Transcript IBE312 Information Architecture

IBE312
Information Architecture
Ch. 5 Organization Systems
Ch. 6 Labeling Systems
2013
Ch 5
Organization of Information
• Probably as old as writing itself
• Many different approaches:
– Library and Information Science: thesauri, indexing,
etc.
– Computer Science: knowledge representations
– Cognitive Science: how do humans grasp concepts?
– Philosophy: epistemology (“the nature of knowledge”)
–…
Organization Systems challenges
• Challenges of organizing information
– Information growth
– Ambiguity
– Heterogeneity – unlike parts, levels of granulatiry.
E.g. a website can present whole articles or other
records of information from a database. Multiformats: text, sound clips, images, etc.
– Difference in perspective- intended audience
– Internal politics – influence labeling and org. sys.
Information
Growth
Ambiguity – language can be
interpreted in many ways
• The word pitch. When I say pitch, what do you
hear? There are more than 15 definitions,
including:
– A throw, fling, or toss
– A black, sticky substance used for waterproofing
– The rising and falling of the bow and stern of a ship in
a rough sea
– A salesman’s persuasive line of talk
– An element of sound determined by the frequency of
vibration
Organizing Web Sites and Intranets
• Organization systems consist of organization
schemes and structures.
• Organization is strongly connected to
navigation, labeling and indexing.
• Even so, working with organization separately
is useful, (possibly) making a fundament for
navigation and labeling.
“Exact” Organization Schemes
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Alphabetical
Chronological
Geographical
Organizational (for Intranets)
Any inherent attribute of entities
“Inexact” (Ambiguous) Organization
Schemes
• Ambiguous organization supports serendipitous
mode of information seeking by grouping items in
intellectually meaningful ways.
• Much harder, but useful – we don’t always know
the label, related items are grouped together….
– by Topic, Task (e.g. task and topic co-exist on ebay’s
website), or Audience (e.g. Dell invites users to selfidentify)
– Metaphors (desktop, folders, files, trash can, are
these)
– Hybrids are common, but troublesome…
Hybrid scheme
when you start blending elements of multiple schemes, confusion often
follows, and solutions are rarely scalable
The exception to these cautions against hybrid schemes exists within the surface
layer of navigation.
Organization structures
• The stucture defines the primary way users can
navigate.
• Hierarchy – top-down approach (taxonomy)
– Tradeoffs – «narrow and deep» or «broad and shallow»
• Database – bottom-up approach
– Really the use of metadata, enabling (powerful) searching
and browsing.
– Rolodex – each card is a record (p.73); limited to searching
for each card by last name.
– Metadata is the primary key that links information
architecture to the design of database schema.
– By tagging documents and other information objects with
controlled vocabulary metadata, we enable powerful
searching, browsing, filtering, and dynamic linking.
• Hypertext – not useful as a primary structure
Database model
• Information architects need
to understand how
metadata, controlled
vocabularies, and database
structures can be used to
enable:
– Automatic generation of
alphabetical indexes (e.g.,
product index)
– Dynamic presentation of
associative “see also” links
– Fielded searching
– Advanced filtering and
sorting of search results
The database model is useful
when applied within relatively
homogeneous subsites such as
product catalogs and staff
directories.
However, enterprise controlled
vocabularies can often provide
a thin horizontal layer of
structure across the full
breadth of a site.
Deeper vertical vocabularies
can then be created for
particular departments,
subjects, or audiences. (p.75)
Hierarchical Organization
• Systems of organization are mostly hierarchical
– Represents a specific mode of thinking: reductionistic,
decompositional, general-to-specific
• Why?
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“Natural order”
Convention and familiarity
Physical limitations
Cognitive limitations
• Hierarchies are everywhere:
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Human organizations
Computer file systems
Physical file systems
Biological organisms
Designing taxonomies
When designing taxonomies on the
Web, you should remember.. be
aware of, but not bound by, the idea
that hierarchical categories should
be mutually exclusive. Within a
single organization scheme, you will
need to balance the tension
between exclusivity and inclusivity.
