Instant information architecture ensad

A b c

Instant Information Architecture

November 2011

Kahn+Associates | 2

Outline

— What is Information Architecture

— Categories and Classification

— Visualizing Structure

What is Information Architecture

Information is

— a difference that makes a difference

— a pattern that provides a structure for understanding

Information Architecture is

— discovering the kinds of information the site contains

— matching this information to the needs of the users

— determining the appropriate metadata structure

Kahn+Associates | 3

Maps & Diagrams | September 2011 | 4

The role of visualization / mapping

— Visualization follows analysis

— Visualization unites the members of the team

— Visualization comes before wireframes

— Visualization comes before design


Gregory Bateson (1904-1980)

British anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields

Major Books

Steps To An Ecology of the Mind, 1972 Vers une Ecologie de l'Esprit

Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity, 1979 Une unité sacrée


Information and Mind

The mind operates with hierarchies and networks to create gestalten.

Hierarchies are nested containers

Networks are links connecting discrete nodes

Information architecture is

the re/shaping of information into hierarchies and networks

we search for and visualize the patterns that connect

The pattern that connects is the pathways for accessing differences

Lenk/Kahn Communication Model

— Mapping Websites,

Kahn & Lenk, 2000

Kahn+Associates | 7

Jesse James Garrett: 5 Layer Process Model

— The Elements of User Experience, Jesse James Garrett (2000)

Kahn+Associates | 8

http://www.jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf

http://www.jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf

http://www.jjg.net/elements/translations/elements_fr.pdf

Slide 10 © Fjord 2010 | Confidential

1. Opportunity 2. Concept 3. Experience 4. Go to market

Our framework

Where we fit in your Internet projects

Kahn+Associates | 11

../resources/swf/wwf_anim_fr.swf


The Information Architect must understand

user research

— personas and user scenarios

— user-based design methodology

the data

— text coding systems: SGML/XML

— database storage & information retrieval

interaction models

— principals of user interface design

The Information Architect must mediate

— the requirements of a client, who wants to present information

— the needs of the user, who needs to find and consume that information

— balance between the desirable and the possible


Category and Classification

Categorization is

— the mental process of grouping things by perceptible similarity within a given context.

— Creating groups through direct experience (bottom-up)


— Categorization of music

— Categories of music are an expression of listener’s perception and as communities emerge (bottom-up)


Categorization of books

Category and Classification

— Categorization is the mental process of grouping things by perceptible similarity within a given context.

— Classification is a set of classes assigned according to a predetermined set of principles used to impose order on a set of entities.

— Taxonomic classification establishes stability by applying a set of rules to one domain (top-down)

— Classification system offer inter-operability benefits across applications


— Classification of biology

— Each living organism is classified in the Tree of Life taxonomy


— MESH Classification of human diseases

— Each disease is located in one or more places in the Medical Subject Headings (MESH) maintained by the National Library of Medicine in Washington DC


UNSPSC — The United Nations Standard Products and Services Code is a hierarchical

convention that is used to classify all products and services.

—


Examples of “categories” that are classifications

High-level category

Three Categories of Drugs

• Depressants

• Stimulants

• Hallucinogens

Continuous category/scale

Categories of Hurricanes:

Category 1: 74-95 mph winds




Category 5: 155+ mph winds


Category vs. Classification

— 3 Categories of hair color


— Classification of hair color


LATCH (+):

Five ways to organize information for ease of use (+ One)

Location

Alphabet

Time

Category

Hierarchy

From Richard Saul Wurman, INFORMATION ANXIETY 2

plus Common Focus


Location

“Location is chosen when the information who you are comparing comes from several different sources or locales. Doctors use different locations of the body to group and study medicine. Concerning an industry you might want to know where on the world goods are distributed.” WSW

— Location is the X/Y position in the context of a representation

— In the most abstract sense, the X and Y positioning of any object on a plane is a purely visual distinction

— Location can be used to organize information a geographical region (states, countries)

— Location can be used in relation to an object (such as the body)


http://www.guimet.fr/-Collections-


http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/interactives/lifecycle/teenagers/


Alphabet

— “Alphabet is best used when you have enormous amount of data. For example words in a dictionary or names in a telephone. As usually everybody is familiar with the Alphabet, categorizing by Alphabet is recommendable when not all the audience is familiar with different kind of groupings or categories you could use instead.” WSW

