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Understanding Information Architecture

What do Information Architects do?:

  • Information Architecture - the practice of deciding how to arrange the parts of something to be understandable.
    • A little too broad and covers too many jobs.
    • More focused definition:
      • Information architects use the principles of information science to help organizations present their data to users, in a way that best helps them to complete their tasks.
    • This information is normally presented in data systems, websites, and apps. It is used in other fields and even on paper.
  • For example, information architects build data structures that are best suited to the people that are using them.
    • Focused on:
      • Making the information easy to find.
      • Making the data easy to read and scan.
      • Making a framework that accounts for future additions.
      • Making commands that are easy to remember and use.
    • Uses:
      • Navigation Menus
      • “Breadcrumbs”
      • Layout and Hierarchy of page types
      • Type and location of information
      • How files are organized in a file tree.
      • How help files are organized.
  • Information Architects have many different titles.
    • Often work in interaction design, user research, or content creation.
    • The role is normally fallen into.
  • Day-To-Day Work:
    • Determine the business goals of the site.
      • Ex: Awareness, Driving to a Purchase
    • Metrics
      • What is happening
    • User Research
      • Why it is happening
    • Content Analysis
      • How is the content layed out? Is it similar to the rest of the site?
    • Work with content creators and designers to build and test alternatives.
    • May also work with developers, researchers, or people from the business and marketing areas.
    • Ensuring that the customer's experience is as simple and easy as possible.
    • Strategic work:
      • Communication Standards
      • Designing Data Structures
      • Must be able to have the top down and bottom up picture in their minds.
      • Need to have a strong knowledge of the organizational structure.

Where Does IA Fit in an Organization?:

  • IA always work with multiple teams:
    • Developers
    • Marketing/Communications Teams
    • Designers
    • User Researchers
    • Quantitative Analysts
  • Need to understand the data and how it is stored.
  • Knowledgeable about the lingo used by the different teams.
  • Understand the business and the brand goals.
  • Information layout also affects the brand:
    • Tone of voice
    • Terminology
    • How formal or informal phrasing should be.
  • Communicate the changes made to the plan to the different teams.
  • Communicate changes to the website’s content and layout to the customers or client.
  • Collect user-feedback and distribute it.
  • IA’s normally take guidance from the project managers in which they work with.
    • The central manager would be responsible for HR and career development.
    • Becomes difficult to make all of the project managers happy.

Tools and Terminology:

  • Card Sort - used to get an understanding of how users group content on a site.
    • Output:
      • Dendrograms and Cluster Analysis: Visual outputs of the card sort analysis.
  • Tree Test - Participants are asked to place each card where they expect it to sit in the hierarchy.
  • Multiple things are created to ensure that the architecture elements work:
    • User task flows and scenarios
    • Story Boards based on user personas
    • Interface mock-ups
    • Prototypes of the final interface
  • Waypoints, signposts, and placemaking
    • Elements of interface design that help users work out where they are and where they need to go next.
      • Ex: Breadcrumbs, Navigation Menus, Mega menus, the footer area, the site map, and any recommendation engine or related item type content.
  • Note that information architecture is different from the navigation architecture.
  • Content providers follow the content strategie’s rules and policies to create.
    • The rules are in the publishing system that sits underneath the site or the product.

Software and Real-World Tools:

  • Does exist outside of software:
    • Index Cards, Sticky Notes, White Board Diagrams, and interface sketches.
    • Does provide a different level of information due to the interactivity.
    • Still run face-to-face sessions, usability tests, and surveys.
  • Still need spreadsheets, word processors, video conferencing, and screen sharing capabilities.
  • Web-based tools for research
    • Types: Card Sorts and Reverse Sorts (Tree testing)
    • Examples: Optimalworkshop, Provenbyusers, Websort, and Userzoom
  • Software Tools for Card Sorting:
    • xSort for Mac, UXSort for Windows.
  • Need access to analytics: web metrics, search query history, and tools that visualize common and uncommon paths throughout the website.
    • Normally in place by the company.

Recruiting Information Architects:

  • Normally do not have an academic qualification related to their work (No real major in university).
  • Normally found in the graduate degree programs under different names.
    • Interaction design, information architecture, information science, and knowledge management.
  • May be good to look for user experience and interactive design degrees.
  • IA should demonstrate structured thinking, organizational skills, and the ability to carry concepts from a strategic perspective through a detailed view. They should also have good communication skills.
  • Some skills:
    • Quantitative and Qualitative data analysis.
    • Experience with card sorting software.
    • Should be able to talk about the financial impact of their role.

Managing Information Architects:

  • Goals can be set around specific work items.
  • Goals can also be made that specify the IA’s impact on a project.
  • Goals to conduct broad or open-ended research.
  • Can set specific milestones and deliverables.
  • It is important to coach and teach IA’s new skills by providing multiple opportunities.
    • Conference attendance can be incredibly helpful.
  • Work can be tracked by measuring efficiency, bounce rate, reduction of pages people visit in error, and user satisfaction.

Where is IA Heading?:

  • Making applications and websites more interactive and increasing activation.
  • Maintain the connection between the different channels of information: phone, laptop, etc.
  • How do we organize information and user experience on new types of technology?