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Column Two
News and opinion on all things KM & CM |
James Robertson
Step Two Designs
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Written by James Robertson Step Two Designs |
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Articles by Category: Information architecture
Enhancing dashboard value and user experienceJoe Lamantia has published the fifth article in his series on dashboards and portals. To quote: Portals gather and present content from a wide variety of sources, making the assembled items and streams more valuable for users by reducing the costs of content discovery and acquisition. By placing diverse content into close proximity, specialized forms of portals, such as the dashboard, support knowledge workers in creative and interpretive activities including synthesis, strategy formulation, decision making, collaboration, knowledge production, and multi-dimensional analysis. Posted by jamesr at 10:40 AM
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Intranet (re)design wrap-upSo you're sitting at your desk and you have to redesign your intranet (or design one from scratch). Where on earth do you start? By any measure, this is no easy task. The multitude of factors that need to be taken into account can be overwhelming. Over the years, we have published a vast amount of information on intranets, offering the benefits of our experience and giving practical advice on intranet management, information architecture and content management. In this article, we attempt to wrap up all the activities that form part of an intranet (re)design into one concise checklist. Along the way, references will be given to our most popular articles, giving you more detail on particular topics. The goal is to give you an excellent starting point for undertaking an intranet (re)design and also to provide support throughout the process. User-centred design methodology As a basic framework for this article, a simplified intranet (re)design process has been devised, illustrated in Figure 1. Before going through each of the steps in order, it's important to point out that best practice for designing interactive information systems -- such as intranets and websites -- involves using a user-centred design (UCD) methodology. This simply means that input from the people who will actually use the intranet is given equal weighting with the business objectives and the information (aka content). [May KM Column written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 08:00 AM
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User-centric UA and entry page strategies for better findabilityJane McConnell has written about the importance of intranet IA. To quote: 1. Define top level categories ( level 1 navigation) in user terms, not in terms of the source of the content. This results in categories defined according to subject or purpose (user populations who have similar needs). Posted by jamesr at 11:39 AM
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User interface implementations of faceted browsingMike Padilla has written an article on the design of faceted browsing. To quote: Just as it is important to choose the proper knife when slicing-n-dicing vegetables, it is critical to prescribe a suitable user interface to support faceted filtering. Faceted filtering allows you to narrow down a large list of objects to a manageable size by applying flexible combinations of attribute filters in any order. Rather than forcing you down fixed paths within a website’s information architecture, faceted filtering allows you to multi-dimensionally slice-n-dice the information in a manner that best accommodates your specific needs. A user interface that optimally supports faceted filtering must expose its robust functionality in a way that expresses affordances, controls complexity, and follows existing standards that have been pre-established across the web. Posted by jamesr at 12:13 PM
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Managing taxonomiesJames Kelway has written a post on the process for managing taxonomies. To quote: Taxonomy creep inevitably occurs to all sites and there is a need to be able to monitor and adjust the taxonomies without impacting on the user experience or the workflow of the content producers. Here I propose to set out a process that businesses can employ that will ensure their taxonomies are accurate. That they reflect the industry, user groups and business objectives of the site and will utilize their web technologies and people available. [Thanks to Patrick Lambe.] Posted by jamesr at 09:00 AM
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Designing ethical experiences: some practical suggestionsJoe Lamantia has written an article on ethical approaches to design, as a way of resolving conflicts between stakeholders and users. To quote: In the future, designers will lead the creation of increasingly multilateral, multidimensional, and co-created experiences. Such integrated experiences could introduce substantial, new potential sources of conflict—thanks to their greater interconnectedness and complexity. Therefore, I suggested this clear imperative in response to this potentially conflicted future: Design must find effective ways of managing conflict, encourage the creation of ethical experiences, and avoid ethically unsatisfactory compromises. Posted by jamesr at 12:51 AM
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Australian Museum uses Open Calais to tag collectionJosh Catone has written about Australian Museum tagging their online collection. To quote: The automatically generated tags at right were created by the API for some swim wear designed by Speedo for the 1991 Australian swimming team that competed at the World Swimming Championships in Perth. Open Calais was correctly able to identify some important locations in the document -- Perth where the competition took place, and Sydney where Speedo is based -- as well as an important corporation (Speedo). It also picked up the name of the designer, and the name of the person who owned the suits before the museum. Posted by jamesr at 09:01 AM
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The fine art of wireframesT. Scott Stromberg has written a beautiful post on the art of wireframes in information architecture. To quote: One of the greatest advantages of sketching is that it can become a foundational tool which can easily be used to more fully explore your design treatments and architectural studies. The ability to hand-craft wireframes might take some practice, but the benefits gained from their use in client presentations can be priceless. High-fidelity, computer-generated deliverables can be a perfectly adequate way to present your ideas, but there is something liberating about being able to break out a pen and paper and clearly record creative ideas without the use of a computer. Likewise, there is also a special credibility gained with clients when your deliverables are handcrafted and unique—especially when they excite and empower your audience to participate in the creative process. [Thanks to Peter Van Dijck.] Posted by jamesr at 08:59 AM
