IBE312Information Architecture

Ch. 5 Organization SystemsCh. 6 Labeling Systems

2013

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”)– …

Ch 5

Organization Systems challenges

• Challenges of organizing information– Information growth– Ambiguity– Heterogeneity – unlike parts, levels of granulatiry.

E.g. a website can present whole articles or other records of information from a database. Multi-formats: text, sound clips, images, etc.

– Difference in perspective- intended audience– Internal politics – influence labeling and org. sys.

Information Growth

Ambiguity – language can be interpreted in many ways

• The word pitch. When I say pitch, what do you hear? There are more than 15 definitions, including:– A throw, fling, or toss– A black, sticky substance used for waterproofing– The rising and falling of the bow and stern of a ship

in a rough sea– A salesman’s persuasive line of talk– An element of sound determined by the frequency

of vibration

Organizing Web Sites and Intranets

• Organization systems consist of organization schemes and structures.

• Organization is strongly connected to navigation, labeling and indexing.

• Even so, working with organization separately is useful, (possibly) making a fundament for navigation and labeling.

“Exact” Organization Schemes

• Alphabetical• Chronological• Geographical• Organizational (for Intranets)• Any inherent attribute of entities

“Inexact” (Ambiguous) Organization Schemes

• Ambiguous organization supports serendipitous mode of information seeking by grouping items in intellectually meaningful ways.

• Much harder, but useful – we don’t always know the label, related items are grouped together….– by Topic, Task (e.g. task and topic co-exist on ebay’s

website), or Audience (e.g. Dell invites users to self-identify)

– Metaphors (desktop, folders, files, trash can, are these)– Hybrids are common, but troublesome…

Hybrid scheme

when you start blending elements of multiple schemes, confusion oftenfollows, and solutions are rarely scalable

The exception to these cautions against hybrid schemes exists within the surfacelayer of navigation.

Organization structures• The stucture defines the primary way users can navigate.• Hierarchy – top-down approach (taxonomy)

– Tradeoffs – «narrow and deep» or «broad and shallow» • Database – bottom-up approach

– Really the use of metadata, enabling (powerful) searching and browsing.

– Rolodex – each card is a record (p.73); limited to searching for each card by last name.

– Metadata is the primary key that links information architecture to the design of database schema.

– By tagging documents and other information objects with controlled vocabulary metadata, we enable powerful searching, browsing, filtering, and dynamic linking.

• Hypertext – not useful as a primary structure

Database model

• Information architects need to understand how metadata, controlled vocabularies, and database structures can be used to enable:– Automatic generation of

alphabetical indexes (e.g., product index)

– Dynamic presentation of associative “see also” links

– Fielded searching– Advanced filtering and sorting

of search results

The database model is useful when applied within relatively homogeneous subsites such as product catalogs and staff directories.

However, enterprise controlled vocabularies can often provide a thin horizontal layer of structure across the full breadth of a site.

Deeper vertical vocabularies can then be created for particular departments, subjects, or audiences. (p.75)

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

Designing taxonomies

When designing taxonomies on the Web, you should remember.. be aware of, but not bound by, the idea that hierarchical categories should be mutually exclusive. Within a single organization scheme, you will need to balance the tension between exclusivity and inclusivity. E.g. tomatoes – fruit or berry? List as both…but not too many exceptions.

Depth vs. Breadth“shallow but wide”

“narrow but deep”

What are the tradeoffs?

• If a hierarchy is too broad and shallow, users are faced with too many options on the main menu and are unpleasantly surprised by the lack of content once they select an option.

• If a hierarchy is too narrow and deep, users have to click through an inordinate number of levels to find what they are looking for.

User Testing Needed

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?)

Hypertext

Diana

Philip

Elizabeth

Charles

Balmoral

Tony

Elizabeth

Links have personal associations.They do not have samemeaning to everyone.

Not a primaryorganizationstructure.

Social Taggingdel.icio.us

flickr

YouTube del.icio.us

Top-down vs bottom-up structuresFree tagging, also known as collaborative categorization, mob indexing, and ethnoclassification, is a simple yet powerful tool. Users tag objects with one or more keywords. The tags are public and serve as pivots for social navigation. (p.77)Folksonomy – user defined tags to organize information. (bottom up classification)

• Doesn’t a hierarchical organization system defeat the entire point of hypertext?

• Doesn’t social tagging eliminate the need for organization systems?

on Tagging…• in a debate with Lou Rosenfeld, Clay Shirky argued: “The

advantage of folksonomies isn’t that they’re better than controlled vocabularies, it’s that they’re better than nothing, because controlled vocabularies are not extensible to the majority of cases where tagging is needed...This is something the ‘well-designed metadata’ crowd has never understood...the cost of tagging large systems rigorously is crippling, so fantasies of using controlled metadata in environments like Flickr are really fantasies of users suddenly deciding to become disciples of information architecture.”† (p.79)

• † From the blog posting “folksonomies + controlled vocabularies” (http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2005/01/07/folksonomies_controlled_vocabularies.php).

• Tagging is demonstrated in flickr and del.icio.us

Organizational Structures

Top-level, umbrella structure, likely to be hierarchical Less-structured content - users contribute to organization and access content through..• Bookmarks• Arrangement of tabs and windows• Social tagging• Personal homepage• Blogs

Labeling Systems

• Labeling is a form of representation.• Some (random) problems with labels:– They aren’t representative and don’t differentiate– They aren’t user-centric– They waste money– They don’t give a good impression

• Labels do matter!

Ch 6

Labeling System

• Direct manifestations of possible user actions• Mutually constrained by:– Organization system– Navigation system– Page layout and design

• Warning: poor labels can ruin a good organization and navigation system!

Language of Labels

• Different types of phrases:– Nouns (“Flight reservations”)– Verb phrases (“Book a flight”)– Gerunds (“Giving to Maryland”)– Prepositional phrases (“For applicants”)– Questions (“How do I sign up?”)– Idiomatic (“What’s new?”, “Guestbook”, “Shopping cart”)– Icons

• Natural affinity between label types and organization systems

Varieties of Labels

• Labels as– Contextual links – very easily misused (click here)– Headings – often depending on hierarchy– Navigation system choices – should adhere to

some“standards”– Index terms

• Iconic labels – any good?

Labels as Contextual Links

Labels as Headings

Labels within Navigation Systems

Labels as Index Terms

Iconic Labels

Designing Labels

• Narrow scope whenever possible• Develop consistent labeling systems, not

labels. Consistency is affected by:– Style– Presentation– Syntax– Granularity– Comprehensiveness– Audience

Source of Labeling Systems

• Your own site – use the existing labels as a starting point

• Comparable and competitive sites• Controlled vocabularies and thesauri

Creating New Labeling Systems

• Content analysis• Content authors• Advanced users and subject matter experts• Users (Open or closed card sort is very

common.)