Information Architecture for Drupal

IA for Drupal

Vanessa TurkeSolution ArchitectImageX Media

what is IA?

Information Architecture (as defined by the IA Institute)

“The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability.”

what is the value of IA?

★ The cost of finding information

★ The cost of not finding information

★ The cost of using information

★ The cost of building and managing information systems

★ The value of educating employees and customers

★ The value of creating knowledge networks

★ The value of strengthening brand

★ The value of fostering innovation

http://iainstitute.org/en/about/our_mission.php

Carolyn Chandler & Unger, Russ. Project Guide to UX Design, A: For user experience designers in the field or in the making: New Riders, the Voices That Matter series, 2009

IA components

1. Organization systems - How we categorize information

2. Labeling systems - How we represent information

3. Navigation systems - How we move through information

4. Searching systems - How we search information

Peter Morville, Louis Rosenfeld. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web O'Reilly, 2006

Carolyn Chandler & Unger, Russ. Project Guide to UX Design, A: For user experience designers in the field or in the making: New Riders, the Voices That Matter series, 2009

process overview

★ Identify the project needs

★ Conduct research

★ Create project strategy

★ Design navigation system

★ Organize, classify & label

★ Create wireframe

identify project needs

★ Type of Organization

★ Type of Website

★ Type of Audience

Carolyn Chandler & Unger, Russ. Project Guide to UX Design, A: For user experience designers in the field or in the making: New Riders, the Voices That Matter series, 2009

organization type

★ Company, Non-profit, etc.

★ Philosophy

★ Process

★ Role of website in their business plan

Carolyn Chandler & Unger, Russ. Project Guide to UX Design, A: For user experience designers in the field or in the making: New Riders, the Voices That Matter series, 2009

website type

1. Brand Presence

2. Marketing Campaign

3. Content Source

4. Task-based application

5. E-Commerce (combines 1-4)

6. E-Learning (combines 3 & 4)

7. Social Network (can combine 1,2,3 & 4)

Carolyn Chandler & Unger, Russ. Project Guide to UX Design, A: For user experience designers in the field or in the making: New Riders, the Voices That Matter series, 2009

audience

★ Customers/Clients/Members

★ Employees/Staff/Internal

★ Competitors

★ ??? (find out)

Carolyn Chandler & Unger, Russ. Project Guide to UX Design, A: For user experience designers in the field or in the making: New Riders, the Voices That Matter series, 2009

conducting research

★ Website Metrics / Analytics

★ Inventory of all site content

★ Stakeholder interviews

★ User testing

★ Environmental scan

http://www.slideshare.net/rhanna/preparing-for-successful-content-management

user profiles/personas

★Fictitious characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product.

★Personas need stories to make them complete

★Focus on storytelling, and don’t try to represent complete task analysis

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/personas-and-thehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_%28marketing%29

stories for personas

★ Springboard stories: needs and goals

★ Points of pain' stories: barriers to overcome

★ Key scenarios: context for actions

★ Narrative scenarios: what happens and why

★ Design Maps: perceptions, actions and barriers

★ Flow diagrams: actions and decisions

★ Use cases: detailed sequences of actions

http://www.wqusability.com/articles/personas_storytelling.html

story goals

1.Establish a goal and context -Why is the persona using the product now. What will make this interaction successful?

2.Describe the interaction - Stay at a high level and avoid detailed descriptions of the interface.

3.End with the result - What happens as a result of this interaction? What made it a success?

http://www.wqusability.com/articles/personas_storytelling.html

creating a project strategy

“There’s more to it than wireframes, logos, sitemaps, or stationary systems. A good brand is resultant upon aligning an organization’s values realistically and building something around this that resonates and holds value for potential customers”

smashLAB's, Eric Karjaluoto

http://www.slideshare.net/rhanna/preparing-for-successful-content-management

creating a project strategy

1. What is the business goal of the website?

2. What is the mission critical task for a user to complete?

http://www.slideshare.net/rhanna/preparing-for-successful-content-management

information architecture approaches

★ Architecture mirroring real systems

★ Need recognition

★ Self selection

★ Multi-dimensional Architecture

http://webdesignfromscratch.com/website-architecture/information-architecture.php

designing navigational systems

★What is this page about?

★What site is this?

★What are the major sections of this site?

★What major section is this page in?

★What is "up" 1 level from here?

★How do I get to the home page of this site?

★How do I get to the top of this section of the site?

★What does each group of links represent?

http://instone.org/navstress

visitors information needs

★How do I get around this site?

★What’s important and unique about this organization?

★What’s available on this site?

★What’s happening there?

★Do they want my opinion about their site?

★How can I contact a human?

★Any mission critical information for primary users

Ash, Tim. Landing Page Optimization, The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions: Sybex, Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2008

Peter Morville, Louis Rosenfeld. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web O'Reilly, 2006

assume nothing

“...Let me reassure you that way more of your website visitors just fundamentally don’t ‘get it’ than you’d ever suspect.”

Jeff Sexton, GrokDotCom

assume nothing

Not long ago, Google asked people in New York’s Times Square if they could describe what a ‘browser’ was...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ

eschew obfuscation (make navigation titles easy)

★Research industry terms

★Highlight every industry term, phrase, or concept in your site content

★Interview random people on the street about them

★Ask repeated ‘why’ questions regarding your industry terms and concepts

★Come up with answers a 10-year old would understand

http://www.grokdotcom.com/2009/08/07/im-not-an-idiot-but-i-play-one-on-online-and-so-should-you/

website navigation models

★ List of contents★ Breadcrumb trail★ Horizontal top bar★ Tabs★ 2-level top (bar or tabs)★ Top and side bars★ Buttons bar with revealed drop-down★ Multiple-level tree nav★ Paging

http://webdesignfromscratch.com/website-architecture/navigation-models.php

sitemaps

understanding ways users approach a task

★ Known-item

★ Exploratory

★ Don’t know what you need to know

★ Re-finding

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/four_modes_of_seeking_information_and_how_to_design_for_them

known item

★ Searchbox

★ A-Z indexes of terms

★ Quick links

★ Navigation

exploratory

★ Navigation

★ Related information

★ Contextual links

★ Search

don’t know what you need to know

★ Straightforward answers

★ Summaries

★ Outlines of Services

★ List of latest news, articles, blogs

★ FAQs

★ Related/contextual links in content body

re-finding

★ Wishlists (amazon.com)

★ Bookmarking

★ Quick links

★ User-based

consulting analytics

organizing analytics information

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/taking-the-guesswork-out-of-design/

create attention map to prioritize page elements

http://webdesignfromscratch.com/web-design/attention-map.phphttp://www.alistapart.com/articles/taking-the-guesswork-out-of-design/

sketching out initial layout

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/466-sketching-with-a-sharpie

organizing, classifying & labeling

★ Identify content types

★ Identify attributes & values

★ Identify relationships

★ Identify terms & vocabulary

http://www.agiledata.org/essays/dataModeling101.html

(Presentation Slide Content Type)

title

Body

Resource

content types documented

roles and permissions documented

1. User Research*

2. Site Strategy*

3. Technology Strategy

4. Content Strategy*

5. Abstract Design*

6. Technology Implementation

7. Content Production

8. Concrete Design

9. Project Management

http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000242.php

The Nine Pillars of Sucessful Web Teams

thank you!

Vanessa Turkehttp://www.imagexmedia.com/about/team/vanessa-turke

Presentation Resources:http://www.vanessaturke.net/ia-ux