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Resist redesignGerry McGovern has written an article on resisting redesigns. To quote: Your website is working. But it's four years old. What should you do? Leave it alone. Or focus on making it work even better. But let me tell you this, making it work better has rarely anything to do with its graphical design. Posted by jamesr at 08:10 AM
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IA mentoring podcastPatrick Kennedy has been featured in a podcast on IA mentoring. To quote: I am now live on the air…on the net. The latest edition of Gerry Gaffney’s UXpod, user experience podcast, features yours truly speaking on the subject of mentoring. It follows my presentation at last year’s OZCHI and OZ-IA on the same topic, based on my experiences mentoring a group of non IAs through the UCD process to create a new IA for their large website. Posted by jamesr at 05:28 PM
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Audience personas for the Macquarie University Library websiteMacquarie University is an innovative university located on a single campus in Sydney, Australia. Macquarie was founded in 1964 as a second-generation Australian university with a focus on interdisciplinary research and teaching in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. In line with Macquarie's reputation as one of Australia's most innovative institutions, the Macquarie University Library (MUL) plays a key role in providing information resources to the University community. Delivery of electronic services has been a growing focus of all libraries over the last ten to fifteen years, and recently there has been a sharp increase in the priority given to online services. The core element in this strategy for MUL is its website, which allows authorised users to access most of the material in the Library's collections. The website consists not only of a public brochureware site, but also the 'business end' information portal; a powerful set of tools that allow users to search out and retrieve books, academic journals and other material. However, there was a general recognition throughout MUL that the website needed improvement, both in its appearance and usability, but also in its usefulness for the intended audience. MUL also recognised that it needed to understand its audience better, so it could deliver appropriate targeted services both online and in person. MUL sought the assistance of Step Two Designs to begin the process of evaluating and redesigning the website. This case study aims to give an overview of the process undertaken and the key outcomes. Project goals Library staff had seen the website through several previous redesigns, so they had a good understanding of what is involved in designing and maintaining a website, but they needed some assistance in specific areas. In particular, we helped with user research, information architecture and general web design and usability expertise. The goal was to review the website in preparation for a major redesign. This required substantial user research, and it was decided to undertake this more broadly, because gaining a clear picture of MUL clients and their needs would also be useful for the website. It was also necessary to gain an understanding of the organisation itself, how it functioned and how this affects the delivery of services to Library clients. [Case study written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 02:53 AM
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Closing the communication loopSteve Baty has written an article on closing the communication loop, in the context of usability activities. To quote: Call centers, in particular, provide us with a real-time snapshot of our customer’s needs. Incorporating issue logs into our project research allows us to react to those needs on a regular basis, minimizing or eliminating potential pain points before they get out of hand. Online channels can be similarly useful when undertaking a review of a Web site. Posted by jamesr at 12:55 AM
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Enhancing dashboard value and user experienceJoe Lamantia has written an article on enhancing dashboard value and user experience, the fifth in a series of articles on designing portals. To quote: Portals gather and present content from a wide variety of sources, making the assembled items and streams more valuable for users by reducing the costs of content discovery and acquisition. By placing diverse content into close proximity, specialized forms of portals, such as the dashboard, support knowledge workers in creative and interpretive activities including synthesis, strategy formulation, decision making, collaboration, knowledge production, and multi-dimensional analysis. Posted by jamesr at 03:00 PM
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Can social bookmarking improve search?Daniela Barbosa explores the question: can social bookmarking improve search? To quote: "Bookmarking Improve Web Search?" includes eleven experiments using del.icio.us designed to evaluate "different aspects of social bookmarking and their impact on web search". The main end results lead to the issue of needing critical mass which is still not here- the paper's authors estimate that only about on tenth of the web has been bookmarked and tagged in del.icio.us and therefore (at least when using only this domain) tagging is not yet ready to make a significant impact on search results. Posted by jamesr at 10:00 AM
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Better living through taxonomiesHeather Hedden has written an article on taxonomies for websites and intranets. To quote: Large websites and intranets can benefit from improved methods of search and navigation. These include site maps, A-Z indexes, sophisticated search engines, and generally improved navigational design -- and playing a potential role in all of these methods is well-planned taxonomy. Posted by jamesr at 06:15 AM
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What’s my scene -- user roles and needs in social computingMatthew Hodgson has written an article on user roles in social computing. To quote: Do you allow people to comment, review, rate and ask questions on your website's articles? If you do, you'll be enjoying the fact that your own users are helping others know what information is valuable on your website. It's also valuable feedback because it helps you improve the quality of your information. Over the last month, I've been working on a strategy for a client to help them introduce this sort of user-to-user and business-to-user interaction. My client though, has until recently, thought of their users in the same way they do their print magazine. Posted by jamesr at 09:02 AM
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IA is not just about navigationPatrick Kennedy has written an entry highlighting that IA is not just about navigation. To quote: I am always quite surprised, after one of my workshops, when someone remarks "I didn't know there was so much to it! I thought IA was just about coming up with the nav". Posted by jamesr at 07:30 AM
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Search behavior patternsJohn Ferrara has written an article on search behaviour patterns. To quote: Search behavior varies with domain expertise and technical knowledge, cognitive style, goal, and mode of seeking. All of these factors will interact in complex ways to influence a user’s actions. Even then, behaviors will vary depending upon whether at that moment the user is under pressure, in a good mood, or any number of other idiosyncrasies. Posted by jamesr at 05:03 AM
