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Exact Schemes

Divides information into mutually exclusive groups

CategoryTimeLocationAlphabetContinuum

Category

Pertains to organization of good or services

Retail site often used this schemeDifferent models, types, or questionsEnforced by color

Time

Organize events which happened over fixed duration

CalendarTimeline

Location

Categorize and compare information which comes from different locales or sources

Multinational sitesMedical sites

Alphabet

DictionariesPhone booksyahoo.comWhen all else fails

Continuum

Organizes items by magnitude from small to large

Least expensive to most expensiveRanking of preferenceOrder of importants

Ambiguous Schemes

Divide information into categories which defy exact definition

Difficult to design and maintainDifficult to use

Ambiguous Schemes

Mired in language ambiguityExample: hit

To strike To touch Reach one’s goals A success (top 40’s) Baseball

Ambiguous Schemes

More usefulMore powerfulAllows for concept of “fuzzy”

Ambiguous Schemes

TopicalTask-orientedAudience specificMetaphor drivenHybrid schemes

Topical

Organizational method orders items by subject

Library of CongressTable of ContentsAcademic course listings

Task-oriented

Organizational scheme into collection of:

FunctionsServicesTasks

Audience specific

Useful when there are two or more audience types

Bank has links for:IndividualsSmall BusinessCorporations

Metaphor driven

Use a metaphor to organize contentInherents advantages/problems of

metaphors

Hybrid schemes

Combine multiple organizational schemes

Need clear separations or usability will suffer

Organizational Structures

Defines relationships among groups created by organizational scheme

Crucial to designImportant in web site design

Organizational Structures

HierarchyDatabase orientedHypertextForm basis for web site navigation

Organizational Structures Hierarchy

Structure according to rank or levelExamples:Family treeCorporate structureBooks

Organizational Structures Hierarchy

Advantages:Familiar Successively refined detailDisadvantages:True hierarchy requires backtracking

Organizational StructuresHierarchy

Organizational StructuresDatabase

Relational DatabaseBottom-up approachSearchableData-modeling can be time

consuming

Organizational StructuresDatabase

Organizational StructuresHypertext

Non-linear way of structuring information

Connected hierarchically, non-hierarchically or both.

FlexibleCan be very confusingWhere am I

Controlled Vocabulary

Web sites are collections of interconnected systems with complex dependencies

Meta-Data: data about dataDescribes an organization across

multiple terms

Controlled Vocabulary

Controlled Vocabulary: predetermined vocabulary of preferred terms that describes a particular domain

Simplest: list of equivalent termsComplex: Thesaurus

Controlled Vocabulary

Synonym Ring

Connected set of words which are defined as equivalent for purposes of retrieval

Authority File

List of preferred terms Acceptable values

Example:Postal codesCommon misspellings

Classification Schemes

Hierarchical arrangements of preferred terms

Also called a taxonomy

Thesaurus

Book of:SynonymsVariant termsRelated termsOpposite terms

Controlled VocabularyThesaurus Terms

Controlled VocabularyThesaurus Example

Card Sorting

Method of created a controlled vocabulary

Creates sets of objects and verbsQuick and cheapDraws out users organize topics

Card Sorting

Differing types:Open/ClosesPhrasingGranularityHeterogeneityCross-listing

Visual Organization

ProximityAlignmentContrastConsistency

Visual Organization

Appearance MattersEnforces content organizationAids navigationInfluenced by human perceptionRelated to Page Design

Proximity

Items close together are perceived as related

Group related items togetherSeparate unrelated items

Alignment

Takes advantage of continuity to make objects appeared grouped

Virtual linesText alignment

Contrast

Draws attention to items on pagePage with little contrast if hard to

read

Consistency

High degree of uniformity in layoutConsistency directly related to

usabilityConsistent site are much easier to

navigate

Consistency

Page Layout

Page Design

Related to visual organizationProvides balance between content

organization and visual layoutIncreases usability

Page Scanning

Page Size

Page Size

Top Of Page

Wireframe

Blueprint for site pageDescribes content and information

architectureCreated for site’s most important

pagesNot replacement for real visual

design

Wireframe

Wireframe (LowFi)

Wireframe (Med. Fi)

Wireframe (Hi Fi)

Page Layout

Page Layout