the basic concepts of information architecture

IFORMATION ARCHITECTUREINTRODUCTION

Presentation by Tatevik Zargaryan

10/04/23 copyright www.brainybetty.com 2006

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Introduction

•Information Architecture was born in the late 90s, based on the classical principles of solid traditional Information Science (mainly from the discipline of the Organization and Representation of Knowledge).


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What is Information Architecture

• In a technical sense, it is a discipline (and at the same time a discipline that deals with structuring, organizing and tagging elements of informational environments to facilitate searching and retrieval of information they contain, this way improving the usefulness and benefit for users.

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The Components of Information Architecture

of a Web • Organisation systems –

classifications t that allow to organise and structure the content of the web site

• Labeling system - define the terms used to name the categories, options and links used on the web with a useful language for users.10/04/23 copyright

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The Components of Information Architecture

of a Web • Navigation systems - permit to

navigate or move through a site to find the information we need; it shows us where we are and where we can go inside the structure of a site

• Search systems – enable the retrieval of information within the website using tools such as index


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A Taxonomy of Web Searches

• Andrei Broder assumes that web searches are motivated by an information need.

• Since websites, blogs, and searching tools transform information platform the search engines need to deal with all type of web queries


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A Taxonomy of Web Searches

• There are 3 types of web queries based on their intent o Navigational – the immediate intent is

to reach a particular site o Informational – The intent is to acquire

some information assumed to be presented on one or more web pages

o Transactional – The intent is to perform some web-mediated activity


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The Idea behind these searching engines is to satisfy users needs •Some web sites provide logical structures that help us find answers and complete tasks. •Others lack any intelligible organization and frustrate our attempts to navigate through them.


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The classic model for information

retrieval • The classic model of information retrieval (IR) used in information science research can be characterized as follows

Document Document

Document Representation Document Representation

Match Match

Query Query Information need Information need

• This model has been very productive and has promoted information retrieval in many ways

• However it represents some searches but not all, and it has many limitations

• It is a single query presented by the user, matched to the database contents, yielding a single output.


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BerryPicking Search

• The query is satisfied not by a single final retrieved set, but by a series of selections of individual references and bits of information at each stage of the ever-modifying search.


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BerryPicking Search


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Classical vs. BerryPicking Search

• The focus of the classic model is the match between the document and query representations.

• The focus of BerryPicking is the sequence of searcher behaviors. The information is being produced from the search at many points along the way


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Classical vs. BerryPicking Search

• Thus, we can see that this model differs from the classic one in the first two respects:

1) The nature of the query is an evolving one, rather than single and unchanging,

2) the nature of the search process is such that it follows a berrypicking pattern, instead of leading to a single best retrieved set.copyright


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Three Circles of Information Architecture

• The concept of an "information ecology“ is composed of users, content, and context to address the complex dependencies that exist

• Venn diagram was drawn to help to visualize and understand these relationships.


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Three Circles of Information Architecture

• The three circles illustrate the interdependent nature of users, content,

• and context within a complex, adaptive information ecology.


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Three Circles of Information

Architecture • Context – Business

goals, funding, polices, technology

• Content – document/data type, content structure

• Users – Information seeking behaviour 10/04/23 copyright


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Information Architecture

• An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.


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Key Information Architecture Concepts

• The goal of effective information architecture (IA) is to make the products, services and information on website easy to find


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Key Information Architecture Concepts

Four fundamental skills that information architects have are:•Labelling, Structuring, Organization•Finding and Managing •Categorization and Prioritization•Art and Science


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Labelling, Structuring, Organization

• It's what information architects do best. Structuring involves determining the appropriate levels of granularity for the information "atoms" in your site, and deciding how to relate them to one another.


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Labelling, Structuring, Organization

• Organizing involves grouping those components into meaningful and distinctive categories.

• Labelling means figuring out what to call those categories and the series of navigation links that lead to them.


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Finding and Managing

• Findability is a critical success factor for overall usability. If users can't find what they need through some combination of browsing, searching, and asking, then the site fails. But user-centered design isn't enough.