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Information Architecture Essentials (Sydney, Brisbane)We've started our event calendar for the year with a new round of our ever-popular Information Architecture Essentials workshops: In this one-day workshop, Patrick Kennedy will present the fundamentals of information architecture (IA), the core methodology for organising and designing websites and intranets. Key skills such as card sorting will be taught, and this workshop is designed to build in-house information architecture skills. A must for all web or intranet teams. During the workshop, you will learn:
[Workshop brochure & registration form] (296k PDF) Posted by jamesr at 03:04 PM
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Advancing advanced searchStephen Turbek has written an article on designing advanced search. To quote: Advanced search is the ugly child of interface design -always included, but never loved. Websites have come to depend on their search engines as the volume of content has increased. Yet advanced search functionality has not significantly developed in years. Poor matches and overwhelming search results remain a problem for users. Perhaps the standard search pattern deserves a new look. A progressive disclosure approach can enable users to use precision advanced search techniques to refine their searches and pinpoint the desired results. Posted by jamesr at 06:40 AM
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Bottom-up approach to taxonomy developmentSimon Goh has written about a bottom-up approach to taxonomy development. To quote: In my previous post, I brought up a topic on the implementation challenges of taxonomy and suggested a few points on overcoming pitfalls for multi-faceted taxonomy implementation. This time round, my reflection is based on ground 0, where there is no corporate taxonomy design to start with. This idea requires incremental and continuous investment and its not a short project period affair. Like the Chinese saying goes, "Cast a long line to catch a bigger fish". Posted by jamesr at 07:00 AM
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Implementation challenges of taxonomiesSimon Goh has written an entry on the implementation challenges of taxonomies. To quote: The number one issue now is to avoid complex metadata profiling. It is a nightmare for staff to browse the tree of each taxonomy facet to profile a document uploaded. Profile it once, twice and if he is patient enough, he will stop at the third time. And thereafter, you will expect the remainder of the documents to be in his local drive, circulated through emails. How do we avoid this pitfall? Posted by jamesr at 07:15 AM
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To structure or not to structureGadgetopia have written a superb post on the pros and cons of structuring content in a CMS. To quote: We were meeting with a client the other day about applying some content management to their Web site. We came upon a page of “business partners.” It had a repeated HTML structure consisting of a logo for the partner, their name, their URL, and a few paragraphs about them. There were maybe a dozen or so partners listed. I agree with everything written in this post, and I've had this discussion many times as part of the CMS selection work I do with clients. I would add, however, another downside to the template approach ("Structured as a single content object"). All too often, I've seen the number of templates multiple like rabbits, to cover each small variation on a theme. Before you know it, you have 150 templates that the authors have to choose between before publishing a page. Hardly an ideal solution. Posted by jamesr at 07:19 AM
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Sketchboards: discover better + faster UX solutionsBrandon Schauer has written an article on "sketchboards" as a design technique. To quote: The sketchboard is a low-fi technique that makes it possible for designers to explore and evaluate a range of interaction concepts while involving both business and technology partners. Unlike the process that results from wireframe-based design, the sketchboard quickly performs iterations on many possible solutions and then singles out the best user experience to document and build upon. Posted by jamesr at 07:16 AM
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The many faces of information architectureA lot of confusion and misunderstanding surrounds the term 'information architecture'. The multitude of activities that can be labelled with these two words span a vast variety of people, skills and situations. If you ask for an information architecture, what exactly are you going to receive in return? Similarly, if someone tells you they are going to provide you with an information architecture, for a website or intranet for example, what exactly does that mean? A primer, not a dictionary This paper aims to explain the many faces of information architecture. A precise definition of each term would be difficult, as there is still much debate even among the professionals who practice in this field, and that is not the objective here. What is needed is a primer to help ordinary humans weave their way through the various labels that might be used to describe work related to information architecture. To engage consultants or contractors, it is useful to understand the variety of terminology and be able to identify the area (or areas) in which you need assistance. Similarly, consultants should find it helpful to be able to express, with a fair degree of certainty and precision, what area (or areas) they are able to provide services in. [December KM Column written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 01:24 PM
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Walking up the taxonomy tree at the BBCMartin Belam has, in the process of writing about some past search problems, explains the search taxonomy at BBC. To quote: This worked brilliantly, and looked very, very clever on the front-end. So, in 2001 on the BBC's site search, if you searched for 'Seth Johnson', Bromsgrove found the 'Seth Johnson' node, saw there was no URL, walked up the tree and found 'Derby County'. The results returned would then have a best link to BBC Sport's coverage of Derby County at #1. It gave the impression to the user that the search engine understood that Seth Johnson was a Derby County player, and also was probably the best result given the quality of some of the site search results at the time. Posted by jamesr at 05:59 AM
