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There were two web sites that we were required to review this week. The first I looked at was the TextMap web site located at http://www.textmap.com/. I was not at all impressed with this site. Firstly, the labeling was quite poor. There was no clarification of the labeling or from where the data was obtained. This was an issue for me because if they don’t disclose where the data came from, how do you know the data is legit. Also, there was no real structure for the content or the site. Additionally the entity pages were confusing and there was no real helpful info on what the site does and it left me with more questions than answers. It is not a site that I would recommend.
The other site that was listed in the lesson was Google Sets website located at http://labs.google.com/sets. Since I have had such success with the regular Google search engine, I was expecting this to be a great site as well. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. My search results were subpar and the navigation was not good. I really did not like how the spell function worked or did not work as there were some errors and I really hated how the site would not allow me to modify a search from the results page. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to amend a search when I have been looking up stuff on the regular Google and the fact that I had to go back to the main page of Google Sets each time I wanted to fix my search request was annoying and a time waster. While this site does have possibilities, there is absolutely room for improvement and until that happens, I would not consider this a worthwhile site.
This week, I read chapters 14-16 from the Morville and Rosenfeld text and the reading was excellent in terms of the topics being explained in a concise and brief manner without a lot of extraneous details. Chapter 14 is an important topic as it deals with Ethics and the issues and responsibilities that information architects must face. The authors present a framework that illustrates six ethical dimensions that IA architects must deal with. The first is Intellectual Access which not only involves connecting users with the information they are looking for, but with directing them to related products or knowledge that they were not aware of. This can be a problem because the user could be directed to information that may not be what they want or even be inappropriate. The second dimension is Labeling, which according to Morville and Rosenfeld (2007), “is when architects struggle to balance literary warrant (use of authors’ terminology) with user warrant (anticipated terms to be employed by users)” (p. 342). It is important that when creating labels, architects take into account the possible influence labels can have on user perceptions. The third dimension is Categories and Classification. These can be problematic because categories and their definitions can change or have multiple meanings. Architects must make sure that when they design classification schemes, they are careful to not insert unfavorable bias or influence users’ perception. The forth is Granularity and how architects must maintain stability between ambiguity and certainty. The fifth is Physical Access in the digital environment. According to the textbook (2007), “Universal Usability will be met when affordable, useful and usable technology accommodates the vast majority of the global population: this entails addressing challenges of technology variety, user diversity and gaps in user knowledge in ways only beginning to be acknowledged by educational, corporate and government agencies” (p. 343). The sixth is Persistence and how IA is about mission-critical infrastructure. Sometimes, it will take multiple attempts, but what is important is that it is done correctly in the end. The main lesson of this chapter is that architects must be aware of the design choice they make and how this will impact users.
Chapter 15 deals with the topic of building an information architecture team. The word team can sometimes make architects panic because bringing in others can introduce some conflicts between ideas and styles. However, as web sites and Intranets become more complex, managers are seeing the value of having in-house teams that work strictly on IA. The authors discuss the importance of assessing staffing needs from a standpoint of project and program. According to the authors (2007), “First, companies must staff a short, but intensive information architecture project to design an enduring foundation. You need big picture information architects who can design an overall strategic framework that integrates organization and navigation systems with the software, processes, and staffing responsibilities needed to bring it to life and keep it working. You also need detail-oriented information architects who can do the critical work of developing the controlled vocabularies for each facet. Second you need to build an information architecture program that is focused on administration and continuous improvement. This will require mostly detail-oriented information architects who will be responsible for manual indexing and controlled vocabulary management” (p. 348).
The authors also write about in-house staff versus having an outside consultant as well as the necessity (or non-necessity) of hiring an IA professional. All of these issues depend largely on different factors, such as the type and size of the company, what their design goals are and the nature of the project. Another factor is money which has become more of a concern in the current economy. The authors close the chapter by pointing out that right now, projects are fortunate to even have one architect implicated in the work. They speculate that in the not-too-distant future, there will be more specialized teams and roles for architects.
