Information Architecture

1
Information Architecture Design

• Syllabus Updates
• Review of IA Design from Readings
• Presentation Topic Selection
• Project Intro tentative Selection

2
Information Architecture Process

• Planning
• Analysis
• Design
• Technology Independent
• Technology Dependent
• Construction
• Verification
• Maintenance

3
IA Methodology
Planning
Analysis
Design
Verification
Construction
Maintenance
4
Design is Solving Problems

• Products that Solve Problems
• Information as Product
• Connections as Product
• Processes that Solve Problems
• Education
• Business Transformation

5
Defining IA

• Feelings for buildings and Web sites
• What works
• What is good
• How can a building and a Web site age?
• Web sites buildings can support different
  activities
• Rooms, departments, buildings
• Shopping, reading, resting
• Structuring, Organizing Linking
• Finding Managing

6
LIS to IA

• Providing Access to Information
• Making decisions about information
• Classifying
• Quality
• Media Mediums
• Graphic Design is not IA
• Costs of finding information
• LIS - ask access
• IA - search browse?

7
IA covers a lot!

• Context, Content, Users
• Interfaces
• Search Browse
• Knowledge Networks
• Information Seeking Behavior
• Search Browse
• Navigation Systems
• Graphics
• Maps Logos
• Controlled Vocabularies (labels)
• Metadata
• What isnt IA? (p 9)

8
Why IA Matters

• Costs of finding information (findability)
• Value of Education
• Communicating, Conversations
• Training
• Cost of IA Construction
• Costs of Maintenance
• Value of the Brand

9
IA Deliverables

• Paper prototypes
• Wireframes (templates)
• Blueprints (Site maps)
• Controlled vocabularies
• User scenarios (storyboards)
• Metadata schemas
• Metaphors
• Design palettes
• Content inventory

10
Need Information Architects?

• Yes, they take many disciplines update for
  todays technology users
• Yes, it is a foundation of theory that is being
  built upon
• Yes, someone has to be the focal point of
  Information Design Development
• No, we really need Solutions, no matter where
  they come from
• No, we need better tools to make IA flow from the
  process

11
User Needs Behaviors

• No singular way to learn no one way to use a
  Web resource
• Ask - search/browse - answer - done?
• Information Needs Uses are cyclical
• Iterative processes
• Compatible with other information sources
• Intergrated with other information sources
• Different types of questions
• Napoleons Birthday?
• Why is the sky blue?
• Berrypicking our way to answers

12
Internet Daily Life

• 88 use the internet daily
• Communication - email
• Web - access to information
• 64 relied on for routines
• More everyday activities
• Expectations
• Access is easy
• Entertainment
• Communicate
• Transactions
• Learn

13
Variety of Internet Activities

• Directions
• Lookups
• News
• Shopping
• Email
• Planning
• How can IA make these problems easier?
• What works now?

14
Internet Dependence?

• Most still perform similar tasks offline
• For how long?
• With different expectations costs?
• Better at some things than others?
• Location time shifting
• Volume Focusing information
• People trust information online
• People rely on services online
• IA grows in importance with dependence

15
Information Needs Habits

• People get uses to internet information
• How will that change p2p interaction?
• How does that change creativity in IA design?
• Is being efficient enough?
• Can you predict users needs well enough to
  focus?
• Are all users similar enough?
• Is there an internet gap ?
• Age
• Income
• Culture
• Broadband growth

16
How Much Information Project?

• 200 page report!
• Politics and Economics
• Increasing Volume of Information
• 1.5 B GB
• 250MB / person
• Mostly Digital Information
• Books
• Films
• Newspaper
• Web Computers (HD)
• More Aware or Just More?
• Storage Access Issues are just beginning

17
How Much Information? Cont.

• Informavores
• Information Presentation as Entertainment
• McLuhan
• Qualifications
• Duplication
• Compression
• Archives
• Geographic
• Easier to Produce than to Consume
• Continuous IA Projects

18
Information Anxiety

• The Age of Also
• Options are Golden Handcuffs
• End in Itself - researching evaluating
• Prosumption - Prosumers
• Consumers in Control
• The Age of User Groups (Teach Learn at Once)
• Society and Consumers (Precision Repetition)
• Blogs, email, reviews comments
• Information Presentation
• Medium is the Message
• Varieties of Literacy
• The Internet Changes Everything?
• Empowerment? (Value)
• Speed?

19
Warp-Speed Rules for Info Design

• Information is not enough.
• Publishing and Presenting without reason
• Organization is as important as content.
• Your market is the world.
• Markets are global personal
• Context
• Integration for Operation.
• Info is LInked Portable
• Product Integration (cars-computers-phones)
  information transfer
• Size doesnt really count.
• Almost any can play (almost anyone does, see 1)
• Its not the what, but the how.
• Commodities
• Small waves of exclusivity
• The future is already here, its just not evenly
  distributed - W. Gibson

20
Projects first thoughts

• Think about the project that might be interesting
  to you
• What makes it appealing to you
• What youd like to contribute to a Web resource
• What you might already know about the content,
  design or uses for the project
• Do you already have content?
• What would you like to focus on learning in IA1?

21
Research Topics

• Presentation Topics
• You sign up for the project and its associated
  week
• Powerpoint or some other presentation with 20
  minutes of content to talk about
• Be ready for questions
• How you will be evaluated
• Plenty of topics to choose from
• Ties get a coin flip