A primer on Information Architecture. Starting from history this presentation covers some of the basic tenets of information architecture. This presentation borrows or elaborates most of its details from the famous book 'Information Architecture for the World Wide Web'.

1. information architecture
Rajarajan Radhakrishnan

2. • What is Information Architecture (IA)?
• History of IA
• User Needs and Info Seeking Behavior
• Building Blocks of IA
• Organization Systems

3. • What is Information Architecture (IA)?
• History of IA
• User Needs and Info Seeking Behavior
• Building Blocks of IA
• Organization Systems

8. Architecture
Inhabitants
Design
Location
Construction
Furnishings

9. Good Experience = Good Structure
(or) Architecture

10. I estimate that poor intranet usability
costs the world economy $100 Trillion
dollars a year in lost productivity
- Jakob Nielson

12. Scenario of finding a medicine
1. Using mobile find a pharmacy nearby

13. Scenario of finding a medicine
1. Using mobile find a pharmacy nearby
2. Take the car keys

14. Scenario of finding a medicine
1. Using mobile find a pharmacy nearby
2. Take the car keys
3. Enter the address in GPS

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. Scenario of finding a medicine
1. Using mobile find a pharmacy nearby
Cannot find address nearby…
2. Take the car keys
3. Enter the address in GPS
4. Follow GPS and Road Signs
Missed the exit and re-routing…
5. Spot the location
6. Go to Aisle and find medicine
Cannot find the medicine in the rack…

22. A Database Architect makes data work for machines.
An Information Architect makes information work for people.
- Jesse James Garrett

23. 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.

24. Why IA?
1. Cost of Finding Information
2. Cost of not finding information
3. Cost of construction
4. Cost of training
5. Brand Value

26. • What is Information Architecture (IA)?
• History of IA
• User Needs and Info Seeking Behavior
• Building Blocks of IA
• Organization Systems

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

28. 330 B.C.
Alexandria Library housed 120 scroll bibliography

29. 1873 – Melvil Dewey conceived the Dewey
Decimal System to organize books

31. • What is Information Architecture (IA)?
• History of IA
• User Needs and Info Seeking Behavior
• Building Blocks of IA
• Organization Systems

32. 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.

33. 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 coeditor of the student newspaper at her high
school, and he is hoping to work on The
Chronicle, the student newspaper at Midwestern
College..

35. Information Needs
1. Perfect Catch : Specific answer
Eg., What is the population of San Francisco?
2. Lobster Trapping : More than 1 answer
Eg., Good hotels for under $55 /night
3. Indiscriminate Driftnetting
Eg., Learning about a chronic medical condition
4. Re-finding : Tag it so you don’t lose it
Eg., Nice UX article. Toss it into delicious.com (bookmarking)

36. Information Needs

37. Information Seeking Behavior
1. Searching
2. Browsing
3. Asking

38. Information Seeking Behavior
START
Browse the Organization
System
Admin
Marketing
Intranet
Portal
Human Resources
IT
Corporate
Browse the HR Page
Ask for Help
…
Expense Report
Policies & Procedures
IT
…
John Smith

40. • What is Information Architecture (IA)?
• History of IA
• User Needs and Info Seeking Behavior
• Building Blocks of IA
• Organization Systems

41. Three Circles of Information Architecture
Business
goals, funding, politics, culture, technology,
resources and constraints
Document/data types, content
objects, volume, existing
structure
Audience, tasks, needs, informatio
n
seeking behavior, experience

42. Organization Systems
Labeling Systems
Search Systems
IA
Navigation Systems
Controlled Vocabularies

43. Navigation
System
2
1
3
Navigation
System
Search
System
Organization
System
1
4
Labeling System

44. Where am I?
I know what I am looking for. How do
I search for it?
How do I get around here?
What’s happening here?

45. What can I do here?
(Try a trial version)
Why should I use this product?
(Learn from other customers)

47. ?

49. Example of Poor IA

50. 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

51. • What is Information Architecture (IA)?
• History of IA
• User Needs and Info Seeking Behavior
• Building Blocks of IA
• Organization Systems

52. The beginning of all understanding is classification
- Hayden White

53. Gould’s Book Arcade
-
No classification
Facilitates random browsing only

54. Organized Library

55. Organization Schemes
Exact Org Schemes
Ambiguous Org Schemes
1. Alphabetical
1. Subject or Topic
2. Chronological
2. Task Oriented
3. Geographical
3. Audience Oriented
4. Metaphor
5. Hybrid

56. Organization Schemes
Exact Org Schemes
1. Alphabetical
2. Chronological
3. Geographical

57. Organization Schemes
Exact Org Schemes
1. Alphabetical
2. Chronological
3. Geographical

58. Organization Schemes
Exact Org Schemes
1. Alphabetical
2. Chronological
3. Geographical

59. Organization Schemes
Ambiguous Org Schemes
1. Subject or Topic
2. Task Oriented
3. Audience Oriented
4. Metaphor
5. Hybrid

60. Organization Schemes
Ambiguous Org Schemes
1. Subject or Topic
2. Task Oriented
3. Audience Oriented
4. Metaphor
5. Hybrid

61. Organization Schemes
Ambiguous Org Schemes
1. Subject or Topic
2. Task Oriented
3. Audience Oriented
4. Metaphor
5. Hybrid

62. Organization Schemes
Ambiguous Org Schemes
1. Subject or Topic
2. Task Oriented
3. Audience Oriented
4. Metaphor
5. Hybrid

63. Organization Schemes
Ambiguous Org Schemes
1. Subject or Topic
2. Task Oriented
3. Audience Oriented
4. Metaphor
5. Hybrid