understanding information architecture
Post on 21-Oct-2014
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DESCRIPTION
Part one of a three part workshop co taught with Dan Klyn and Christina Wodtke on Feb 7, 2013 at General Assembly in NYC. ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP Information architecture (IA) once was practiced as a sort of web-era librarianship. It was about organizing the information contained within websites to make things easier to find and use. But today an increasingly significant proportion of our daily business is conducted digitally. Using a variety of devices, people communicate with one another, search for information and entertainment, make retail purchases, initiate and negotiate business transactions, and more. This class will explore well-architected digital experiences. What does it mean to architect information? How does the structure of information relate to understanding? How can information architects manage complex information across channels and contexts? What unique value can professional information architects bring to the creation and delivery of products and services? What is the interplay of information architecture and the other disciplines within user experience? This class will provide a broad introduction to a useful set of tools and ideas that provide a framework under which user and business insight can be harvested and used in pursuit of real business goals.TRANSCRIPT
Understanding Information Architecture
Abby CovertDan Klyn
Christina Wodtke
Abby Covert@Abby_the_IA
Dan Klyn@DanKlyn
Christina Wodtke@CWodtke
Part 1: Identify opportunities for growth, change and improvement during requirement gathering
Part 2: Structure goals to create clarity and consensus among stakeholders and makers
Part 3: Transform an information experience into a social experience
Objectives• Present a new model for understanding information
architecture• Practice using tools for creating consensus,
representing meaning and shaping structure.• Get hands-on instruction with different kinds of
approaches to creating diagrams and instructions for indicating interaction
• List of IA "do's," and "don'ts" based a combined 40 years of experience as an information architect.
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Abby Loves to use Information Architecture to...
Identify opportunities for growth, change and improvement during requirement gathering
Information Architecture
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• Facilitates understanding• Orders meaning• Establishes truth• Creates clarity• Makes pictures of consensus
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everything is complex
I intend to because I believe
facilitate understanding organize meaning, create clarity and establish truth
put the what before the how
make the unclear clear
information architect
understanding is always good but it is equally important to not understand
clarity is a prerequisite of truth
I am an
by: Abby Covert & Dan Klyn
architecture frames problems, design solves them
support goals, makers and users
Complexity
part of something that is complicated or hard to understand
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Users
Stakeholders
Strategic Goals
Information Architecture
Design
Makers
Markting
& Their Bosses
• Comfort with context• Access/Interest/Trust• Reading & Grade level• Aesthetics & Taste
• Tone• Brand• Context
• Production Budget• direction
• Flow• Clarity•Models
• Structure• Tasks• Truth
• Goals • Research• Competition
• REturn on Investment• Growth towards goals• Reputation• The bottom Line
• Budget• Reach• Competition
• Distraction• Loyalty• Channel Limits
• Scope• Talent• Tools• Integration
• Scalability• Quality Assurance•maintainability
Layers of Complexity
?#?$%!
What happens when complexity is not dealt
with properly?
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User satisfaction
StakeholderSatisfaction
MAKER Satisfaction
Sometimes all 3 at once...
When complexity is ignored...
Herding Cats:Finding
Models for exploring complexity in groups
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Only you can help prevent Brainstorms
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I Have used Framestorms to help
• Change the audience for Sharpie from a office supply consumer to teenagers looking for a self expression tool
• Grow a 150,000 member Facebook fan base for JELL-O over the weekend.
• Pilot a revolutionary diet for people with Type 2 diabetes• Analyze and strategically prioritize digital marketing
efforts and improvements for Herman Miller in support of their movement into the B to C market
• Guide a team of 45 business stakeholders at Nike through an overhaul of 20 + systems affecting 120,000 employees and their customers
And some of my favorite tools are
REALLY easy to learn
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How people hear about your offering(s)
How people opt into your
offering(s)
How people explore your offering(s)
How people use your offering the
first time
How people use your offering
over time
Who else could entice this person at this point?
What could detract from this person
proceeding at this point?
I find success in Using this Funnel to explore a product from a user lifecycle perspective
Context
Context
Context
Context
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4
What happens
What happens
What happens
What happens
I find success in Using this Map model to explore a Process from a contextual lifecycle perspective
17What are these kids doing?
Company Up!• Who should we work on as an example...?
– In the past I have seen students have fun with:» In-n-Out Burger» The MoMa» Square» General Assembly» Your company name here
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Which Frame works?
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Product Marketing Process Improvement
Directions– Using the framework brainstorm through
assumptions, questions and facts of the problem space. • Identify 3 colors of post its to use for the 3
things you are brainstorming• Start with 5 minutes of silence and writing
individually, then let’s go around and share and map each person’s post its
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Thanks
@ Abby_The_IA
www.Abbytheia.com