1. A b c
Instant Information Architecture
November 2011
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Outline
— What is Information Architecture
— Categories and Classification
— Visualizing Structure
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What is Information Architecture
Information is
— a difference that makes a difference
— a pattern that provides a structure for understanding
Information Architecture is
— discovering the kinds of information the site contains
— matching this information to the needs of the users
— determining the appropriate metadata structure
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The role of visualization / mapping
— Visualization follows analysis
— Visualization unites the members of the team
— Visualization comes before wireframes
— Visualization comes before design
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Gregory Bateson (1904-1980)
British anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist,
semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other
fields
Major Books
Steps To An Ecology of the Mind, 1972
Vers une Ecologie de l'Esprit
Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity, 1979
Une unité sacrée
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Information and Mind
The mind operates with hierarchies and networks to create gestalten.
Hierarchies are nested containers
Networks are links connecting discrete nodes
Information architecture is
the re/shaping of information into hierarchies and networks
we search for and visualize the patterns that connect
The pattern that connects is the pathways for accessing differences
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The Information Architect must understand
user research
— personas and user scenarios
— user-based design methodology
the data
— text coding systems: SGML/XML
— database storage & information retrieval
interaction models
— principals of user interface design
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The Information Architect must mediate
— the requirements of a client, who wants to present
information
— the needs of the user, who needs to find and consume that
information
— balance between the desirable and the possible
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Category and Classification
Categorization is
— the mental process of grouping things by perceptible
similarity within a given context.
— Creating groups through direct experience (bottom-up)
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— Categorization of
music
— Categories of music are
an expression of
listener’s perception
and as communities
emerge (bottom-up)
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Category and Classification
— Categorization is
the mental process of grouping things
by perceptible similarity
within a given context.
— Classification is
a set of classes
assigned according to a predetermined set of principles
used to impose order on a set of entities.
— Taxonomic classification establishes stability by applying
a set of rules to one domain (top-down)
— Classification system offer inter-operability benefits across applications
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— Classification of
biology
— Each living organism is
classified in the Tree of
Life taxonomy
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— MESH Classification of human diseases
— Each disease is located in one or more places in the
Medical Subject Headings (MESH) maintained by
the National Library of Medicine in Washington DC
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UNSPSC
— The United Nations Standard Products and Services Code is a hierarchical
convention that is used to classify all products and services.
—
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Examples of “categories” that are classifications
High-level category Continuous category/scale
Three Categories of Drugs Categories of Hurricanes:
• Depressants Category 1: 74-95 mph winds
• Stimulants Category 2: 96-110 mph winds
• Hallucinogens Category 3: 111-130 mph
winds
Category 4: 131-155 mph
winds
Category 5: 155+ mph winds
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Category vs. Classification
— 3 Categories of hair color — Classification of hair color
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LATCH (+):
Five ways to organize information for ease of use (+ One)
Location
Alphabet
Time
Category
Hierarchy
From Richard Saul Wurman, INFORMATION ANXIETY 2
plus Common Focus
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Location
“Location is chosen when the information who you are comparing
comes from several different sources or locales. Doctors use different
locations of the body to group and study medicine. Concerning an
industry you might want to know where on the world goods are
distributed.” WSW
— Location is the X/Y position in the context of a representation
— In the most abstract sense, the X and Y positioning of any object on a
plane is a purely visual distinction
— Location can be used to organize information a geographical region
(states, countries)
— Location can be used in relation to an object (such as the body)
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Alphabet
— “Alphabet is best used when you have enormous amount of data. For
example words in a dictionary or names in a telephone. As usually
everybody is familiar with the Alphabet, categorizing by Alphabet is
recommendable when not all the audience is familiar with different
kind of groupings or categories you could use instead.” WSW
— Reference to the order sequence of the letters in an alphabet
— Common 26 letter European alphabet
— Alphabetic order varies according to language
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Time
“Time is the best form of categorization for events that happen over
fixed durations. Meeting schedules or our calendar are examples. The
work of important persons might be displayed as timeline as well. Time
is an easily framework in which changes can be observed and
comparisons made.” WSW
— Absolute reference to actual event in time
— Sequence of events in linear time, hours, days, months, years, decades,
centuries
— Potential for cycle as well as sequence
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Horizontal: time
Vertical: categories
Result: co-existence of Categories in Time
32.
33.
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Category
— “Category is an organization type often used for goods and industries.
Shops and services in the yellow pages are easy to find by category.
Retail stores are divided into e.g. men- and woman-clothing. This
mode works well to organizing items of similar importance.” Wurman
— Categories are determined by similar content
— Each category is at the same level (“similar importance”)
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Hierarchy
“Hierarchy organizes by magnitude. From small to large, least
expensive to most expensive, by order of importance, etc. Hierarchy is
to be used if you want to assign weight or value to the ordered
information.” WSW
— Organized by sequence of importance
— Recursive sequence of whole to part, largest to smallest
— Organizing in nested containers:
1st thing contains 2nd thing leads to 3rd thing
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Great Chain of Being
— God & angels
— Mankind
— Creatures of the Air
— Creatures of the Sea
— Creatures of the Land
— Plants
— Satin & the Damned
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A Sixth Method: Common Focus
— Organizing information based on user interaction
— Currently viewed
— Most discussed
— Most popular
— People who bought this item also bought…
— Based on what you looked at before…
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Visualizing structures
The role of visualization / mapping
— Visualization follows analysis
— Visualization unites the members of the team
— Visualization comes before wireframes
— Visualization comes before design
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What is a map?
— « La Carte est un secours que l'on fournit par les yeux à
l'imagination. »
(The map is a help provided to the imagination through the eyes.)
Henri Abraham Châtelain, Atlas historique, 1705
— “The map is not the territory.”
Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity, 1933
— “Information is a difference that makes a difference.”
Gregory Bateson
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— Sequentielle : organiser les éléments selon une séquence temporelle.
Corporate intranet management process for Schlumberger
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Assignment: Diagram a “typical” Gmail user session
— Create 6 groups of 4 students
— Select a version of the Gmail UI on any web browser and mobile device
— Each group will create one persona and user scenario
— Example persona/scenario:
1) Web Browser: Jean-Francois looks to see if Svetlana is on Gmail, calls her
using video chat, invites her to see a film and sends her a link to the a movie
trailer.
2) Iphone Gmail: Nicolas reads his email on the bus, archives the unwanted
messages, reads a message from Danielle, replies with a photograph.
3) Web Browser: James wants to sort his email. He searches for all messages
from or about ENSAD, chooses messages, creates and assigns a new label.
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Assignment: Diagram a “typical” Gmail user session
— Create a diagram or series of diagrams that represent the interactions
between the persona and the software application.
— Your diagram must show how the persona accomplishes this series of tasks.
— Your diagrams should communicate
• User input
• Types of user interaction:
• checkbox, click, drag, type, etc.
• Types of application response:
• user feedback, change in screen content, highlighting, etc.