Information Architecture:Putting the I back in IT

April 26, 2007

Louis Rosenfeldwww.louisrosenfeld.com

My perspective

Independent information architecture consultant

Work with Fortune 500s and government agencies

Background in library and information science

Co-author, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (O’Reilly & Associates; 3rd edition, 2006)

What I’m going to cover

1.IT managers are excluded from corporate strategy

2.Information architects can help get IT managers a seat at the table (and how)

3.Information architecture briefly introduced

4.Examples of concrete benefits from information architecture

5.Can we be friends?

Everyone wants a seat at the strategy table

http://www.tsawwasseninn.com/images/boardroom%201_640.jpg

Why there’s no seat for IT managers

“Keep those lights on!” Growing pressures to commoditize IT

services Difficult to break out of reaction mode

Getting beyond commodities Business side doesn't understand

technology and its possibilities Lack of common language quashes

dialogue

Result: IT cut out of strategic decision-making

IT organizations out of balance

http://www.magnumad.com/adm/photo/425_web-ERE-seesaw-PAR116898.jpg

What’s out of whack?

Structured data versus semi-structured content

Centralization versus autonomy Traditional, formal approaches

versus emergent, informal approaches

Build it versus buy itCustomers versus business

How exactly does one commoditize IT when facing these issues?Imbalances (as previously noted)Tidal wave of unstructured

informationDeriving actual value from enterprise

applicationsGlobalization, localization, and

internationalization Content resident in user-hostile

enterprise silos

So we’re all drowning. As usual.

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/images/drowning.jpg

Do you agree?

“If you understand how the web site should be organized to serve your customers, then you know how the company should be organized.”--Anonymous information architect, IBM

Key phrases: serve customers, company organized

Should IT managers be involved in organizing the company?If “information is strategic,” then of

course! Information should be organized around

needs of customers/users IT provides the infrastructure for creating

and managing information Business side not always able to understand

implications of information systems

How can IT not be involved?How is this not strategic work?

“Information people” are the

tail that wags the dog

Not just IT managers, but……Information

architects…Knowledge

managers…Content specialists…User experience

designers…Marketers…Product managers…Etc…

http://whatisee.org/mt/archives/images/dogtail.jpg

Why IT managers need information architects

Information architects are the people who organize, structure, and label information

Our goal: help users find what they want

We worry a lot about these things Taxonomies, metadata, labeling Search systems performance Navigation and orientation Content lifecycle Users, users, users

Other flavors of IA: John Zachman

Zachman Framework• Enterprise architecture• Broader take on IA• “Polar bear IA” fortifies “human interface architecture” and “presentation architecture” cells

Other flavors of IA: Richard Saul Wurman

Wurman (Information Anxiety)

• Physical architecture background• Make information understandable• Pre-web context, but principles are extended to multi-dimensional information systems

Information architects help by rebalancing information systemsStructured versus semi-structured: IAs are

strong in the latter (where IT is often weak)Centralization versus autonomy: IAs develop

balanced workflows and processesTraditional, formal versus emergent,

informal: IAs integrate these as part of broader ecology

Build it versus buy it: IAs are technology agnostics who help develop functional specs that go beyond technical requirements

Customers versus business: IAs shore up knowledge of the former, and are neutral balancers between competing needs

Why are information architects good balancers?We see the world through three

perspectives

Information architects aren’t just high-paid librariansUser-oriented source disciplines

Human Computer Interaction Anthropology Marketing Sociology

Content-oriented source disciplines Librarianship Technical communication Graphic design Journalism Computer science

Context-oriented source disciplines Management Systems engineering Organizational psychology

Information architects are serious about methodologyUser-oriented research methods

Usability testing Contextual inquiry Card sorting Persona and scenario development

Content-oriented research methods Content inventory and analysis Content modeling Metadata development Server and search analytics

Context-oriented research methods Stakeholder interviews Project planning Specifications development

How do we use our methods? To prioritizeCan you confidently answer

these two questions?1. What are your site’s major

audiences?2. What are each audience’s Big

Questions (and how well are you addressing them)?

Major audiences:Who are they?

Secondary goal? (You may already know who they are)

Political challenges of audience definition Problem: defining audience by silo leads

to stakeholder infighting Goal: err toward apolitical segmenting

that cuts across silos; examples: Job functions (admin, clerical, research, mgmt) Demographics

Big questions:What are they?

Major tasks users want to accomplish or topics they want to know about

Examples: “Where do I reconfigure my health

benefits?” “Where can I find our past sales

proposals?” “How do I file an expense report?”

Big questions:How do you determine them? 1/2Active methods: ask people who

would know Webmasters and the hate mail they

get Switchboard operators and their FAQs SMEs and the people who bother

them Who else?

Avoid: focus groups

Big questions:How do you determine them? 2/2Passive methods: look at data

derived from users’ behavior (you already have it!)

Switchboard logs Server logs (Web Analytics) Search logs (Search Analytics) Information center logs Where else?

Grouping log data can help you (re)define audience segments

A closer look at methods:Search analytics

Sorting queries by frequency results in a Zipf Distribution

Can we improve performance for the most popular queries?