With chapter 16, the reader is introduced to the tools and software that are utilized in the field. The ones the authors call attention to are: Automated Categorization which is software that uses pattern-matching algorithms or human-defined rules to repeatedly allocate controlled vocabulary metadata to information; Search Engines which is software that supplies full-text indexing and browsing and research resources; Thesaurus Management Tools which gives architects assistance in the progression and organization of thesauri and controlled vocabularies; Portal or Enterprise Knowledge Platform which are aids that offer fully incorporated enterprise portal resolutions; Content Management Systems which is software that handles workflow that ranges from authoring the subject matter, to editing, and publishing; Analytics which is software that examines the usage and numerical functionality of web sites and provides important data about the activities and characteristic of searchers; Diagramming Software which is visual communication software that architects utilize to produce plans, charts, blueprints and wireframes; Prototyping Tools which is web developing software that facilitates the designing of interactive wireframes and clickable models and lastly, there is User Research software that assists architects in conducting user research by user such methods as remote testing methods and online card sorting. These tools are all absolutely fascinating and of course this is only the beginning, as the field is still growing. As such there will be new tools and software being created and made available.
These chapters were some of the most enjoyable that I have read and I particularly like learning about the ethics that are involved in IA. There are a lot of sites out there that do try to influence users and speaking as a user, I would prefer to take the information and facts that I find and form my own opinions.
References
Morville, Peter & Rosenfeld, Louis. (2007). “Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.” Sebastopol, CA. O’Reilly Media, Inc.
One of the sites we were required to visit was a site called Media 7 located at http://www.net.vg/media7/index.html. This site was pretty cool to look at and was quite simple to navigate. I noticed the use of Flicker to promote the designs and thought that was an excellent way to present the work so many people can see it. Additionally, the pictures were very well designed and appealing.
Another site that was recommended this week was a site that was part of a previous lesson. This site was Peter Morville’s Semantic Studios site located at http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000030.php. There were several interesting articles that were listed under the research topics. We were required to review three and the first article that I looked at was listed under the topic of Information Seeking Behavior and was titled “Toward An Integrated Model of Information Seeking and Searching” by Marcia J. Bates. In this article, the author expresses concern that there is a lack of awareness and attention to issues and questions that are cropping up when it comes to information seeking and searching behaviors. The purpose of the paper was to, “1) to provide a single model that incorporates both information seeking and searching within it, and 2) to integrate the social and cultural with the underlying biological and physical anthropological layers of human experience with respect to information seeking and searching” (p. 1). This article was quite stimulating and really illustrates the different levels and behaviors that exist when it comes to searching for information.
Under the topic of Structure and Organization, I chose an article titled “Depth vs. Breadth in the Arrangement of Web Links” by authors Panayiotis Zaphiris and Lianaeli Mtei. The goal of this study was to study the effects that the depth and breadth of the construction of web sites had on the response time of the user. In order to determine how users reacted, the authors used five dissimilar approaches for connecting web pages with varying depth and breadth. The study found that user response time grew in direct correlation to the increase in the depth of the structure of the web site. These results illustrate the importance of organizing and displaying links simultaneously to save users the trouble of having to bounce between different pages and search engines. I responded to this on a personal level and I really agree with the results of this study as more then once, I have found myself frustrated with having to navigate between multiple pages. When I am doing research, my time is valuable and I don’t want to waste it going back and forth.
Under the topic of navigation, the article I selected for review is titled “Faceted Metadata for Image Search and Browsing” by authors Ka-Ping Yee, Kirsten Swearingen, Kevin Li, and Marti Hearst. In the study, the authors explain that online compilations of images have experienced rapid growth and many researchers have created user interfaces for searching through and perusing these collections. Relevance searches, in which the user enters keywords and the image results are based on their similarity to the keywords, are most likely the most well known interface. The authors argue that while these systems can be somewhat successful in a search for a particular thing, they don’t support random Internet searches, which is a problem because image searches are very popular. According to the authors (2003), “We present an alternative based on enabling users to navigate along conceptual dimensions that describe the images. The interface makes use of hierarchical faceted metadata and dynamically generated query previews, seamlessly integrating category browsing with keyword searching. Conducted with 32 art history students using a fine arts image collection, the study found strong preference results for the faceted category interface over that of the baseline, suggesting this to be a promising direction for image search interfaces” (p. 1). After reading the study, I found their results to very sound and something that is quite worthy of attention. I am supportive of anything the makes the browsing/searching process as quick and painless as possible. I enjoy doing research, but only if I get satisfactory results in a timely fashion, otherwise it becomes more of a headache and my patience suffers.