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All universities are equal...Adriaan Bloem has written a post about university websites. To quote: Usually, where universities come from is the same: academia was among the early adopters of the nascent technology and many ventured out on the web in the early nineties. With the archipelago of departments, institutes, faculties, over a decade many managed to produce hundreds of thousands or sometimes millions of published web pages. Often using different styles, editors, webservers, then CMS tools -- it's not uncommon to find hundreds of (sub)domains within a single institution. We've been doing a lot of work with universities over the last year or so, and have observed all of the same issues and challenges. After a while, we worked out that universities are uniquely challenging environments because they are the only place that doesn't have a shared sense of corporate identity. You don't work for the university, you work for the School of Dentistry. We're now seeing university web strategy projects as a piece of organisational change, not as "create a document" projects. I think there's some valuable progress to be made via this approach, but we're still in the early stages of exploring what it means in practice... Posted by jamesr at 05:55 AM
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The five competencies of user experience designSteve Psomas has listed five competencies of user experience design. To quote: This framework comprises the competencies a UX professional or team requires. The following sections describe these five competencies, outline some questions each competency must answer, and show the groundwork and deliverables for which each competency is responsible. Posted by jamesr at 07:16 AM
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It's nice to have friendsIt's nice to have friends. Over the years, we've met a lot of people at conferences and events, and have steady readers of the articles we publish. We've also worked with a lot of organisations, or have had conversations via emails. The connections we build at conferences, however, can be lost at the end of the events. While many teams read our articles, this readership is largely invisible and unconnected. So we've created a Friends of Step Two Facebook group. Everyone is welcome, and this is for those interested in intranets, information management, usability or information architecture. We'll publish links to our regularly monthly articles, and well as cool stuff like the upcoming video interviews of the Intranet Innovation Awards winners. Beyond that, the group is entirely open. Everyone is welcome to post links, photos and videos. Let's start a conversation, we're all friendly people... Posted by jamesr at 10:28 AM
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Intranet information architecture (IA)Jakob Nielsen has written an article on intranet IA. To quote: Information architecture (IA) poses a tremendous challenge in designing any navigational system. Historically, intranets have had little in terms of systematic IA efforts; designers typically "structured" intranets according to the organic growth of pages and features provided by different departments. Employees suffered the consequences, repeatedly getting lost in confusing structures with inconsistent navigation options. Posted by jamesr at 08:42 AM
The limitations of server log files for usability analysisKarl Groves has written an article on using server log files for usability analysis. To quote: One of the challenges faced most often by those of us in the field of usability is finding good data about user behavior quickly, accurately, and, in most cases, cheaply. In an environment where many stakeholders question the return on investment in usability, some in the industry have developed interesting ideas aimed at gathering user data. One such idea is the analysis of server log files to gather information about user behavior. On the surface, it is easy to understand the gravitation towards server logs: They're supposedly a data source which portrays what people are doing on a site. Server logs supposedly show what people click on, which pages they view, and how they get from page to page. Posted by jamesr at 10:33 AM
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Usability tools podcast: are there users who always search?Jared Spool and Christine Perfetti have published a podcast on the question: are there users who always search? To quote: In the design world, there's always been an assumption that some users demonstrate "search-dominant" tendencies by going right to the search engine when they first visit a web site looking for content. But back in 2000, UIE made a groundbreaking claim that blew away the web design world. From our research, we concluded that users aren't search dominant. A few years back, I wrote the article, Are There Users Who Always Search?, and have received tons of questions about the findings ever since. Posted by jamesr at 06:34 PM
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Folksonomies and image tagging: seeing the future?Diane Neal has written an article on folksonomies, from a librarian's perspective. To quote: Folksonomies are one of today's hottest Internet trends. They are but one part of Web 2.0, which, in part, refers to the ability of Internet users to add, change and improve World Wide Web content. A folksonomy is created as users of a website add "tags" (keywords) to describe items on a website. The users choose their own keywords; few or no restrictions are imposed on their choices. The terms are not chosen from a previously existing controlled vocabulary, a strict taxonomy or any other officially sanctioned method of bibliographic description. [Thanks to InfoDesign.] Posted by jamesr at 09:38 AM
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The information architect as change agentMatthew C. Clarke has written an article on IAs as change agents. To quote: The kind of work IAs do leads to changes in the way people behave. We are in the business of providing tools and structures designed to allow people to do something in a different way (hopefully a better way!) than how they did it before. As Goodman wrote in the article cited above, "As IAs, we are not just architecting information; we are using information to architect change." Posted by jamesr at 09:00 AM
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Intranet redesign for Canon AustraliaOver a number of years, Canon Australia developed an extensive portal-based intranet, known as iCON, for use by staff throughout the organisation. This included several phases of intensive redevelopment, in parallel with changes to the underlying technology platform. The intranet continued to grow and expand, eventually being given the mandate to deliver to a diverse range of audiences, including both internal and external users (effectively creating an extranet). This widening of the audience prompted a re-evaluation of the intranet, with the goal of ensuring that the site is effective in meeting the needs of current and future users. In mid-2006, Canon sought the assistance of Step Two Designs to begin the process of evaluating and redesigning iCON. This case study aims to give an overview of the process undertaken, as well as the initial outcomes. Project goals The Canon intranet team had seen iCON through two previous redesigns, so there was a good understanding of what is involved in designing and maintaining an intranet. As outlined above, the widening of the intended audience for iCON sparked off the latest project. Our first goal was to understand the organisation's needs and suitably prepare for this expansion of the intranet's role. Leading up to this project, the intranet team was well aware of a number of inadequacies with iCON. In order to properly understand these issues and sketch a picture of how the organisation worked, steps were taken to review business objectives and gather the input of staff across the organisation. This provided a clear direction for the intranet redesign, as well as identifying opportunities for new intranet capabilities and content. [Case study written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 08:50 PM
