of purpose, structure, meaning…

Difficult to figure out

Community is double-edged

In an email from Will Sargent:The downfall of Everything2 (the site, not the architecture) is sadly linked into its quality control. Editors

are picked from users who have made significant contributions to the site and have been there for a while. These editors/gods have free license to downvote and nuke as they see fit. So far so good.

The problem is that the editors are not impartial observers. They have been known to downvote nodes which use language which they don't like, political opinions they don't agree with, and nuke any nodes critical of E2 editorial policy itself. In one case, they outright banned a user who had extreme right wing opinions nobody liked very much. Of course, the guy who writes thestileproject.com got banned in seconds flat. There is no appeal, and if a node gets nuked there's no way for the writer to retrieve that content.

So, should you fire your IA’s and let your users structure your content?

Yes!

I mean, No!

Obviously, there must be an initial organization

Create an organization that is flexible, not rigid

But make sure what changes are the connections, not the addresses

Those %$&$#! Three Circles

BusinessContext

Content Users

Further Concerns

Data analysis – sooper-dooper important

Make sure your project has a real mission

Close watch—site structures based on use require a community… And online communities require gardeners to nurture them

A Quick and Dirty Algorithm

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/INFOJB.html

Frequency—reinforce a link (AB) that a person traverses

Symmetry – reinforce reverse link (BA), a little less

Transivity – If a person goes AB and BC, reinforce AC

This is what leads to true restructuring

Future Uses

Peer to peer

Think beyond music

Think of an ever-shifting stream of information

“Architect” that

Personal Categorization

If I’m involved in SO/HO, I’m not interested in ‘electronics’ or ‘computers,’ ’I’m interested in what can help me

Evolutionary Model

Again and again it’s been shown that attempts at God-like ‘organized’ top-down design typically fail

Too many contingencies, too chaotic

Bottom-up, rules-based structures adopt, adapt, and improve

Organization without explicit design is very powerful

From http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/namurart.

html “We believe the laws of evolution, in which natural selection

guarantees the survival of the fit and the extinction of the unfit, apply in all cases whether living beings, dead matter or knowledge is concerned. Ideas, chunks of knowledge, can be considered specific entities that rely on human or other carriers to multiply, mutate, adapt and survive. The human population and the technology devoted to communication can likewise be regarded as a huge ecology populated by ideas, theories or knowledge in general. The Internet has in the most recent years been becoming an integral part of this so-called ecology of knowledge…”

Sites need to evolve structures

Evolution requiresAn EnvironmentIn which elements areSelectedBased on their Fitness--Natural Selection

Natural selection

White and black moths

Sites need to evolve structures

Structures requirePrinciplesIn which Meaningful organizationArises from a Significantly complex system--Self organization

Self organization

Astronomical phenomena, crystal structures

Resources

Principia Cybernetica Web - http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SUPORGLI.html

Self-Organizing Systems FAQ - http://www.calresco.org/sos/sosfaq.htm

The Symbiotic Intelligence Project - http://ishi.lanl.gov/symintel.html

Cosma Shalizi’s Notebooks on Self-Organization - http://www.santafe.edu/~shalizi/notebooks/self-organization.html

Social Computing Program - http://www.sics.se/humle/socialcomputing/

ReferralWeb - http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/kautz/referralweb/index.html

The Origins of Order and At Home in the Universe, Stuart Kauffman

Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, George Lakoff

How Buildings Learn, Stewart Brand