The last website that was listed in the week’s lesson was Jjg.net, located at http://www.jjg.net/ia/, where we were again asked to review 3 content items. I first decided to look at a 2006 article titled “MySpace: Design Anarchy That Works” by Jesse James Garrett that dealt with MySpace. In reading the article, which is located at http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2005/id20051230_570094.htm, I quite agreed with his assessment that MySpace is not worthy of design awards and that many of the profiles are made up of “unfettered design chaos” and are “truly hideous.” They are usually awash with color, images and sound and, in my opinion, can be overwhelming to view. I flat out refuse to get a MySpace page and told my friends that if they wished to communicate with me, they have to do it the old fashioned way through phone or e-mail. Garrett does concede that the fact that the site allows users the freedom to do pretty much whatever they want to their pages is what attracts users in the first place as it encourages self-expression. The fact that there are approximately 43 million users of MySpace is indicative of how much people like the customizability of the site. All in all, I thought this was a great article and found it to be very engaging. However, I still will not be getting a MySpace page.
The next article I found on the Jjg.net was titled “What’s In a Name?” In this article, Garrett and several others discuss the topic of Information Design and the many different definitions that exist for information architecture and information design. Garrett explains that each field has different skills, concerns and milieus. Garrett (2001) states that, “Information architecture is primarily about cognition – how people process information and construe relationships between different pieces of information. Information design is primarily about perception – how people translate what they see and hear into knowledge. Information architects come from a variety of backgrounds, but I sense that a majority of them display an orientation toward language (the original toolkit for “architecting information”). Information designers, on the other hand, tend to be oriented toward the visual arts. As a result, the majority of information designers come from exactly one discipline: graphic design. Information architecture belongs to the realm of the abstract, concerning itself more with the structures in the mind than the structures on the page or screen. Information design, however, couldn’t be more concrete, with considerations such as color and shape fundamental to the information designer’s process” (p. 1). When reading this article I found Garrett’s definitions to be very concise and helpful and he really clarified the differences between these two fields. I would readily recommend this article for those who are searching for information about these two topics.
The third and final article I looked at that I found on the Jjg.net site was titled the “The Psychology of Navigation” which is located at http://www.digital-web.com/articles/the_psychology_of_navigation/. In this article, Garrett examines the user thinking process with it comes to navigating web sites. According to Garrett (2002), “Information architects can better understand how to communicate navigational choices by examining how users make choices. A typical user takes in all the options available. Then, finally, she’s poised to click. In that moment, she has a picture in her mind of what is on the other end of that link. What informs the details of the user’s imaginary result? Every link makes a promise, but the creators of the link have little control over what that is. The promise exists entirely in the mind of the user. Information architects can hope to influence that image in users’ minds in a way that makes it more likely that what they actually see as a result of clicking the link will make them feel the promise has been fulfilled. The navigation decision hinges on the mental image users create of the page they expect to see. Fortunately, a few tools are available to help influence the images in users’ minds: language, design, and the understanding of the expectations users bring to sites. In order to deploy these tools effectively, the information architect needs to understand the process of extrapolation going on in the user’s head in that moment before the mouse is clicked” (p. 1). Garrett stresses that language is the most important factor as it is the words a user uses to indicate what they are searching for. Presentation is also a key factor because the way search results are presented will be what influences what the user does next. This is why it is so important for architects and designers to pay attention to what users do and how they react to search results so that they will be able to somewhat predict what users need. This was a really good article to read and I like Garrett’s assessment of the importance of anticipating the needs of users. He presented the information simply and with a sense of humor and in my opinion, the article is a really good source of information.
All in all, the web sites for this week were pretty interesting to look through. My only issue with them was the fact that it was a lot of information to take in and it was a little overwhelming. Due to commitments to assignments to my other classes, I was not able to browse through the many articles on these sites. I had to limit myself to the six that I was required to review and could not go as in depth in my assessments as I would have liked.