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Card sorting: mistakes made and lessons learnedSam Ng has written an article on card sorting mistakes. To quote: Card sorting is a simple and effective method with which most of us are familiar. There are already some excellent resources on how to run a card sort and why you should do card sorting. This article, on the other hand, is a frank discussion of the lessons I've learned from running numerous card sorts over the years. By sharing these lessons learned along the way, I hope to enable others to dodge similar potholes when they venture down the card sorting path. Posted by jamesr at 12:44 PM
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Intranet personalization: does it work?Gerry McGovern has written an article on intranet personalisation. To quote: The theory of intranet personalization is wonderful. The practice is generally woeful: hugely expensive implementations that totally fail; massive maintenance overheads and very little employee uptake. Posted by jamesr at 09:24 AM
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Why staff visit the intranetOrganisations often envisage their intranets as integral to the way staff do their jobs. Staff are expected to visit the intranet daily. While this is an admirable goal, it doesn't necessarily match the reality of most intranets today. There are clear reasons for staff to use the intranet, but these are not always well understood. In practice, there are two key reasons for a staff member to come to the intranet: to find a specific piece of information, or to complete a specific task. Recognising this, intranet designers can ensure that intranet resources are targeted in ways that will have the greatest impact. This briefing explores these two key reasons for intranet usage, and discusses their impact on intranet strategies and approaches. Two reasons for visiting the intranet There are two fundamental reasons why staff visit the corporate intranet:
Note that in both cases, the staff member is not looking for the HR manual, a procedure, or some other general resource. Instead, they are seeking something very specific to meet an immediate need. [CM Briefing 2007-15, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 02:05 PM
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The tagging growth curveJoe Lamantia has written an article on the tagging growth curve. To quote: The apparently irregular growth and spread of tagging is simply example of the real nature of how innovations spread. Professional analysts and other meaning makers tend to draw smooth graphs to depict these things. But in reality, natural systems (and the tagging / technology landscape is a legitimate ecosystem) are noisy, cyclical, chaotic, complex, fuzzy, non-linear, and unpredictable. They only appear to follow smooth curves at a high level of abstraction, or a low level of resolution. Posted by jamesr at 10:50 AM
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A stale state of tagging?Thomas Vander Wal has written a piece on the current state of tagging. To quote: It was in del.icio.us that we saw tagging that really did not work well in the past begin to become valuable as the clarity in tag terms that was missing in most all other tagging systems was corrected for in the use of a common object being tagged and the identity of the tagger. This set the foundation for some great things to happen, but have great things happened? Posted by jamesr at 09:50 AM
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UCD blogging in Australia?Something struck me today about the prevalence of blogging amongst the user-centred design community in Australia. Now, I've been blogging for a touch over five years. I find it an invaluable mechanism for sharing my thoughts, the articles that I'm reading, and the articles I'm writing. From the feedback I receive, I believe that this is an extremely worthwhile way of spending some of my time. In the US, there is very strong blogging within the UCD community, with many of the most experienced experts and consultants regularly posting their thoughts. Individuals in my blog feed include Lou Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, Joe Lamantia, Jeff Veen; company blogs include Adaptive Path, UIE and Blue Flavor. While there are a number of excellent Australian-produced UCD blogs, these are primarily by individuals, with very few companies (or individuals representing companies). Very few of these blogs are by the "thought leaders" in our industry. While I follow many of these blogs, the most insightful posts still seem to be coming from overseas. Am I right on this? Is the UCD community within Australia backwards when it comes to using this now-standard communications channel? Or have I missed many of the best blogs in my own backyard? As they say, answers on the back of a postcard please... Posted by jamesr at 01:10 PM
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UCD in Australia: demand exceeds supplyI find it remarkable that I've seen nothing written about the current state of the usability and IA industries in Australia. This is the busiest that the industry has ever been, driven by the slow but inevitable acceptance of the need for user-centred design (UCD) as part of web and intranet projects. To say things are busy is an understatement. Every consulting firm is busy, every freelancer is occupied, and every contractor working on client premises. To state this most clearly: At present, demand for UCD services far exceeds supply. Even with all hands on deck, it isn't possible to meet all the needs of clients within Australia at present. And this isn't going to change anytime in a hurry. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, organisations have quietly taken heed of the importance of UCD and have, without anyone really noticing, started incorporating these activities into many of their web projects. Making matters dramatically worse are a few of the big media companies building huge UCD teams to support their strategic projects. Thats the demand side of things. On the supply side, there haven't been a lot of new specialists coming onto the market over the last 5 years. With few (if any) formal ways of learning these skills, UCD specialists are grown, not educated. It's also a much smaller market than the US or UK. So, what does this mean in practice? A few things:
Anyway, that's my view of the world, and there's no doubt it's an interesting time at the moment. Apologies again for the lack of comments (must upgrade my blogging software!), but feel free to email me your observations and thoughts. I'll then collect these together and blog a summary... Posted by jamesr at 05:16 PM
