JASS 2005 NextGeneration UserCentered Information Management Information Architecture

JASS 2005 Next-Generation User-Centered Information Management Information Architecture Tobias Zimmermann (tobias. zimmermann@mytum. de) Software Engineering betrieblicher Informationssysteme (sebis) Ernst Denert-Stiftungslehrstuhl Lehrstuhl für Informatik 19 Institut für Informatik TU München wwwmatthes. in. tum. de JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 1

Agenda o The problem: COGNITIVE OVERLOAD o User‘s information seeking behavior o What is information architecture? o Information Architecture ? What for? o Information Architecture and Development of an Information Space o Information architecture components o Discussion & case study JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 2

The problem: COGNITIVE OVERLOAD Cognitive overload results from various reasons: o Information anxieties n Information overload of pushed and pulled information n Lack of adequate information and unclear information needs n Marginal growth of information quality in respect to quantity o Inadequate workplace infrastructure n Need of dealing with multi-tasking and interruption n. . . collating information exceeds it’s value to business Consequences of cognitive overload (study “Dying for information” 1996): o Less job satisfaction and stress, delay of important decisions o Tensions with work colleagues and ill health JASS 05 Information Architecture Source: [Ki 00] © sebis 3

User‘s information seeking behaviors 3 common types of information seeking: exhaustive research exploratory seeking known-item seeking o exhaustive research: everything on a particular topic, multiple research with different search terms (e. g. 21. 900. 000 hits for “information architecture” at google. com) o exploratory seeking: open-ended, no clear expectation of the right answer, user is not aware how to articulate what he is looking for (e. g. browsing) o known-item seeking: clear awareness of the desired information, user knows how to call it and where to find (e. g. directory lookup for a phone number) Source: [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 4

Information Architecture, some definitions Common shared definitions: o “The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation systems within an information system” o “The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content” o “An Information architect is an internet librarian” Information Architecture is not: o graphic design o software development o usability engineering but there are some important intersections. Source: [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 5

Costs of inadequate information architecture Costs of … o. . . finding information, o. . . not finding information, o. . . redesign and improvements, o. . . maintenance, o. . . training, o. . . lost customers, o. . . lost reputation and brand value o… A well-defined information architecture tries to address all topics and to reduce these costs. JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 6

The three circles of information architecture Business goals, funding, politics, culture, technologies, resources and constraints Context Content Document/data types, content Objects, existing structure Users Audience, tasks, needs, information seeking behavior, experience Source: [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 7

Development process of an information space Mental Model Implementation Model IA & Interaction Diagrams and Prototypes Conceptual / Content Model JASS 05 Information Architecture Source: adopted form [Ad 01] and [Ch 01] © sebis 8

Information architecture components o organization systems, n structure and categorization of information o labeling systems, n representation of information, giving names o navigation systems, n browsing through information spaces o searching systems, n information retrieval with search engines o controlled vocabulary, thesauri and rule sets n defining synonyms, scopes and instructions for information retrieval Source: [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 9

Organization schemes and structures The exponential increase of content makes it necessary to organize information to retrieve it adequately. o Organization schemes define shared characteristics of content items n logical grouping information and content, sorting of content, n exact schemes: alphabetical, chronological, geographical n ambiguous schemes: by topic, by task, by audience, by metaphors o Organization structures define the types of relationships between content groups n Top-Down: hierarchical relationships (e. g. main page and subsites, navigation) n hierarchical and polyhierarchical (e. g. taxonomies, improved search functionality) n Bottom-Up approach: relational database model (e. g. product catalogues, CMS) n network of hypertext links Source: [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 10

structure and schemes at microsoft. com structure (hierarchy) scheme (by audience) JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 11

IA models and types of structure (I) o all-in-one H n very simple model with all content on a single “homepage” o flat / monocline grouping n flat pattern with all sites at the same level, few standard topics (home, products, about us, contact) H T 1 o Index T 2 T 3 T 4 H n flat structure with a central list of content n works well with medium amount of data and a intuitive sorting T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 T 5 Source: [Sc 04 a] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 12

IA models and types of structure (II) o Hub-and-spoke / daisy model n useful for distinct linear workflows starting at a common point (e. g. email service/application) H o Hierarchies n given parent-child relationship (1: n or n: m) n useful for high-amount of information with a consistent organization scheme strict hierarchy (1: n) H polyhierarchy (n: m) H Source: adopted form [Sc 04 a] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 13

Labeling Systems Labels are given names or icons, representing larger chunks of information. o textual labels n hyperlinks n headings n navigation options n index terms o iconographic labels n may represent complex functions shorter than text, but more limited vocabulary n optical recognition for the user n design and layout elements Source: [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 14

Designing labeling systems o develop consistent labeling system, not just labels o narrow scope whenever possible o be aware of different “languages”/perceptions o avoid noticeable gaps in the labeling system o tools and guidelines for development: n consistency check with navigation tables n have a look for competitors’ labeling systems, “Is there a quasi standard? ” n refer to existing controlled vocabularies and thesauri n methods for new systems: content analysis, content authors and card sort Source: [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 15