References
Bates, Marcia J. (2002). “Toward An Integrated Model of Information Seeking and Searching.” Retrieved on September 27, 2010 from http://gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/info_SeekSearch-i-030329.html
Garrett, Jesse James. (2001). “What’s In a Name?” Retrieved on September 27, 2010 from http://web.archive.org/web/20030403042314/www.stcsig.org/id/dmatters/apr01.pdf
Garrett, Jesse James. (2006). “MySpace: Design Anarchy That Works.” Retrieved on September 27, 2010 from http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2005/id20051230_570094.htm
Garrett, Jesse James. (2002). “The Psychology of Navigation.” Retrieved on September 27, 2010 from http://www.digital-web.com/articles/the_psychology_of_navigation/
Yee, Ka-Ping; Swearingen, Kirsten; Li, Kevin; and Hearst, Marti. (2003). “Faceted Metadata for Image Search and Browsing.” Retrieved on September 27, 2010 from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.8.9649&rep=rep1&type=pdf
This week, the assignment was to read chapters 12 and 13 from the Morville and Rosenfeld text. In chapter 12, the authors focus the process of design and documentation. One of the first things that are discussed is the importance using diagrams and visual aids when presenting IA designs to clients. This can be a somewhat difficult issue as the work done in IA is more abstract in nature. There are several guidelines that Morville and Rosenfeld (2007) outline such as, “provide multiple views of information architecture and use a variety of techniques to display different aspects of the architecture, develop those views for specific audiences and needs, and whenever possible, present architecture diagrams in person especially when the audience is unfamiliar with them” (p. 293). By following these guidelines, it will make the idea of visually presenting the work much less intimidating. When one is creating diagrams, it is necessary to remember that diagrams define the components of the content and how they are grouped and arranged as well as how the components are linked.
The authors go into great detail about the methods of presenting visual diagrams. One is the use of blueprints which, “show the relationship between pages and other content components, and can be used to portray organization, navigation, and labeling systems” (p. 296). Blueprints are particularly effective in person because they allow for a quick response to any questions or concerns and present the opportunity to discover new proposals. Blueprints should be presented as succinctly as possible as well as simply when it comes to the terminology. Organization is also very important.
Another visual method is the use of wireframes. These differ from blueprints in that they are used to represent how a specific page should appear from an architectural standpoint. Their purpose is to illustrate what will be featured on the page, their size and in what sequence the components will appear. When they are designed, they are usually for the most significant/ intricate pages on a site.
Two other methods that are used are content models and controlled vocabularies. Content models are, “micro information architecture made up of small chunks of interconnected content” (p. 317). They help support contextual navigation and assist in dealing with large amounts of content. And of course we were exposed to controlled vocabularies back in chapter nine so we already familiar with what they do and their importance.
One of the last major points the authors make is the period of design collaboration which is integral to the process as it allows the architects, clients and others who are involved to share their ideas and work on integrating them. Tools such as sketches and web-based prototypes give architects and the teams they work with the opportunity to illustrate how the site will look and, in the case of the prototypes, how it will function in a digital medium.
This chapter is really important due to the fact that how you design something will affect its success and how it is perceived by others. Often you may only have one chance to show your work, so your design has to convey your intent easily and concisely.
When it comes to chapter 13, my first thoughts were that it is refreshingly non-technical and short. Of course, the shortness is due to the fact that IA is such a new discipline and there is still a lot that is unknown about the field. In terms of education and getting a degree, there are not many schools that offer a degree in IA, but the authors do mention that there is a way around that as there are universities that have degrees that incorporate IA coursework, among them are Library & Information Science and Human-Computer Interaction. Library Science actually stands out the most as a major field of study at 40.3% with Human-Computer Interaction coming in second at 12.3%. The authors close the chapter by saying that the field is in transition and is still growing. In my opinion, based on the growth that has been chronicled, it is obvious that educational opportunities will soon be more plentiful and that this chapter will no longer be so short.
References
Morville, Peter & Rosenfeld, Louis. (2007). Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. Sebastopol, CA. O’Reilly Media, Inc.
