5. Some questions that you
probably can’t answer
• Who are your content’s primary audiences?
• What are the five major tasks and needs
each has?
• Are you satisfying those tasks and needs?
• What data support your thinking?
• How do you measure success?
8. Why can’t we get
findability right?
• We don’t know how to diagnose
9. Why can’t we get
findability right?
• We don’t know how to diagnose
• We don’t know how to measure
10. Why can’t we get
findability right?
• We don’t know how to diagnose
• We don’t know how to measure
• Siloed organizations
11. Why can’t we get
findability right?
• We don’t know how to diagnose
• We don’t know how to measure
• Siloed organizations
• Ill-equipped decision-makers
12. Why can’t we get
findability right?
• We don’t know how to diagnose
• We don’t know how to measure
• Siloed organizations
• Ill-equipped decision-makers
• Short-term thinking
13. Why can’t we get
findability right?
• We don’t know how to diagnose
• We don’t know how to measure
• Siloed organizations
• Ill-equipped decision-makers
• Short-term thinking
• Semantic illiteracy
17. Information architecture:
8 better practices for findability
1. Diagnosing the important problems
2. Balancing our evidence
3. Advocating for the long term
4. Measuring engagement
5. Supporting contextual navigation
6. Improving search across silos
7. Combining design approaches effectively
8. Tuning our designs over time
19. A handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/
A little goes a long way
documents meet the needs of your most important audiences
20. A handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/
A little goes a long way
documents meet the needs of your most important audiences
Not all queries
are distributed
equally
21. A handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/
A little goes a long way
documents meet the needs of your most important audiences
22. A handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/
A little goes a long way
documents meet the needs of your most important audiences
Nor do they
diminish gradually
23. A handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/
A little goes a long way
documents meet the needs of your most important audiences
24. A handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/
A little goes a long way
documents meet the needs of your most important audiences
80/20 rule isn’t
quite accurate
45. Balanced research
leads to true insight,
new opportunities
from Christian Rohrer: http://is.gd/95HSQ2
46. Lou’s TABLE OF
OVERGENERALIZED Web Analytics User Experience
DICHOTOMIES
Users' intentions and
What they Users' behaviors (what's
motives (why those things
analyze happening)
happen)
Qualitative methods for
What methods Quantitative methods to
explaining why things
they employ determine what's happening
happen
Helps users achieve goals
What they're Helps the organization meet
(expressed as tasks or
trying to achieve goals (expressed as KPI) topics of interest)
Uncover patterns and
How they use Measure performance (goal-
surprises (emergent
data driven analysis)
analysis)
Statistical data ("real" data Descriptive data (in small
What kind of data
in large volumes, full of volumes, generated in lab
they use errors) environment, full of errors)
56. The missing metrics
of in-betweenness
• Orientation (“What can I do here?”)
• Engagement (“I like this; do you?”)
• Connection/cross-promotion (“What goes
with this?”)
• Authority (“I trust this”)
• and many more...
59. Contextual navigation:
your site’s desire lines
Determine
through content
modeling, site
search analytics
60. Contextual navigation:
your site’s desire lines
Determine
through content
modeling, site
search analytics
Deep navigation requires
content modeling:
a better approach to
deep IA and content structuring
61. Important content objects emerge
concert calendar
from content modeling (example: BBC)
album pages artist descriptions
TV listings
album reviews discography artist bios
62. Important content objects emerge
concert calendar
from content modeling (example: BBC)
album pages artist descriptions
TV listings
Content that
matters most
album reviews discography artist bios
69. ...by contextualizing “advanced”
features, focusing on revision
search session patterns
1. solar energy
2. how solar energy works
search session patterns
1. solar energy
2. energy
70. ...by contextualizing “advanced”
features, focusing on revisionsearch session patterns
search session patterns 1. solar energy
1. solar energy 2. solar energy charts
2. how solar energy works
search session patterns
1. solar energy
2. energy
71. ...by contextualizing “advanced”
features, focusing on revision search session patterns
search session patterns 1. solar energy
1. solar energy 2. solar energy charts
2. how solar energy works
search session patterns
search session patterns 1. solar energy
1. solar energy 2. explain solar energy
2. energy
72. ...by contextualizing “advanced”
features, focusing on revision search session patterns
search session patterns 1. solar energy
1. solar energy 2. solar energy charts
2. how solar energy works
search session patterns
search session patterns 1. solar energy
1. solar energy 2. explain solar energy
2. energy
search session patterns
1. solar energy
2. solar energy news
87. Treat your content
Each layer is
cumulative;
most important
like an onion content is at
the core
information
layer usability content strategy
architecture
indexed by search
0 engine
leave it alone leave it alone
squeaky wheel issues
1 tagged by users
addressed
refresh annually
tagged by experts (non- test with a service
2 topical tags) (e.g., UserTesting.com)
refresh monthly
tagged by experts “traditional” lab-based titled according to
3 (topical tags) user testing guidelines
content models for structured according
4 contextual navigation
A/B testing
to schema
99. Summary:
8 IA better practices
1. Diagnosing the important problems
2. Balancing our evidence
3. Advocating for the long term
4. Measuring engagement
5. Supporting contextual navigation
6. Improving search across silos
7. Combining design approaches effectively
8. Tuning our designs over time
100. Summary:
8 IA better practices
1. Diagnosing the important problems
2. Balancing our evidence
3. Advocating for the long term
4. Measuring engagement
5. Supporting contextual navigation
6. Improving search across silos
7. Combining design approaches effectively
8. Tuning our designs over time
Let’s stop boiling the ocean
101. Say hello
Lou Rosenfeld
lou@louisrosenfeld.com
Rosenfeld Media
www.louisrosenfeld.com | @louisrosenfeld
www.rosenfeldmedia.com | @rosenfeldmedia