information architecture class2 01 16

More About

What It IsSI 658 Information Architecture

Marti Gukeisen

1/16/2013

SI658 Information Architecture1

More About What It Is

Related Readings

Pervasive Information ArchitectureAndrea Resmini & Luca RosatiISBN 978-0-12-382094-5 Ch 2 Toward a Pervasive Information Architecture

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web 3rd

Edition (The Polar Bear Book) Peter Morville & Louis Rosenfeld ISBN 978-0-596-52734-1 Ch 1 Defining Information Architecture

Ch 4 The Anatomy of an Information Architecture

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The History of IAWhere did it come from?

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(Another) Timeline of IA

ea

rly

19

70

s Xerox PARC develops first personal computer with a graphical user interface

Computers will fit on a desk

19

75 The term

“Architecture of Information” is coined by Richard Saul Wurman (a real architect, as in buildings)

19

80

s heads down. deliverables develop: blueprints, requirements, guidelines

19

88 The Design of

Everyday Things by Don Norman is publish. Design thinking about ease of use.

19

97 Information

Architects by Richard Saul Wurman is Published

19

98 Polar Bear

Book is published. IA has a guide for practice

19

99 Don’t Make

Me Think by Steve Krug is published

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20

00 First IA Summit

conference

Practical Information Architecture by Eric Reiss is published

ea

rly

20

00

s First phones supporting web browsing appear

20

02

Information Architecture Institute is founded to advance the field and support practitioners

20

05 Ambient

Findability by Peter Morville is published

Digital Groundby Malcolm MCCullough is published

20

06 First ideƏ

conference

20

07 Everything is

miscellaneous David Weinberger is published

Designing Web Navigation by James Kalbach

iPhone introduced

20

10 Accidental

Taxonomist by Heather Heddenis published

60-70s Information Design 80s Information Systems

2000-2010s Pervasive & Ubiquitous IA

1990-2000s Classic IA

What the textbooks sayIA from the perspective of Resmini, Rosati, and a polar bear.

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Polar Bear 101

in•for•ma•tion ar•chi•tec•ture n.

1. The structural design of shared information

environments.

2. The combination of organization, labeling, search,

and navigation systems within web sites and intranets.

3. The art and science of shaping information products

and experiences to support usability and findability.

4. An emerging discipline and community of practice

focused on bringing principles of design and

architecture to the digital landscape.

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What it isn’t

Graphic design is NOT information architecture.

Software development is NOT information architecture.

Usability engineering is NOT information architecture.

reality check: defining what ‘information architecture’ is, not the bounds of your professional role. One person could do IA, usability engineering, graphic design, and software development. They probably get “ninja” in their job title.

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What is an Information Architect?

Richard Saul Wurman says they…

organize patterns inherent in data

make the complex clear

create structure or map

address needs of clarity, human understanding

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Vocabulary Quiz

Ubiquitous Computing

Bridge Experience

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Vocabulary Quiz

Organization systems

Navigation systems

Search systems

Labeling systems

Content Structure

Sequencing

Tagging

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Information Architecture helps…

tell us where we are

find related things / pages / content

understand ways to move around

where we can do important things

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Bottoms Up

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http://allrecipes.com/recipe/salty-dog-i/

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/salty-dog-i/


Information Architecture helps…

tell us where we are

tell us what we can do

find related things / pages / content

understand ways to move around

convey what’s credible and what’s for sale

facilitate discovery

mitigate information overload

guess needs we didn’t know we have; meet them

in context

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A side note about metadata

What metadata used to be:

the data ABOUT the data

eg. if your ‘data’ is a book

the metadata includes: title, pub date, author,

ISBN, #pages, famous quotes

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A side note about metadata

What metadata is now:

the stuff you don't know about the thing you do know

meaning…you can start with any piece to find the

other pieces.

e.g. data could be: author’s name, a line from the

book, or “that book about the elephant that splashes

everyone”

and you could find, reviews, pub date, (and soon

which of your friends has read it)

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Which makes metadata & content

structuring mad important to

understand and get right

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Deliverables

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the elephant in every IA discussion

moral to the story: everyone can say something

different, and everyone can be right

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dilemma: what you say or show can be interpreted

multiple ways (and they aren’t wrong)


Roots of IA

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arc

hite

ctu

re


Roots of IA – some notes about their

influence

visual design

never discount the “feel” side of how people interpret what they see

overlap when it comes to visual hierarchy

visual designers can be valuable innovators, coming up with new ways to structure & deliver information*

info design

focused on a visual approach to conveying data, with same objectives:

making the complex clear

expose patterns, meaning

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* can also break everything


Roots of IA – some notes about their

influence

architecture

deliverables: blueprints / wireframes

metaphor for understanding our role in creation

process

library science

first, longest at organizing groups of content with

metadata and relationships to each other

cognitive psychology

how people interpret information

how we evolved to process information how we do

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Back to Boersma’s T-Model

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this is who is

thinking, but

WHAT are

they

thinking

about?


Domain. Medium. Messy.

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Size

phone tablet desktop TV billboard

Visual Complexity

text only text & images animated images video 3D

Privacy

private shared public

Personalization

unique to 1 unique to group unique to type generic

Location

Home / Work Inside / Outside geographic-GPS Car / Traveling

Group TimeGetting started on your group assignments

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Step 1: Form groups

5-7 people per group

you don’t have to know each other, but it’s

probably better if you don’t hate each other

there will be minimal time required outside of class

(so schedule coordination should not be a

problem)

similar topic interests might be a good way to start

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Step 2: Select a product/service/thing

It should have lots of STUFF.

Been there done that (no repeats, but these were

good ideas):

1. Hulu

2. IMDB

3. AADL

4. etsy.com

5. discogs.com

6. StumbleUpon

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Step 3: tell me about it

Have 1 person in your group email me:

the names of all your group members

what product/service/thing will be your focus

throughout this semester

your group mascot

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Recap

Step 1: Form groups

Step 2: Select a product/service/thing

Step 3: tell me about it, and your mascot

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Step 4: first look at first group

assignment

Start thinking about your product/service in terms of:

anatomy of as-is IA

elevator pitch

business model canvas ♪

back it up to “volume zero”

We’ll discuss more next week.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QoAOzMTLP5s


Anatomy of as-is IA

identifying architectural components

Organization systems

Labeling systems

Navigation systems

Searching systems

Browsing aids

Search aids

Content and tasks

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Wrap UpMore stuff for you to do.

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For next week

Due TUES Jan 22th at 11 pm.

50-300 words responding to the following:

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Polar Bear

Ch 3 User Needs and Behavior

Ch 10 Research


Rockstar & Software Eval presentations

start next week

Sign up now if you have not already – signup has

gone digital. See ctools.

I will notice if you just don’t sign up / present.

Evaluation sheets are available on ctools.

If you signed up to present Jan 23, get ready

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LatersQuestions?

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information architecture class2 01 16

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usability engineering

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software development

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