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Apply IA techniques when creating taxonomiesTaxonomies define the structure that underpins document and records management systems, knowledge management projects and more. Considerable effort goes into developing these taxonomies, with the goal of creating a common structure that will benefit the whole organisation. The challenge, however, is to ensure that these taxonomies work well for staff, beyond any organisational benefits that are sought. It is here that taxonomies often fail. If not designed well, taxonomies can become 'white elephants', too hard to understand and too complex to use. At their worst, poorly designed taxonomies are the direct causes of project and system failure. The field of information architecture (IA) has much to offer those creating taxonomies, including a range of structured techniques for building and testing their effectiveness. This briefing outlines some of these approaches, and encourages creators of taxonomies to retain a clear focus on usability throughout the design process. Building taxonomies Taxonomies are typically drawn from a number of sources, including existing industry-wide classification schemes, business functions and structures already in place within sections of the organisation. These are pulled together to create a larger or more complete taxonomy. Testing of this taxonomy usually relies on internal review, discussing the taxonomy with staff, and gaining input on areas of strength and weakness. While effective for gaining broad user and stakeholder input, this kind of review is very shallow, and is not sufficient to ensure that the taxonomy can be used in practice. Instead, structured techniques must be used, getting beyond staff and expert opinions. [CM Briefing 2007-13, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 10:45 PM
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Web redesign is bad strategyGerry McGovern has written an article arguing that web redesign is bad strategy. To quote: A website redesign approach is usually embraced by organizations who are reacting to the fact that their websites have fallen into disrepair. Something is not working and the belief is that a nice redesign, some nice new graphics and colors, and perhaps the purchase of some fancy content management software, will solve it. Posted by jamesr at 11:43 AM
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Is tagging a disruptive innovation?Joe Lamantia has written an article that asks the question: is tagging a disruptive innovation? To quote: Thus, I don't think the Hype Cycle comparison holds. In simple financial terms, I'm not aware of anyone making or losing substantial amounts of money specifically in relation to tagging. For many reasons, tagging has not yet emerged - and may never emerge - as a category of technology investment and activity for businesses. Posted by jamesr at 05:16 PM
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Introduction to the building blocksJoe Lamantia continues his series on the building blocks methodology for designing portals. To quote: Part 1 of this series "The Challenge of Dashboards and Portals" discussed the difficulties of creating effective information architectures for portals, dashboards, and tile-based information environments using only flat portlets, and introduced the idea of a system of standardized building blocks that can effectively support growth in content, functionality, and users over time. In enterprise and other large scale social settings, using standardized components allows for the creation of a library of tiles that can be shared across communities of users. Posted by jamesr at 12:59 PM
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Blasting the myth of the foldMilissa Tarquini has written an article that debunks the myth of the fold. To quote: We are all well aware that web design is not an easy task. There are many variables to consider, some of them technical, some of them human. The technical considerations of designing for the web can (and do) change quite regularly, but the human variables change at a slower rate. Sometimes the human variables change at such a slow rate that we have a hard time believing that it happens. Posted by jamesr at 12:45 PM
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Information Architecture Fundamentals (Sydney + Canberra)After quite some time, we've finally found the time to restart our hugely popular Information Architecture Fundamentals workshops. These are great sessions to build in-house skills within web and intranet teams. The two dates planned for 2007: To quote: In this one-day workshop, Patrick Kennedy will present an introduction to information architecture (IA), the core methodology for organising and designing information-rich websites and intranets. Fundamental principles will be covered, along with a hands-on exploration of practical techniques. A must for all web teams. Note: the early-bird date for the August workshop is rapidly approaching, so you'll want to book your places quickly! Posted by jamesr at 06:45 AM
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Book review: Organising Knowledge -- Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational EffectivenessOrganising Knowledge:
Taxonomies are often surrounded by an air of reverence and mystique. Traditionally seen as the domain of librarians, recordkeepers and botanists, they are now hot property in business circles, but no better understood. Patrick Lambe's book sets out to systematically address these issues, by introducing, explaining and exploring taxonomies. Coming from a background as a librarian, knowledge management expert and consultant, Patrick draws together many topics to provide a rich view of taxonomies in the real world. This is not a how-to manual. While a strong overall methodology is outlined for creating and maintaining a taxonomy, there is not enough detail to allow the uninitiated to walk this path unaided. This book does, however, achieve two very important aims. Firstly, it introduces taxonomies and their use to a business audience. Through many current and historical examples, often presented engagingly with great wit, Patrick lays the groundwork for understanding taxonomies. He then builds on this foundation to show how many different types of taxonomies can be put into practice in typical business situations. The mini case studies used throughout are particularly instructive. Secondly, this book is a call to action for those typically associated with taxonomies (such as librarians and records managers) to take a broader view of the world. Encouraging these specialists to venture outside of their bounded domains, Patrick shows that taxonomies are not a theoretical exercise, but a practical approach that must be tempered by the pragmatic realities of organisations. Still, I would've liked to see a few more concrete techniques introduced into the book, drawing more strongly on information architecture approaches such as card sorting, card-based classification evaluation and usability testing to support the creation of taxonomies. While I am wiser on the meaning and use of taxonomies, I still don't know that I could create one confidently myself. By the time the last page is reached, however, this book has become much more than just an introduction to taxonomies. Instead, it has grown into an exploration of many interrelated topics around knowledge, and how to put it to work. For this, Patrick Lambe is to be commended. Score: 7/10 Posted by jamesr at 07:25 PM
