information architecture - a primer

information architectureRajarajan Radhakrishnan

• What is Information Architecture (IA)?

• History of IA

• User Needs and Info Seeking Behavior

• Building Blocks of IA

• Organization Systems

Architecture

Design

Construction

Inhabitants

Location

Furnishings

Overall Experience

Good Experience = Good Structure(or) Architecture

I estimate that poor intranet usabilitycosts the world economy $100 Trilliondollars a year in lost productivity

- Jakob Nielson

Scenario of finding a medicine

1. Using mobile find a pharmacy nearby



2. Take the car keys




3. Enter the address in GPS





4. Follow GPS and Road Signs






5. Spot the location







6. Go to Aisle and find medicine







6. Go to Aisle and find medicine

Cannot find address nearby…

Missed the exit and re-routing…

Cannot find the medicine in the rack…

A Database Architect makes data work for machines.An Information Architect makes information work for people.

- Jesse James Garrett

As an Information Architect I help my company by making it easy for our customers to find our products in our website (or complete their tasks on our products). I organize huge amounts of information on websites and intranets so people can find what they are looking for.

Why IA?

1. Cost of Finding Information

2. Cost of not finding information

3. Cost of construction

4. Cost of training

5. Brand Value


• History of IA




In 660 BC an Assyrian king organized his clay tablets by subject

Alexandria Library housed 120 scroll bibliography

330 B.C.

1873 – Melvil Dewey conceived the Dewey Decimal System to organize

books


• History of IA




User Needs

Roger Thompson retired 3 years ago at age 62, after working for 35 years in the Underwriting department of Acme Insurance. At 65 years old, Roger is extremely active. He golfs twice a week in the summer and swims laps three times a week in the winter. He is proud of his garden and spends an hour or two each day maintaining his lawn and flower beds. Roger is also an avid fisherman.

User Needs

Kim Lee is a freshman at Midwestern College, a small liberal arts college with an undergraduate population of 3,000 students. Kim is planning to major in journalism, and will carry 14 credits during her first semester at Midwestern. He was the co-editor of the student newspaper at her high school, and he is hoping to work on The Chronicle, the student newspaper at Midwestern College..

Information Needs

1. Perfect Catch : Specific answerEg., What is the population of San Francisco?

2. Lobster Trapping : More than 1 answerEg., Good hotels for under $55 /night

3. Indiscriminate DriftnettingEg., Learning about a chronic medical condition

4. Re-finding : Tag it so you don’t lose itEg., Nice UX article. Toss it into delicious.com (bookmarking)

Information Needs

Information Seeking Behavior

1. Searching

2. Browsing

3. Asking

Information Seeking Behavior

START

IntranetPortal

Browse the OrganizationSystem

Admin

Marketing

Human Resources

IT

Corporate

Browse the HR Page

…

Expense Report

Policies & Procedures

IT

…

Ask for Help

John Smith


• History of IA




Business goals, funding, politics, culture, technology, resources and

constraints

Audience, tasks, needs, informationseeking behavior, experience

Document/data types, content objects, volume, existing structure

Three Circles of Information Architecture

IA

Organization Systems

Search Systems Labeling Systems

Navigation Systems

Controlled Vocabularies

2

3

1

4

NavigationSystem

Search System

OrganizationSystem

Labeling System

1NavigationSystem

Where am I?

I know what I am looking for. How doI search for it?

How do I get around here?

What’s happening here?

What can I do here?(Try a trial version)

Why should I use this product?(Learn from other customers)

Example of Poor IA

A good Information Architecture …

1. Tells you, where you are.

2. Helps you to move to closely related topics/content

3. Helps you browse topics

4. Allows you to manipulate content for better browsing

5. Directs you to basic services (contact, login/logout)

6. Makes it easy to complete your primary goal/task


• History of IA




The beginning of all understanding is classification

- Hayden White

Gould’s Book Arcade

- No classification- Facilitates random browsing only

Organized Library

Organization Schemes

Exact Org Schemes

1. Alphabetical

2. Chronological

3. Geographical

Ambiguous Org Schemes

1. Subject or Topic

2. Task Oriented

3. Audience Oriented

4. Metaphor

5. Hybrid

Exact Org Schemes

1. Alphabetical

2. Chronological

3. Geographical



Ambiguous Org Schemes

1. Subject or Topic

2. Task Oriented

3. Audience Oriented

4. Metaphor

5. Hybrid

information architecture - a primer

Technology