This week, we were required to visit several web sites, one of which was Boxes and Arrows located at http://www.boxesandarrows.com. Boxes and Arrows is a peer-written online journal that is dedicated to the practice, advancement and discussion of all types of design such as graphic design, interaction design, information architecture and the design of business. The goal is to welcome contributors who want to inspire thinking, push limits, and teach new things. I thought it was excellent and it has a wonderful visual design. I spent about an hour reading the stories and ideas that people have posted. The forum was great and their section on case studies and interviews was amazing. Additionally, the site navigation is extremely simple.
Another site I visited was the Google news aggregator called NewsMap located at http://newsmap.jp/. While the site was easy to navigate, I was really quite overwhelmed by the visuals with all the news stories. When the page first came up, I was quite taken aback by all the news stories being shown in those brightly colored blocks that were in all different sizes. It was quite distracting and took a second for me to sort it out. This would not be the first place that I would go to for news updates.
Lastly, we were also told to visit the site of Amazon at http://amazon.com/, Yahoo at http://www.yahoo.com/, Google at http://www.google.com/, and Ebay at http://www.ebay.com/. I am quite familiar with the capabilities of the first three sites and have used them extensively for both school and personal activities. I have always been satisfied with the results I have obtained when using the sites and all three are easy to use. In the case of Ebay, I have less experience with this site, but the few times I have used it, I noticed how the visual design was good and it has a lot of options. Using the search engine was a bit difficult, as you have to be really specific about what you are looking for otherwise you will be overwhelmed with results. Otherwise it’s a great site.
For week 5 we were required to read chapters 10 and 11 from the Morville and Rosenfeld text. Chapter 10 detailed Research and how it applies to IA. According to the textbook (2007), “The research phase begins with a review of existing background materials and meeting with the strategy team, aimed at gaining a high-level understanding of the goals and business context, the existing information architecture, the content and the intended audience. It then quickly moves into a series of studies, employing a variety of methods to explore the information ecology” (p. 232). This phase is extremely important as allows people to learn about what the project is, decide how to proceed and identify future goals I know from experience how critical research is as you cannot go into a project blind. One must have an understanding of the subject and the goals that are to be accomplished. There are several phases that happen during the research process. There is “design” where the strategy is formed and plans are developed by the team. Next is “Implementation” where the plans and models are constructed and tested and the architect sorts out any issues and documents the process for training purposes. Lastly there is “administration” which involves the constant assessment and development of the information architecture of the website. This involves updating of site info and scrutinizing the use of the site as well as the response from users.
In conducting research, there are many ways of gathering information. There is background research which involves reviewing background materials of a site; introductory presentations; research meetings which can be regarding strategy, content management and information technology; and stakeholder interviews. These types of meeting are critical to the design process as they give those involved a chance to get together and discuss things. In reading this chapter I was particularly interested in the attention given to the research that is done in regard to users. Morville and Rosenfeld (2007) state that, “users are the ultimate designers of the Web. Build a website that confuses customers and they will go elsewhere. Built an Intranet that frustrates employees and they won’t use it” (p. 246). There are many ways to track user satisfaction such as statistics of page numbers and recording the how many “hits” a site gets each day, search-log analysis which traces and examines what queries and keywords the search is using to see what terms are the most common, and customer support data from support technicians and representatives to see what problems, inquiries and comments have cropped up. When a researcher is trying to get data from users and clients, there are many methods of gathering data such as surveys’, interviews and focus groups which the authors do not seem to recommend very much saying that, ““most people don’t have the understanding or language necessary to be articulate about information architectures,” (p. 253). The authors close the chapter by stressing the importance of overcoming the resistant to research as it can help to save time and money and helping managers to what users want.
Chapter 12 of the textbook deals with information architecture strategy which is, “a high-level conceptual framework for structuring and organizing a web site or Intranet” (p. 265). Its importance lies in the fact that it supplies those who are designing web sites or Intranets with a direction in which to proceed as well as confidence in the development and execution. When developing the strategy, information architects need to be able to think creatively, articulate their ideas, communicate their thoughts to others, and test their strategies. When it comes time to display the strategies to others, there are several methods such as scenarios, case studies and stories, conceptual diagrams, and blueprints and wireframes.