— Reference to the order sequence of the letters in an alphabet

— Common 26 letter European alphabet

— Alphabetic order varies according to language

http://www.metmuseum.org/en/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments


Metropolitan Museum Timeline of Art History


Time

“Time is the best form of categorization for events that happen over fixed durations. Meeting schedules or our calendar are examples. The work of important persons might be displayed as timeline as well. Time is an easily framework in which changes can be observed and comparisons made.” WSW

— Absolute reference to actual event in time

— Sequence of events in linear time, hours, days, months, years, decades, centuries

— Potential for cycle as well as sequence


Horizontal: time

Vertical: categories

Result: co-existence of Categories in Time

http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/02/


Category

— “Category is an organization type often used for goods and industries. Shops and services in the yellow pages are easy to find by category. Retail stores are divided into e.g. men- and woman-clothing. This mode works well to organizing items of similar importance.” Wurman

— Categories are determined by similar content

— Each category is at the same level (“similar importance”)

New York Times Blog Directory, November 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/blogs/directory.html

Library of Congress American Memory: category as topic




Hierarchy

“Hierarchy organizes by magnitude. From small to large, least expensive to most expensive, by order of importance, etc. Hierarchy is to be used if you want to assign weight or value to the ordered information.” WSW

— Organized by sequence of importance

— Recursive sequence of whole to part, largest to smallest

— Organizing in nested containers: 1st thing contains 2nd thing leads to 3rd thing

Great Chain of Being

— God & angels

— Mankind

— Creatures of the Air

— Creatures of the Sea

— Creatures of the Land

— Plants

— Satin & the Damned




A Sixth Method: Common Focus

— Organizing information based on user interaction

— Currently viewed

— Most discussed

— Most popular

— People who bought this item also bought…

— Based on what you looked at before…


Le Monde: Most commented / Most emailed


Amazon.com: encouraging related purchasing + exposing common purchase behavior


Visualizing structures

The role of visualization / mapping

— Visualization follows analysis

— Visualization unites the members of the team

— Visualization comes before wireframes

— Visualization comes before design


What is a map?

— « La Carte est un secours que l'on fournit par les yeux à

l'imagination. »

(The map is a help provided to the imagination through the eyes.)

Henri Abraham Châtelain, Atlas historique, 1705

— “The map is not the territory.”

Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity, 1933

— “Information is a difference that makes a difference.”

Gregory Bateson

— Sequentielle : organiser les éléments selon une séquence temporelle. Corporate intranet management process for Schlumberger

Maps & Diagrams | January 2011 | 46

ENSAD/Excite1.pdf

ENSAD/Excite2.pdf

Comparaison de sites Internet | Dec 2003 | 49

Site Internet de la BnF | mars 2004 | 50

Production et

contenu :

Information Architecture | Paul Kahn| 53



ENSAD/holtzbrinck_large.pdf


Company Overview | April 2002 | 57

../resources/sample maps/INRAP_map_universal_system_070921_all.pdf

ENSAD/travel journey 20 01 11.pdf


Foursquare one week of checkin data

http://vimeo.com/29323612

Assignment: Diagram a “typical” Gmail user session

— Create 6 groups of 4 students

— Select a version of the Gmail UI on any web browser and mobile device

— Each group will create one persona and user scenario

— Example persona/scenario: 1) Web Browser: Jean-Francois looks to see if Svetlana is on Gmail, calls her using video chat, invites her to see a film and sends her a link to the a movie trailer. 2) Iphone Gmail: Nicolas reads his email on the bus, archives the unwanted messages, reads a message from Danielle, replies with a photograph. 3) Web Browser: James wants to sort his email. He searches for all messages from or about ENSAD, chooses messages, creates and assigns a new label.


Assignment: Diagram a “typical” Gmail user session

— Create a diagram or series of diagrams that represent the interactions between the persona and the software application.

— Your diagram must show how the persona accomplishes this series of tasks.

— Your diagrams should communicate

• User input

• Types of user interaction:

• checkbox, click, drag, type, etc.

• Types of application response:

• user feedback, change in screen content, highlighting, etc.





Education

Instant information architecture ensad