IA DEBT

(OR HOW TO MAKE AN IA HAPPY)

Emma Chittenden

Hi, I’m Emma and this is my presentation ‘IA Debt’ from

World Information Architecture Day Bristol, 2015.

'Knock it down, and start again’ a line that we've heard often when discussing

information architecture. But what if knocking it down and starting it again creates a whol

e new set of problems, on top of what already existed?

This is an all to regular occurrence, I will be discussing the concept of IA debt and

why understanding it is the key to building successful Information Architecture.

Emma Chittenden

In the beginning there was a single page

I'm sure those of you who remember the days

of Internet explorer 3.5 will remember those pa

ges with awful backgrounds, 10pt times new ro

man and the odd rolling smiley.

Emma Chittenden

As with the dawn of many things, we tend to

find our way

Emma Chittenden

When humans started building homes, they

were rudimentary, meant to keep beasts out

and the heat in. It was shelter and it served a

purpose. Over time a person's home became

a symbol of their wealth and status in society.

Emma Chittenden

From the favelas of Brazil…

Emma Chittenden

…to our stately homes, each says

something about the people who

live in them.

Emma Chittenden

The same is starting to be said about websites, they are

becoming a representation of the wealth that the organisation

can display. From start-ups (http://www.hellonomad.co.uk/) to

corporate behemoths .

Emma Chittenden

Each also represents the wealth of the business.

But does the amount of money you throw at a

website really reflect a good website?

Emma Chittenden

MONEY WEBSITE

+ = ?

I would argue not

Emma Chittenden

MONEY WEBSITE

+ =

TRUST

that builds trust with its

visitors.

Emma Chittenden

For those of us who deal with

architecture like this you will know

that this is counterintuitive, why?

because if you’ve ever had to hunt

for something on a website, you’ll

have felt the pain and may well

have voted with your feet… and

left.

Emma Chittenden

I’m also sure that many of you

here today will have encountered

the demolition

conundrum. Whereby a client or

your own business will have told

you to flatten it and start again.

A little bit demoralising isn’t it?

more so if you’d been instrumental

in building it in the first place.

Emma Chittenden

What can be learned from

demolishing an entire

architecture?

Very little if it’s done without any

consideration.

Emma Chittenden

THE FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND

WHAT IS GOOD AND BAD

ABOUT A WEBSITE

What can be learned from

demolishing an entire

architecture?

Very little if it’s done without any

consideration.

Emma Chittenden

THE FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND

WHAT IS GOOD AND BAD

ABOUT A WEBSITE

THIS IS WHAT I LIKE TO

CONSIDER IA DEBT

Emma Chittenden

THE FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND

WHAT IS GOOD AND BADABOUT A WEBSITE

THIS IS WHAT I LIKE TO

CONSIDER IA DEBT

In most instances the reason for

starting over is that there is

something inherently bad about

the architecture that has started

this.

Emma Chittenden

Users can’t find anything

Emma Chittenden

It’s just too big to maintain

Emma Chittenden

We’ve renamed most of our

products

Emma Chittenden

We want people to get to things

quicker

Emma Chittenden

We want people to buy more

Emma Chittenden

ARE YOU SITTING

COMFORTABLY?

I thought I’d finish off with a nice

little story (no falling asleep at the

back, milk and cookies won’t be

provided).

Emma Chittenden

MEET BOB

Emma Chittenden

MULTINATIONAL

Bob is the leader of a

multinational company. But it

wasn’t always that way.

Emma Chittenden

STARTED SMALL

Bob started out with humble

beginnings, and his little company

called ‘Bobs bits ‘n’ bobs’

Emma Chittenden

BIG IDEAS

Bob had big ideas

His business grew. With the

growth his operational base

grew.

Emma Chittenden

As Bob’s business

grew, so did his

problems.

The little whispers

of dissent became

louder and louder,

and louder until...

“…We need to be closer to account ing…”

Emma Chittenden

“…We need an open plan of f ice for

our teams to be product ive…”

Emma Chittenden

“…We need more natural l ight

to remain healthy…”

Emma Chittenden

“…WE NEED!

WE NEED!

WE NEED!…”

Emma Chittenden

Emma Chittenden

LOUD H.I .P.P.O.(HIGHEST PAID PERSON)

One day, Bob had had enough. The

HiPPO’s voices got so loud he

couldn’t take it anymore.

Emma Chittenden

BRIGHT IDEA!

Bob had a bright idea, he decided a

new building would fix ALL his

problems.

Emma Chittenden

FAMOUS ARCHITECT

So Bob found a famous architect.

Meet Andy, Andy’s the architect

Emma Chittenden

“ I ’M KIND OF A BIG DEAL”Andy’s company lived (and died) by

its reputation.

Emma Chittenden

…WHO LISTENS TO NO ONE

Andy didn’t listen to

anyone else, he knew what

was best.

Emma Chittenden

“ I ’M KIND OF A REALLY BIG DEAL”

Andy’s architecture practice

had also grown, and grown

over the years and he’d won

many prestigious accolades

for his work.

Emma Chittenden

Kings hired him

Emma Chittenden

Presidents hired him

Emma Chittenden

YOU’RE HIRED

Yeah, you guessed it. Bob

hires him

Emma Chittenden

*BOB SHARING HIS WOES

Bob shares all his woes with

Andy. ‘They just won’t shut

up!’

Emma Chittenden

*ANDY NODS

Emma Chittenden

*NOT HIS ACTUAL OFFICE

Bob tells Andy that his head office is old, it’s

creaking.

The walls are thin, the windows even thinner,

the maintenance costs are astronomical. He

can’t find anything.

He doesn’t know where anyone works.