I really enjoyed reading both of these chapters as I am highly familiar with the processes of research and strategy due to my school work. Without either of them, embarking on any project would be very confusing and difficult to say the least.
This week we were asked to review three websites one of which was CAIDA (The Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis) located at http://www.caida.org/home/. This site is a global Internet research firm and it was very impressive to browse through. I enjoyed reading their publications such as “Sustaining the Internet with Hyperbolic Mapping” and “Dialing privacy and utility: a proposed data-sharing framework to advance Internet research”, learning about the workshops and looking through some of their projects such as one titled “A Day in the Life of the Internet” which is a proposed community-wide experiment to capture a day in the life of the Internet. The CAIDA web site certainly lives up to its mission of promoting the engineering and maintenance of a robust, scalable Internet as well as illustrating just how far the Internet has come and how far it has spread.
Another site that was listed was the PEW Internet & American Life Project web site located at http://www.pewinternet.org/. This site is a national research project detailing many important aspects of Internet (and Internet related technologies) adoption and usage. The projects goal is to study the social impact of the Internet, focusing on a variety of topics including health, teens, the digital divide and broadband. I enjoyed perusing the topics and they were viewing them was pretty straightforward and were arranged by Activities and Pursuits, Demographics, and Technology and Media and were very easy to navigate. The Data Tools section was also interesting as it allowed you to view reports and get the latest statistics as well as look at survey results.
The third site that was listed detailed a study from UC Berkeley titled “How Much Information?” which is located at http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/. This study estimates the amount of new information that is created every year and shows that newly created information is accumulated in four areas of “physical media” which are print, film, magnetic and optical and can be observed or heard in four “information flows through electronic channels” which are telephone, radio and TV, and the Internet. While the study was released in 2003, the data was gathered in 2002 with the purpose being to approximate the annual size of the new data that was chronicled in media storage each year in information flows. The information that was collected was compared to an earlier study that took place in 2000 in order to illustrate trends in the growth rate of information. In reading this study, it is readily apparent how much information is available to users and the importance of organization. While the study was quite detailed and technical in nature, it is very helpful and illuminating and is something that should be given attention.
For week 4, we were required to read chapters seven, eight and nine of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by authors Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld. Chapter seven deals with navigation systems which are designed to help users find what they are looking for and avoid getting lost in a myriad of websites. Morville and Rosenfeld (2007) have stated that, “getting lost in a large website can be confusing and frustrating. Navigation tools are needed to provide context and to allow for greater flexibility” (p. 115). When a user begins the process of navigating a larger website, there are several elements subsystems that are in place. Firstly there are global, local, and contextual navigation systems that are incorporated inside the web pages which are called embedded navigation systems.
The global or site-wide systems enable the user to ascend the hierarchy of the site and allows them to rapidly navigate to a completely different area of the site. With local navigation systems the goal is to help users investigate the existing sections of the site such as in the Florida Today newspaper where there are subsites for real estate and job opportunities. As for contextual navigation systems, these can be used to balance navigation systems that are already been established by providing an additional degree of flexibility. These systems routinely appear as hypertext links in the content. Website designers introduce hyperlinks when they need to break away from website hierarchy and make a lateral shift to pages that are associated to the content of the current page. The authors recommend that website designers employ restraint when adding hypertext links in order to avoid confusing and overwhelming the user.
The authors also discuss supplemental navigation systems. According to the textbook (2007), “These systems can include sitemaps, indexes and guides. These are external to the basic hierarchy of a web site and provide complementary ways of finding content and completing tasks” (p. 131). These were very interesting to read as it shows how these are designed to further assists users. I was most familiar with index and guides as I have encountered them many times in my research. Guides, which can take the form of tours and tutorials, have probably been the most help to me.