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Card sort analysis spreadsheetDonna Maurer has uploaded her card sort analysis spreadsheet. To quote: Over the past few years I have been slowly developing and refining a spreadsheet I use for analysis of card sorts. I have used it on many projects and find it invaluable for helping me manage the data and spot patterns. I use it to analyse results from physical (i.e. not software) open card sorts. It could quite easily be used for closed card sorts as well, though I haven't done that as I don't do closed sorts. Posted by jamesr at 10:38 AM
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Joseph Busch today in MelbourneI've just spent the day sitting in on Joseph Busch's workshop in Melbourne, as the first stop in the tour that we've organised. It's been a great day, and I've learnt a lot about how to make taxonomies to work in practice. My biggest take-home insight has been the comparative power of faceted approaches to classification compared to having one huge hierarchical structure, and how this can be applied to websites, intranets, etc. It was also great to see how to test taxonomies, in a variety of practical ways:
All of these are very simple ways of ensuring that the taxonomy is more than just theoretically sound, it actually works in practice. Joseph is very quietly-spoken, constantly sharing stories from the projects he's been involved in. And these are some serious organisations that he's worked for, including Oracle, Microsoft, IMF, Dell, Home Depot, HP, Harvard Business Publishing, NASA and a pile of other US Federal Government agencies. Anyway, there are still places for Sydney and Canberra, if you book quickly. Posted by jamesr at 05:06 PM
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Launching the Web 2.0 FrameworkRoss Dawson has launched his web 2.0 framework today. To quote: The intention of the Web 2.0 Framework is to provide a clear, concise view of the nature of Web 2.0, particularly for senior executives or other non-technical people who are trying to grasp the scope of Web 2.0, and the implications and opportunities for their organizations. Posted by jamesr at 02:24 PM
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IA One SheetersLeah Buley has posted a number of IA One Sheeters, covering key IA topics. To quote: One-Sheeters are quick and easy marketing tools for information architects. They're like mini brochures to advertise IA deliverables and promote the IA practice in your company. One-Sheeters help people envision what deliverables you produce and where they fit into a project. They're quick to produce and easy for anyone to understand. [Thanks to InfoDesign.] Posted by jamesr at 10:22 AM
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Why invest in social features for your web site?Joshua Porter has written an article about using social features on websites. To quote: The runaway successes of YouTube, MySpace, and Flickr have completely changed the landscape of design. One huge change is the rise in socially-enabled web applications, applications that connect users in new and more explicit ways. Witness the trend of "going social" on news sites, where they give their community the ability to comment on and even participate in the news. The design team behind the USAToday.com web site, for example, recently enhanced their site with new social features including comments, reviews, discussion forums, and the ability to make recommendations. Just this past week ABCNews did the same. So what are the core benefits of making this change? Why invest in social features? Posted by jamesr at 09:32 AM
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Periodic table of visualisation methodsVisual-Literacy.org has published an incredible periodic table of visualisation methods. Truly a thing of great beauty... [Thanks to Christina Wodtke.] Posted by jamesr at 10:37 AM
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The no-knead approach to information architecture (#4 of 5)Lou Rosenfeld continues his series of articles on a no-knead approach to information architecture. To quote: Now comes the fun part, Step #3: determine each audience's primary tasks and information needs. Duh.I realize that this sounds painfully obvious. But can you describe -- with even minimal confidence -- the major needs that each of your primary audiences wants from your site? Posted by jamesr at 11:27 AM
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Taxonomy and metadata strategies for effective content management (June, Australia)Taxonomies are a hot topic at present, with many organisations exploring how these can be used to coordinate practices across organisations and to integrate business systems. While the word 'taxonomy' is often used, it is often less clear what this means in practice, and how to make it all work. For this reason, Step Two Designs is bringing out Joseph Busch to Australia, as the recognised taxonomy expert from the United States. Uniquely, Joseph combines this with an in-depth knowledge of content management and how to implement taxonomies in real-world settings. Taxonomy and metadata strategies for effective content management
In these one day masterclasses, Joseph will provide practical answers to core taxonomy questions such as:
Joseph will then go on to provide answers to the hard questions about enterprise content architecture strategies, including:
These are Joseph's first events in Australia, and they are relevant for every team tasked with designing or implementing a taxonomy. Posted by jamesr at 12:13 PM
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Measuring the success of a classification systemIain Barker has written an article on measuring the success of a classification system. To quote: I developed the following enhancement to Donna Maurer's card-based classification evaluation technique as a direct response to a client that wanted to engage with the process of restructuring their content-heavy intranet. My client knew the current classification structure was ineffective at enabling users to find the information they required, but they felt the process of developing an alternate structure would be complicated and contentious due to differences of opinion between senior stakeholders. My client requested quantitative data to validate that the proposed classification system was an improvement on the existing structure. They also had tight timescales and budgetary constraints. Posted by jamesr at 08:28 AM
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Enterprise IA methodologies: starting two steps earlierI've just had an article published on Boxes and Arrows titled Enterprise IA methodologies: starting two steps earlier. This follows on from my talks at both the IA Summit and Oz-IA events, and to quote: Information architects working within enterprises are confronted by unique challenges relating to organisational culture, business processes, and internal politics. Compared to public website or interface design projects, key aspects differ in the application of IA discipline relating to uncertainties around the exact nature of the business problems being solved. Posted by jamesr at 02:49 AM
