Content OrganizationCommunication 337

Organizational Systems

• Organizational Schemes

- defines shared characteristics of content items & influences their logical groupings

• Organizational Structures

- defines types of relationships between content items & groups

– Rosenfeld & Morville, p. 26

Organizational SchemesExact versus Ambiguous

Exact

• Divide information into mutually exclusive and easily defined categories

• Examples:

- Alphabetical

- Chronological

- Geographical

• User already knows what to look for

Alphabetic Scheme

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Chronological Scheme

Geographic Scheme

Ambiguous

• Divide information into categories that defy exact categorization

• Examples:

- Topical

- Task-Oriented

- Audience-Specific

- Hybrid

• Best for browsing and associations

Topical Scheme

Task-Oriented Scheme

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Audience-Specific Scheme

Hybrid Scheme

Organizational Structures

The primary ways users can navigate a site

Major Organizational Structures

• Hierarchy

• Database-oriented

• Hypertext

• Linear

Shallow and Broad

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Narrow and Deep

Hierarchical Scheme

Level 3

Level 2

Level 1

Database-Oriented Scheme

Hypertext Scheme

Linear Structure

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Information Architects

• Clarify the mission and vision• Determine the content and functionality• Define the organization, navigation, labeling,

and searching systems• Develop strategies for accommodating

change and growth– Rosenfeld & Morville, p. 11

Mental Models

• How a user thinks about and approaches their tasks and goals

• The goal of IA is to match the user’s mental models to the information structure

Information Architecture

Miller’s Magical Number Seven

The so-called “Rule of Five” is really based on

George Miller’s 1956 paper “The Magical

Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some

Limits on Our Capacity for Processing

Information”

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