presentation to the Austin chapter of the STC, Match 6, 2013

1. Information Architecture
Explained
March 6, 2013
Austin STC Chapter
Leigh White
ElementalSource, LLC

2. What is information architecture?
• Not a fully-formed profession yet
• Ask 10 IAs what they do, get 10 different answers
• We’re at an exciting place…creating ourselves!
ElementalSource, LLC

3. A definition
From the Information Architecture Institute:
• Information architecture (IA) is the art and science of
organizing and labeling data including: websites, intranets,
online communities, software, books and other mediums of
information, to support usability. It is an emerging
discipline and community of practice focused on bringing
together principles of design and architecture. Typically, it
involves a model or concept of information which is used
and applied to activities that require explicit details of
complex information systems.
ElementalSource, LLC

4. What does an IA do?
Adapted from Interaction Design Foundation
http://www.interaction-design.org
• Content inventory/analysis
– Performing initial analysis of existing content to identify overlap,
redundancy, gaps, differences in style, presentation, degree of detail, etc.
• Content hierarchy
– Discovering and formalizing relationships between content, not
necessarily vertical.
• Content modeling
– Developing principles for grouping content, e.g. by inherent relationships
such as by product, process, audience, etc. Also develop ways of
structuring data, including metadata, associatively.
ElementalSource, LLC

5. What does an IA do?
• Controlled vocabulary
– Developing a collection of preferred and/or authorized terms, including
synonyms. Used in metadata schema, taxonomies, content labeling, and
tagging, and well as search engine optimization (SEO).
• Taxonomy
– Developing a hierarchical index that define content relationships for the
purpose of classification. Usually based on a controlled vocabulary, and
can relate to fixed site navigation schemes.
• Metadata schema
– Developing or implementing descriptive element/value pairs used to
describe, tag, and sometimes classify, information in various forms and
formats.
ElementalSource, LLC

6. What does an IA do?
• Site/content maps
• Constructing detailed guides to the content, its metadata and
relationships, to serve as a blueprint for future content creation and
integration.
ElementalSource, LLC

7. So you wanna be an IA?
• Most IAs come from backgrounds like:
– Graphics and information design
– Human-computer interaction (HCI) design
– Library science
– Technical writing
– Usability engineering
– Computer science
• The “accidental” IA
ElementalSource, LLC

8. Me, me, me
• BA in English
• Began as a graphic layout artist 1992
• MA in Theoretical Linguistics
• Began as a tech writer 1996
• Started working with XML/structured authoring ~2002
• Started working with DITA ~2008
• Moved into IA full-time 2011
ElementalSource, LLC

9. How did I move into IA?
• It just evolved…
– Found myself swamped by too many products, too many
output formats, too much duplicate content, too-short
release cycles
– Started reading about XML and structured authoring and
realized it was the only solution for my team
– Developed custom XML and prototyped with structured
FrameMaker
– Demonstrated value and benefits to team and sold it to my
manager
ElementalSource, LLC

10. How did I move into IA?
• DITA…
– After using custom XML and structured Frame for several
years, we realized we couldn’t take it to the next level:
automated publishing
– Started coming up to speed on DITA (publicly available by
then)
– Developed another prototype and sold it to my manager
• Had to develop all stylesheets for publishing to PDF, HTML to prove
we could output our corporate brand correctly
• Had to develop storage system, metadata, naming conventions, etc.
ElementalSource, LLC

11. How did I move into IA?
• And now…
– IA responsibilities supplanted authoring responsibilities
– Never “done” because we’re always adding new writers, new
products, having to interface with other groups in company
– Content model continues to evolve
ElementalSource, LLC

12. More formally…what do I do?
• Guide the team in establishing efficient and effective processes
for the creation, production, maintenance and dynamic assembly
of documents by establishing guidelines and procedures.
• Evaluate evolving architecture needs of the team and
recommends potential solutions, including new software,
additional team training, and development of custom
applications.
– Serve as a liaison between the team and other departments within the
company to facilitate understanding of documentation processes and
capabilities.
– Work with internal/external customers to understand their business
models and goals and help define strategy.
ElementalSource, LLC