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The no-knead approach to information architecture (#3 of 5)Lou Rosenfeld has continued his series of articles on a no-knead approach approach to IA. To quote: Determine who your most important audiences are. Many organizations -- academic institutions, for example -- already have an excellent grasp of who their primary audiences are, but you'd be surprised at how many don't. Ask yourself right now: do you know who they are? Posted by jamesr at 11:15 AM
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Presentation: IA Summit 2007As ever, the IA Summit (held this year in Las Vegas) has been a hugely enjoyable event, mostly due to the conversations held in the corridors. I gave a presentation on "Enterprise IA methodologies: starting two steps earlier", which covered the use of ethnographic techniques within organisations. Enterprise IA methodologies: starting two steps earlier (1.3Mb PDF) Posted by jamesr at 03:36 PM
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Text clouds: a new form of tag cloud?Joe Lamantia has written an article exploring the concept of text clouds (versus tag clouds). To quote: "Text cloud" might be a more accurate label for these visualizations than tag cloud. In addition to recognizing fundamental differences - text clouds differ from tag clouds in composition (no tags at all) and purpose (predominantly comprehension, rather than access or navigation) - distinguishing the two types of clouds will make it much easier to assess their abilities to support user experience needs and business goals. Posted by jamesr at 10:24 AM
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Content analysis heuristicsFred Leise has written an article on content analysis heuristics. To quote: So doing a content inventory is all well and good, but what exactly is it about the content that we are supposed to understand? What are we supposed to tell our client, other than that the website has 4,321 pages, of which 358 are dead-ends, 427 have no page titles, 27 have content that has expired, there are 432 different document templates in use, and there are 17 distinct document types? Posted by jamesr at 09:02 PM
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Deep ContextJorge Arango has written an article on deep context, relating to the practice of information architecture. To quote: In Hall's model, High context (HC) communications convey much of the meaning of a message in information that is pre-programmed beforehand in the speakers and the setting of the communication. In other words, much of the message implied by who the speakers are, their relationship to one another, where they are communicating, etc. A typical HC situation would be your family's holiday dinner party: the way you communicate with the other people there, the manner in which jokes are told and interpreted, and the special places reserved at the table for certain members of the family are all "rules" that are agreed to by all, yet not written down in any formal manner beforehand. The bounds of these relationships have emerged naturally through the interactions of these people -- and you -- over the years. Posted by jamesr at 07:45 AM
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Improving the user experience with in-page navigationMaish Nichani has written an article on designing in-page navigation. To quote: In-page navigation techniques are used to layout web content on a page. When used properly they improve the user experience. But when misused they just add to the anxiety. This article chalks out the different in-page navigation options available to us and offers some tips on using them effectively. Posted by jamesr at 08:44 AM
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Intranet benchmarking for freeIt can often be hard to assess where your own intranet is up to. By definition, other organisations" intranets cannot be seen, and there are few absolute measures to assess intranets against. A strong desire remains, however, to clearly assess the intranet"s strengths and weaknesses, and to gain some insight into how the site is progressing against general "best practice". To help meet these needs, this briefing will explore the Intranet Review Toolkit, a free way of benchmarking intranets against commonly accepted standards. Intranet Review Toolkit The Intranet Review Toolkit provides intranet managers and designers with an easy-to-use method of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their intranet. It contains a substantial set of heuristics (guidelines or criteria), allowing a detailed intranet review to be conducted that focuses on a wide range of functionality, design and strategy. While there are a number of published heuristics for reviewing public websites, up to now there has been no equivalent set for corporate intranets. Initially supported by an IA Institute Progress Grant, the Intranet Review Toolkit was drawn from experiences running expert reviews in many different organisations. The Toolkit was then developed and published as a comprehensive set of intranet heuristics. It has been published under a Creative Commons license, allowing it to be freely downloaded and used (as long as certain conditions are met). [CM Briefing 2007-04, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 01:42 PM
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More thoughts on the impending death of information architectureJoshua Porter has written further on the impending death of information architecture. To quote: The danger of infoprefixation is that it recasts human problems in terms of information. It's a subtle, but detrimental, shift because we risk losing sight of the reasons why people wanted or needed the information in the first place. If we see the world as a whole lot of information that needs to be catalogued, shared, and organized, then the problem becomes one of organization, not one that is based on the lives of the people we design for. It also moves us away from the rigor of design, which is to continually ask: Why do people do what they do? Posted by jamesr at 03:45 PM
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How to write good FAQsCaroline Jarrett has written an article on FAQs. To quote: FAQs don't have that great a reputation, but recently, I've been working on FAQs for a client. Their computer help desk was annoyed about answering the same things again and again. Why not divert potential callers to a FAQ instead? Sounded reasonable, so we did the usual: created a prototype, ran some usability tests, did the necessary pile of changes and launched the revised version, rather quietly. And bingo: a modest success. Calls to the help desk are down 10% and users are rating the FAQ answers highly, on the whole. Posted by jamesr at 03:32 PM
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10 best practices for displaying tag cloudsJoe Lamantia has written an entry on displaying tag clouds. To quote: This is a short list of best practices for rendering and displaying tag clouds that I originally circulated on the IXDG mailing list, and am now posting in response to several requests. These best practices are not in order of priority - they're simple enumerated. Posted by jamesr at 09:13 AM
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The utility of taggingLuke Wroblewski has shared a diagram on the < |