Anatomy of a search log(from Google Search Appliance)Critical elements in bold: IP address, time/date stamp,

query, and # of results:

XXX.XXX.X.104 - - [10/Jul/2006:10:25:46 -0800] "GET /search?access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1&site=AllSites&ie=UTF-8&client=www&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=www&q=lincense+plate&ip=XXX.XXX.X.104 HTTP/1.1" 200 971 0 0.02

XXX.XXX.X.104 - - [10/Jul/2006:10:25:48 -0800] "GET /search?access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ie=UTF-8&client=www&q=license+plate&ud=1&site=AllSites&spell=1&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=www&ip=XXX.XXX.X.104 HTTP/1.1" 200 8283 146 0.16

XXX.XXX.XX.130 - - [10/Jul/2006:10:24:38 -0800] "GET /search?access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1&site=AllSites&ie=UTF-8&client=www&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=www&q=regional+transportation+governance+commission&ip=XXX.XXX.X.130 HTTP/1.1" 200 9718 62 0.17

Full legend and more examples here:http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/searchanalytics/blog/log_sample_google_appliance/

What users want and when:Sort and cluster those queries

Diagnostics from search analytics: What can you fix or improve?User researchInterface design: search entry

interface, search resultsRetrieval algorithm modificationNavigation designMetadata developmentContent development

Best bet search results: Big answers for big questionsManually-assigned recommended

links Ensure useful results for top search

queries Useful resources for each popular

query are manually determined (guided by documented logic)

Useful resources manually linked to popular queries; automatically displayed in result page

Best bets example: BBC’s “best links”

BBC’s logic• IF query is a country name • THEN is there a country profile?• THEN is there a language service?

Best bets also improve navigation

Michigan State University automatically generates a comprehensive A-Z site index from best bet keywords

Guides:Even bigger answers to big questions Guides are single pages that contain

A selective set (5-10) of important links related to a Big Question

Narrative text that explains the topic and what’s available to help with that topic

Generally linked from the main page, but also used in more specific contexts Subsite main pages Search results

Guides:Vanguard example 1/2

Guides:Vanguard example 2/2

Guides:IBM example

Guides:Painless and efficientLow impact on IT (single HTML page)Cut across departmental silosGap fillers; complement

comprehensive methods of navigation and search

Can be timely (e.g., news-oriented guides, seasonal guides)

Minimize political headaches by creating new real estate

Can grow into fuller subsites

Contextual navigation:Focusing on where users are

Contextual navigation supports users deep in site Where am I? Where can I go from here?

Mandated by Web 2.0 worldTop layers of information systems are

increasingly bypassed Search engines Syndication (RSS, Atom) Banner advertising

Deep content becomes starting point

Contextual navigation is powered by content models

“Data modeling for semi-structured content”

Content modeling process helps narrow down both content and metadata choices

Content models consist of1. Content objects2. Links between objects 3. Metadata

Use sparingly to support high-value contextual navigation

Content models:Hewlett-Packard example

HP’s content model for products includes overview, supplies, support, drivers…

Content model is exposed as part of search results to enhance navigation

Content models: BBC example

artist descriptions

album reviews

album pages

artist biosdiscography

concert calendar

TV listings

Content modeling use metadata to connect content objects

Content Objects…

…link to other Content Objects…

…by leveraging common Metadata Attributes

album page album review, discography, artist

Album Name, Artist Name, Label, Release Date…

album review

album page Album Name, Artist Name, Review Author, Source, Pub Date…

discography album review, artist description Artist Name, Album Name, Release Date…

artist description

artist bio, discography, concert calendar, TV listing

Artist Name, Desc Author, Desc Date…

artist bio artist description Artist Name, Individual Artist Name…

concert calendar

artist description Artist Name, Tour, Venue, Date, Time…

TV listing artist description Artist Name, Channel, Date, Time…

Small steps start to add up

Make that search engine earn its keep• Institute best bets, spell checking,

guides, etc.• Can improve user experience

performance by 20%-30% (make up your own numbers)

Make that CMS earn its keep• Manage content objects and metadata

to support contextual navigation• Touch a small portion of your content to

improve experience for many users

Information architects can help IT managers avoid boiling the oceanBan the word redesign from your

vocabulary• Replace it with continual improvement• And pause before replacing enterprise

apps

Take small, concrete steps that have large impacts (guides, best bets, spell checking, limited content modeling)

Focus on what you can reasonably accomplish, and when you can do it

The farmer and the cowman can be friends (with apologies to Oklahoma)We ought to be natural allies

The "new IT manager" is 50/50 technology and business

Information architects offer a different perspective that’s similarly balanced

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8720/transtrio.gif

Putting the I back in IT

For IT to be truly strategic, emphasis has to move away from technology, toward information Information architects can help IT managers

move away from providing commodity services Information architects and IT managers can

work together to help organizations Truly understand information’s strategic value Make technology really perform

Hopefully, a seat at the strategy table will be that much closer

What I’ve covered

1. IT managers are excluded from corporate strategy

2. Information architects can help get IT managers a seat at the table (and how)

3. Information architecture briefly introduced

4. Examples of concrete benefits from information architecture

5. Can we be friends?

How to reach me

Louis Rosenfeld, LLC705 Carroll Street, #2LBrooklyn, NY 11215 USA

+1.718.306.9396 voice+1.734.661.1655 fax

lou@louisrosenfeld.comwww.louisrosenfeld.com