13. Ongoing responsibilities
• Keep current with industry trends and recommends strategic direction
• Create and maintain all templates, EDDs, DTDs, structured applications, and
schemas
• Regularly re-evaluate the repository structure and content for opportunities
for improvement
• Balance the needs and functions of the repository against the needs of
individual writers and projects
• Develop and/or approve high level and detailed documentation project
design
• Research, identify, and analyze issues and derives applicable solutions
• Create and maintain appropriate training materials for architecture and
structure
• Create and present classes or instructional materials as necessary for the
continued education of the team and on the concept and practice of single
sourcing and use of the repository
ElementalSource, LLC

14. Tool and technology requirements
• Extensive experience with structured authoring tools and DITA for the
development and maintenance of all necessary templates, and EDDs.
• Thorough understanding of content-management systems and DITA (Darwin
Information Typing Architecture)
• Basic understanding of the concepts of programming/scripting languages
(e.g. C, Java, Javascript)
• Thorough understanding of scripting and building output using ANT.
• Thorough understanding of markup languages (HTML, CSS, SGML, XML, XSLT,
XSL-FO).
• Thorough understanding of information design principles.
• Experience with software documentation creation, maintenance, and
publication processes.
• Familiar with leading-edge technical writing technologies and concepts.
ElementalSource, LLC

15. Tools and technologies
• FrameMaker • XMetaL • ANT
• MS Word • DITA-OT • Java
• RoboHelp • CMS • Javascript
• ePublisher • XHTML
• Flare • XML
• MS Access • XSLT
• MSExcel • XSL-FO
• oXygen • CSS
ElementalSource, LLC

16. “Soft” skill requirements
• Strong leadership and mentoring skills.
• Strong project management skills.
• Strong logic and organizational skills.
• Excellent written communication skills.
• Strong verbal communication and interpersonal skills.
• Strong time-management skills.
• Strong decision-making skills.
• Ability to prioritize and/or deal with multiple issues and/or
projects.
• Ability to solicit input from users and content authors, arbitrate
conflicting requests, and synthesize the problems into solvable
pieces.
ElementalSource, LLC

17. General skill sets
• Strategic – develop the plan (Information Architect)
• Tactical – execute the plan (Information Technologist)
• Hard – tools and technologies
• Soft – people management, change management
ElementalSource, LLC

18. Strategy vs. tactics
• A content strategy should be developed without
consideration to specific tools or technologies, as much
as possible.
• Building around a tool can limit the vision…you end up
doing what the tool can do rather than what you need
to do.
• Develop a strategy and then find a tool to support it.
• So…an IA doesn’t necessarily need to know XML or
DITA or FrameMaker or any specific tool or technology.
ElementalSource, LLC

19. Strategy vs. tactics
• Many times, strategy and implementation are the same
person’s responsibility (like me)
• But often, an IA develops the content strategy and a
different person or group implements it—Content
Technology
ElementalSource, LLC

20. IA is not DITA! DITA is not IA!
• IA/structured authoring/content management have
become somewhat synonymous with DITA
• An XML-based approach makes some things a lot easier
but is not essential
– You can develop and implement most of the principles of IA
outside of that framework
• Even when taking an XML-based approach, DITA is not
always the answer
• Just implementing DITA is also not the answer…you can
have crappy content in DITA, too
ElementalSource, LLC

21. People skills – Change management
• Content isn’t created in a vacuum—people write it and
they feel strongly about it
• Writers may be entrenched in processes that they
helped develop and feel ownership towards
• A team of writers may have been working individually
and don’t see the need for a universal standard
• With structured authoring, writers may feel their
creativity and judgment are being taken away
• You have to overcome all these things!
ElementalSource, LLC

22. Contact me
Leigh White
ElementalSource, LLC
elementalsource@gmail.com
678.467.7706
http://elementalsource.pbworks.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/leighwwhite
skype: leighw.white
ElementalSource, LLC