Emma Chittenden

Andy nods his head some more and makes

the right noises. He gets out his pen and

paper and with a quick flourish, he draws

Bob’s new building.

Emma Chittenden

Andy’s a vision of glass and concrete. It won’t need air

conditioning because the sun’s rays will heat it and the

greenery in the atrium will cool it.

It’ll win awards, everyone will think Bob has made the

best decision for his company.

Emma Chittenden

“THIS’LL SHUT’EM UP!”

Bob is in awe! ‘This’ll shut ‘em up’ he thinks

Emma Chittenden

Out comes Bob’s cheque book and a firm handshake

seals the deal.

Emma Chittenden

After years, Bob’s new building is open for business.

Emma Chittenden

Staff are in awe.

Emma Chittenden

Customers are amazed

YEAH… YOU

GUESSED IT…

Emma ChittendenEmma Chittenden

Emma Chittenden

Now, there’s 500, even louder

voices!

They make even more noise than

the original 5… and they say even

worse things.

Emma Chittenden

AWFUL

TRANSPORT

CONNECTIONS

The building is 10 miles away from

the old building with awful transport

connections, it’s costing people a

fortune to get here.

Emma Chittenden

OFFICE IS

TOO HOT

Next, the building is too hot from the

sun and isn’t getting cooled down

for most of the day.

Emma Chittenden

EVERYONE’S

DEPRESSED

They’ve moved all the departments

around in the open plan layout and

it’s really affecting productivity.

Emma Chittenden

“HOW DO I FIX THIS!?

Bob is at a loss. What has he

done?

Emma Chittenden

“ I ’LL GO SPEAK TO ANDY!”

Bob knows what to do. He’ll go and

speak to Andy, Andy’s always got

the answer. How do I fix this?

Emma Chittenden

“YOU ASKED FOR SOUTH FACING”

Andy sits down and say he’ll bring

his business consultancy agency

and they’ll look at productivity.

Next he admits there might be a

problem with the temperature, but if

Bob hadn’t insisted on it being south

facing they wouldn’t have the

problem.

Emma Chittenden

“WHAT HAVE I DONE!?”

Bob walks out of Andy’s Architects

and thinks ‘what have I done?’ So

he turns around and goes back in.

Emma Chittenden

“YOU’RE FIRED ANDY!”

He fires Andy.

Emma Chittenden

*WHILE RESEARCHING…

He then goes and does some

research into his problem and finds

Carol

Emma Chittenden

*TALKING TO CAROLS OTHER CUSTOMERS

He talks to people who Carol has

helped. He visits the place that

Carol has built…

Emma Chittenden

“CAROL, YOU’RE HIRED.”

He hires Carol

Emma Chittenden

“LETS TALK TO PEOPLE”

Carol says ‘let’s talk to

people’ 'Let’s find out what the

problems are’.

Emma Chittenden

After a LOT of talking. Carol now

knows everyone in the business,

from Bob at the top to Xander in the

mail room. She knows what the

problems were and what they are.

Emma Chittenden

“GET OUT H.I .P.P.O.! ! ! ”

The old, loud voices (HiPPo’s) don’t

work there anymore. They just

wanted a shiny building to reflect

their status, they never had a

problem.

Emma Chittenden

The loyal workers who’ve

stuck by Bob said ‘sure, the

old place was a bit cold in

winter and a bit warm in

summer’

But…

Emma Chittenden

“PEOPLE TALKED TO EACH OTHER”

Emma Chittenden

“FINANCE WAS NEXT TO SALES”

Emma Chittenden

“PRODUCTION WAS NEXT TO DESIGN”

Emma Chittenden

“THE LOCAL PUB WAS

A GREAT HANGOUT ON A FRIDAY”

Emma Chittenden

“THERE WAS A CULTURE”

Emma Chittenden

*SITTING BACK TOGETHER AGAIN

Emma Chittenden

*NEW PUB, MAY ALSO BE THE OLD PUB

Emma Chittenden

*A/C TO SOLVE HEATING

She couldn’t however change which

direction the building faced. So the

heat problem became more of a

challenge to fix. Lots of little

changes didn’t make much of a

difference, so ultimately Bob had to

get air con.

Emma Chittenden

From the first ‘sight’ of the problem,

to the eventual fixes, Bob was 10

years older and millions of pounds

lighter. The improvements weren’t

enough to justify the spend

Emma Chittenden

ZAHA HADID

Of course, this is a

thoroughly ridiculous story. You

would never hear Zaha Hadid…

Emma Chittenden

NORMAN FOSTER

…or Sir Norman Foster accepting a job like

this and making a complete disaster of it

like Andy did.

They have built successful architect’s

practices on their ability to listen to their

customers and solve their problems.

OF COURSE NEVER!

Emma Chittenden

And of course, nothing like this would

ever happen with Information architecture.

Kidding, the sad truth is, that this sort of thing

does happen all the time. If businesses

considered that their digital bricks and mortar

were just as, or if not MORE important than their

physical bricks and mortar we wouldn’t be asked

to demolish entire sites.

Emma Chittenden

ANDY, BOB AND CAROL

So what can we learn from Andy, Bob and

Carol?

ASK

Emma Chittenden

Talk to people.

What is working as

wel l as what is not.

Talk to people. Find out what’s working and

what’s not working.

BLEND

Emma Chittenden

…What you’ve got

now with

improvements

Blend what you’ve got now with improvements.

CHALLENGE

Emma Chittenden

…Anyone who tel ls

you that i t needs to

be knocked down and

bui l t again

Challenge anyone who tells you that it needs to

be knocked down and build again. Small

problems can become astronomical if we fail to

understand everything,

THANK YOU

Emma Chittenden

@EMCHI