Transcript Organizational Structures Hierarchy

Exact Schemes
Divides information into mutually
exclusive groups
Category
Time
Location
Alphabet
Continuum
Category
Pertains to organization of good or services
Retail site often used this scheme
Different models, types, or questions
Enforced by color
Time
Organize events which happened over fixed
duration
Calendar
Timeline
Location
Categorize and compare information which
comes from different locales or sources
Multinational sites
Medical sites
Alphabet
Dictionaries
Phone books
yahoo.com
When all else fails
Continuum
Organizes items by magnitude from small to
large
Least expensive to most expensive
Ranking of preference
Order of importants
Ambiguous Schemes
Divide information into categories which
defy exact definition
Difficult to design and maintain
Difficult to use
Ambiguous Schemes
Mired in language ambiguity
Example: hit
To strike
To touch
Reach one’s goals
A success (top 40’s)
Baseball
Ambiguous Schemes
More useful
More powerful
Allows for concept of “fuzzy”
Ambiguous Schemes
Topical
Task-oriented
Audience specific
Metaphor driven
Hybrid schemes
Topical
Organizational method orders items by
subject
Library of Congress
Table of Contents
Academic course listings
Task-oriented
Organizational scheme into collection of:
Functions
Services
Tasks
Audience specific
Useful when there are two or more
audience types
Bank has links for:
Individuals
Small Business
Corporations
Metaphor driven
Use a metaphor to organize content
Inherents advantages/problems of
metaphors
Hybrid schemes
Combine multiple organizational schemes
Need clear separations or usability will
suffer
Organizational Structures
Defines relationships among groups
created by organizational scheme
Crucial to design
Important in web site design
Organizational Structures
Hierarchy
Database oriented
Hypertext
Form basis for web site navigation
Organizational Structures
Hierarchy
Structure according to rank or level
Examples:
Family tree
Corporate structure
Books
Organizational Structures
Hierarchy
Advantages:
Familiar
Successively refined detail
Disadvantages:
True hierarchy requires backtracking
Organizational Structures
Hierarchy
Organizational Structures
Database
Relational Database
Bottom-up approach
Searchable
Data-modeling can be time consuming
Organizational Structures
Database
Organizational Structures
Hypertext
Non-linear way of structuring information
Connected hierarchically, nonhierarchically or both.
Flexible
Can be very confusing
Where am I
Controlled Vocabulary
Web sites are collections of
interconnected systems with complex
dependencies
Meta-Data: data about data
Describes an organization across multiple
terms
Controlled Vocabulary
Controlled Vocabulary: predetermined
vocabulary of preferred terms that
describes a particular domain
Simplest: list of equivalent terms
Complex: Thesaurus
Controlled Vocabulary
Synonym Ring
Connected set of words which are defined
as equivalent for purposes of retrieval
Authority File
List of preferred terms
Acceptable values
Example:
Postal codes
Common misspellings
Classification Schemes
Hierarchical arrangements of preferred
terms
Also called a taxonomy
Thesaurus
Book of:
Synonyms
Variant terms
Related terms
Opposite terms
Controlled Vocabulary
Thesaurus Terms
Controlled Vocabulary
Thesaurus Example
Card Sorting
Method of created a controlled vocabulary
Creates sets of objects and verbs
Quick and cheap
Draws out users organize topics
Card Sorting
Differing types:
Open/Closes
Phrasing
Granularity
Heterogeneity
Cross-listing
Visual Organization
Proximity
Alignment
Contrast
Consistency
Visual Organization
Appearance Matters
Enforces content organization
Aids navigation
Influenced by human perception
Related to Page Design
Proximity
Items close together are perceived as
related
Group related items together
Separate unrelated items
Alignment
Takes advantage of continuity to make
objects appeared grouped
Virtual lines
Text alignment
Contrast
Draws attention to items on page
Page with little contrast if hard to read
Consistency
High degree of uniformity in layout
Consistency directly related to usability
Consistent site are much easier to
navigate
Consistency
Page Layout
Page Design
Related to visual organization
Provides balance between content
organization and visual layout
Increases usability
Page Scanning
Page Size
Page Size
Top Of Page
Wireframe
Blueprint for site page
Describes content and information
architecture
Created for site’s most important pages
Not replacement for real visual design
Wireframe
Wireframe (LowFi)
Wireframe (Med. Fi)
Wireframe (Hi Fi)
Page Layout
Page Layout