Navigation Systems Navigation systems are crucial, a death and live issue, for web sites and complex applications. They provide doors, pathways and windows… A user who gets lost on the information space will… n …simply clicks away, if there alternatives, n …gets highly frustrated if he has to use the information space, n …maybe never come back! o Principles for good navigation design n Let me know where I am all the time! n Clearly differentiate hyperlinks from content! n Let me know clearly where I can go from here! n Let me see where I’ve already been! n Make it obvious what to do to get somewhere! n Indicate what clicking a link will do! Source: [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 16

Types of navigation systems o embedded navigation systems n global navigation, local navigation and contextual navigation o supplemental navigation systems n sitemaps, indexes and guides o advanced navigation approaches n personalization and customization global navigation most popular layout scheme, Source: [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture local navigation is it the best? contextual navigation <<content>> contextual navigation © sebis 17

Navigation Systems at walmart. com browser navigation supplemental navigation global navigation breadcrumb trail/navigation contextual navigation local navigation JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 18

Search systems A search functionality is an addition to the navigation system to support users in their information needs. o some preconditions: n enough content n sufficient resources to optimize the search system n the search system will not balance a lack in the navigation system n no better alternatives (site indexes) o the search system will pay off n at huge amounts of information n at fragmented sites n with highly dynamic content n when users expect it at your site Source: [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 19

Further possibilities of a search system Improved information retrieval through: o rankings in search results may be sorted by relevance, time, alphabet, pay-forplacement, user’s/expert rating, popularity o synonyms may be presented with controlled vocabularies. o interactive agents with natural language parsing and human-created knowledgebases. o collaborative filtering by tracking user behavior and profiles. o by leveraging category structures, we can provide results in context. Source: [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 20

Metadata, Controlled Vocabularies o Metadata are invisible keywords describing the content. They are analyzed by search engines to optimize search results. Usually the are manually entered. <meta name=“keywords” content=“strawberry recipes, cocktail, frozen daiquiri” /> o „controlled vocabularies“ are (manually) cared rule sets and lists of equivalent or associated terms. n synonym rings n authority files n classification schemes n thesauri Vocabularies synonym rings authority files classification schemes thesauri complex simple equivalence hierarchical Relationships JASS 05 Information Architecture associative Source: [RM 02] © sebis 21

Thesauri and semantic search broader term hierarchical relationship preferred term associative relationship related term equivalence relationship variant term hierarchical relationship narrower term Source: adopted from [RM 02] JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 22

References [Ad 01] Adaptive Path : Designing the Complete User Experience, url: http: //www. adaptivepath. com/presentations/complete, accessed: 21. 03. 05. [Ch 01] Chak, A. : Effective Info Architecture. url: http: //www. webtechniques. com/archives/2001/10/chak, accessed: 26. 03. 05. [Gr 04] Greenfield, A. : All watched over by machines of loving grace: Some ethical guidelines for user experience in ubiquitous-computing settings, accessed: 28. 03. 05. [Ki 00] Kirsh, D. : A Few Thoughts on Cognitive Overload. Intellectica, 2000/1, 30, pp. 19 -51, url: http: //interruptions. net/literature/Kirsh-Intellectica 00 -30. pdf, accessed: 28. 03. 05. [RM 02] Rosenfield, L. ; Morville, P : Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. O‘Reilly, 2002. [Sc 04 a] Scratch Media: Navigation, 2004, url: http: //www. webdesignfromscratch. com/navigation. cfm, accessed: 28. 03. 05. [Sc 04 b] Scratch Media: IA models, 2004, url: http: //www. webdesignfromscratch. com/ia_models. cfm, accessed: 28. 03. 05. [Wo 01] Wodke, C. : Boxes and Arrows: Defining Information Architecture Deliverables, url: http: //www. sitepoint. com/print/architecture-deliverables, accessed: 28. 03. 05. JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 23

Thank you for your attention! Any questions, comments, critics, discussion? JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 24

Outlook & discussion topics (I) Mobile devices, location based services and ubiquitous computing are emerging technologies. What are the implications for information architecture and it’s components? How can existing information spaces be modified in their information architecture to deal with n limited screens displays n limited space for information and navigation systems n limited bandwidth How may change the user’s information seeking behavior? Expected outcome: Impressions form your brainstorming and basis for discussion with the other group(s). JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 25

Outlook & discussion topics (II) Have a look at one or two corporate websites. Investigate from a user-centered view: n What is the audience for this website? n Which organizational system is used? n What about the navigation system? Does it fulfill the requirements? n Overall impression. Recommendations for improvements? In case of missing information make reasonable assumptions! Expected outcome: Short analysis of websites information architectures. Which components have you identified? Screenshots… Does it have a adequate information architecture? Why not? Improvements? Recommendations: www. microsoft. com / www. siemens. com / information space of your choice. JASS 05 Information Architecture © sebis 26