E.g. tomatoes – fruit or berry? List as
both…but not too many exceptions.
Depth vs. Breadth
“shallow but wide”
What are the tradeoffs?
“narrow but deep”
• If a hierarchy is too broad and shallow, users are
faced with too many options on the main menu
and are unpleasantly surprised by the lack of
content once they select an option.
• If a hierarchy is too narrow and deep, users have
to click through an inordinate number of levels
to find what they are looking for.
User Testing Needed
Non-Hierarchical Systems
• Hypertext
– Direct links between different information
segments
– Pre-dates the Web
• Social tagging
– “Wisdom of the mob”
– Shows what everyone else likes
– Web 2.0 (hype?)
Hypertext
Links have
personal associations.
They do not have same
meaning to everyone.
Not a primary
organization
structure.
Balmoral
Charles
Elizabeth
Diana
Elizabeth
Tony
Philip
Social Tagging
del.icio.us
flickr
YouTube
del.icio.us
Top-down vs bottom-up structures
Free tagging, also known as collaborative categorization,
mob indexing, and ethnoclassification, is a simple yet
powerful tool. Users tag objects with one or more
keywords. The tags are public and serve as pivots for
social navigation. (p.77)
Folksonomy – user defined tags to organize information.
(bottom up classification)
• Doesn’t a hierarchical organization system defeat the
entire point of hypertext?
• Doesn’t social tagging eliminate the need for
organization systems?
on Tagging…
• in a debate with Lou Rosenfeld, Clay Shirky argued: “The
advantage of folksonomies isn’t that they’re better than
controlled vocabularies, it’s that they’re better than nothing,
because controlled vocabularies are not extensible to the
majority of cases where tagging is needed...This is something
the ‘well-designed metadata’ crowd has never
understood...the cost of tagging large systems rigorously is
crippling, so fantasies of using controlled metadata in
environments like Flickr are really fantasies of users suddenly
deciding to become disciples of information architecture.Ӡ
(p.79)
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† From the blog posting “folksonomies + controlled vocabularies”
(http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2005/01/07/folksonomies_controlled_vocabularies
.php).
Tagging is demonstrated in flickr and del.icio.us
Organizational Structures
Top-level, umbrella structure, likely to be
hierarchical
Less-structured content - users contribute to
organization and access content through..
• Bookmarks
• Arrangement of tabs and windows
• Social tagging
• Personal homepage
• Blogs
Labeling Systems
Ch 6
• Labeling is a form of representation.
• Some (random) problems with labels:
– They aren’t representative and don’t differentiate
– They aren’t user-centric
– They waste money
– They don’t give a good impression
• Labels do matter!
Labeling System
• Direct manifestations of possible user actions
• Mutually constrained by:
– Organization system
– Navigation system
– Page layout and design
• Warning: poor labels can ruin a good
organization and navigation system!
Language of Labels
• Different types of phrases:
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Nouns (“Flight reservations”)
Verb phrases (“Book a flight”)
Gerunds (“Giving to Maryland”)
Prepositional phrases (“For applicants”)
Questions (“How do I sign up?”)
Idiomatic (“What’s new?”, “Guestbook”, “Shopping
cart”)
– Icons
• Natural affinity between label types and
organization systems
Varieties of Labels
• Labels as
– Contextual links – very easily misused (click here)
– Headings – often depending on hierarchy
– Navigation system choices – should adhere to
some“standards”
– Index terms
• Iconic labels – any good?
Labels as Contextual Links
Labels as Headings
Labels within Navigation Systems
Labels as Index Terms
Iconic Labels
Designing Labels
• Narrow scope whenever possible
• Develop consistent labeling systems, not
labels. Consistency is affected by:
– Style
– Presentation
– Syntax
– Granularity
– Comprehensiveness
– Audience
Source of Labeling Systems
• Your own site – use the existing labels as a
starting point
• Comparable and competitive sites
• Controlled vocabularies and thesauri
Creating New Labeling Systems
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Content analysis
Content authors
Advanced users and subject matter experts
Users (Open or closed card sort is very
common.)