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Finding and Managing

• The organizations and people who manage information are important, too. An information architecture must balance the needs of users with the goals of the business.

• Efficient content management and clear policies and procedures are essential.


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Categorization and Prioritization

• All sites need a primary hierarchal structure, or a primary taxonomy, which ultimately becomes primary navigation on the website. A taxonomy provides guidelines for site navigation, even though the taxonomy itself is not website navigation.


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• Without a primary hierarchical structure, orientation is difficult.

• And users/searchers will not have a sense of beginning or ending when they try to find, and ultimately view, their desired content.


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• If the navigation system contains too many links and is too wordy, then navigation is difficult to scan, making desired content less findable.

• Likewise, if page content has too many embedded text links, then content becomes difficult to read, and the very information piece that a searcher desires becomes more difficult to find.


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Art and Science

• Disciplines such as usability engineering and ethnography are helping to bring the rigor of the scientific method to the analysis of users' needs and information-seeking behaviors.

• One can study patterns of usage and subsequently make improvements to the web sites.


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What is not Information Architecture

• Graphic design is NOT information architecture.

• Software development is NOT information architecture.

• Usability engineering is NOT information architecture.


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• Graphic design is a all aspects of visual communication, from the design of corporate logos and identities to layout of individual pages

• Software development and information architecture, are two fields highly interdependent.


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• Information architects rely on developers to bring ideas to fruition. Developers help us understand what is and isn't possible. And as the Web continues to blur the these collaborations will become even more important.


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• Content management and information architecture are really two sides of the same coin. IA portrays a "snapshot" or spatial view of an information system, while CM describes a temporal view by showing how information should flow into, around, and out of that same system over time. 10/04/23 copyright


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• Knowledge management - Knowledge managers develop tools, policies, and incentives to encourage people to share what they know.

• Information architects focus more on making accessible what has already been captured.


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• Usability engineering - Usability engineers understand how to apply the rigors of the scientific method to user research, testing, and analysis. They are often concerned with testing all aspects of the user experience, inclusive of information architecture and graphic design.


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Who can be Information

Architecture? • Graphic design and information

design - both graphic design and information design involve much more than creating pretty pictures. These professions are geared more toward creating relationships between visual elements and determining how those elements can be integrated as a whole to communicate more effectively. 10/04/23 copyright


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Architecture? • Information and Library science -

Librarians have a long history of organizing and providing access to information and are trained to work with searching, browsing, and indexing technologies. Forward-looking librarians understand that their expertise applies in new arenas far beyond the library walls.


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Architecture? • Journalists, usability engineers –

they are experts at testing and evaluating how people work with systems.

• Marketing specialists are experts at understanding audiences and communicating messages effectively.


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Architecture? • Computer science - Programmers

and software developers bring important skills and sensitivities to information architecture, especially to "bottom-up" processes.

• They're also great at figuring out how all component systems and technologies of an information architecture fit together.


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Conclusion • In short, we need to understand the

business goals behind the web site and the

• resources available for design and implementation.

• We need to be aware of the nature and volume of content that exists today and how that might change a year from now.


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Conclusion • And we must learn about the needs and

information-seeking behaviors of our major audiences. Good information architecture design is informed by all three areas.

• Information architectures must be uniquely matched to their contexts. The vocabulary and structure of your web site and your intranet is a major component of the evolving conversation between your business and your customers and employees.


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Bibliography • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_architecture• http://searchengineland.com/key-information-architecture-

concepts-every-seo-should-know-45288• http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/us-inarch.html• Morville, Peter and Rosenfeld, Louis (2006). Information

Architecture for the World Wide Web. Sebastopol (CA): O’Reilly Media Inc (3rd edition).

• Marcia J. Bates, (1989). The design of browsing and berrypicking techniques for the online search interface. Los Angeles, CA

• Broder Andrei , (2002). A taxonomy of web search. Retrieved [08.07.10] http://oc.ac.ge/file.php/16/_13_Broder_2002_A_taxonomy_of_web_search.pdf


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the basic concepts of information architecture

Documents

retrieval of information

information need

bits of information

information science

adaptive information

web sites

type of web queries

web navigation systems