Chapter eight deals with search systems and how they work, their anatomy and so forth. In beginning the chapter the authors recommend that one thinks twice before beginning the process of making their web site searchable. Morville and Rosenfeld (2007), “suggest you consider the following questions before committing to a search system for your site: Does your site have enough content, will investing in search systems divert resources from more useful navigation systems?, do you have the time and know-how to optimize your site’s search system?, are there better alternatives? Will your site’s users bother with search?” (p. 146-147). These questions will help to determine if making your web site searchable is a good option. Search can be a good thing as it helps when a site has a lot of data to look through or is fragmented. It can also be a great learning tool for designers as it can help them to learn what searchers want.
When it comes to the anatomy of a search system, there are several things that make them up such as tool for indexing and spidering, algorithms for processing your request into something that the software can recognize, and search interfaces. Additionally, the authors discuss how to design a search system such as selecting the content, implementing algorithms, how to present the results, and how to list the results.
Chapter nine covers thesauri, controlled vocabularies and metadata, all of which I was quite familiar with. Metadata is a term I know well from my other classes and I know that it can be used to describe many types of data and materials. According to authors Morville and Rosenfeld (2007), “Metadata tags are used to describe documents, pages ,images, software, video and audio files and other content objects for the purposes of improved navigation and retrieval” (p. 194). Controlled vocabularies can vary in their shape and size and can be either a list of equivalent terms in the form of a synonym ring which links a group of words that are labeled as equivalent for the purpose of information recovery. Or they can be a list of preferred terms in the shape of an authority file and are most often used by libraries and in government organizations to describe the proper names for items in a narrower domain. When it comes to thesauri, this is something that many people would be familiar with and have used on a regular basis and according to the textbook (2007), “a thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary in which equivalence, hierarchical, and associative relationships are identified for purposes of improved retrieval” (p. 203). The authors identify three types of thesauri that a designer should choose from when building a web site.
They are the classic thesaurus that identifies query terms that correspond to the existing vocabulary of the thesaurus and enables the user to do hierarchical browsing and associative linking; the indexing thesaurus which helps to build up and organize the indexing process for greater uniformity and effectiveness, and it enables the designer to construct searchable indexes of preferred terms which helps users to locate documents concerning the particular subject that they are researching from one access point. Lastly there is the searching thesaurus that “leverages a controlled vocabulary at the point of searching, but not the point of indexing. When a user enters a search term into the search engine, a searching thesaurus can map that term onto the controlled vocabulary before executing the query against the full-text index” (p. 212). All of these are designed to help the user to better navigate the search engines and increase the likelihood of finding what they need. I personally like the metadata and the thesauri best in terms of the success I have had with them.
All in all, these chapters really delved into the navigational and searching aspects of the web and while it was a lot to absorb, it was certainly a big help in learning how they work and how to apply them to real life. Chapters seven and nine were the most interesting for me as I can really get a sense of how the topics they discussed are utilized in everyday life.
For this week, I read the fifth and sixth chapters of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by authors Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld. Chapter five deals with organization systems and related topics and issues such as why organizing information is often troublesome, organization schemes, database structures, and types of classification. In discussing organization, the authors make it clear just how important organization is. Not just in the business or academic world, but in everyday life. We see it in both social and political interactions. It helps us to comprehend, clarify, and manage the information we receive. Without it, we could very well fall into chaos. Morville and Rosenfeld (2007) have stated that, “As information architects, we organize information so that people can find the right answers to their questions. We strive to support casual browsing and directed searching. Our aim is to design organization and labeling systems that make sense to users” (p. 53).
While it does keep our lives in some state of order, organization is not without its difficulties. Some of the problems that can be encountered are ambiguity in terms and labels, heterogeneity, differences in user perspectives as not every user searches for or processes information the same way, and internal politics. All these factors must be taken into account when information is being sorted out. There are some straightforward ways that Information Architects can organize information. The authors call attention to three relatively simple methods of arranging information. They are alphabetical, chronological, and geographical. Most people have used at least one of these methods at some point. They are called Exact Organization Schemes due to the fact that they allow information to be placed into clusters that are simpler to understand. Of course there are also methods that are less clear that are called Ambiguous Organization Schemes, which according to Morville and Rosenfeld (2007), are, “organization schemes that divide information in categories that defy exact definition. They are mired in the ambiguity of language and organization, not to mention human subjectivity. They are difficult to design and maintain” (p. 61). The prominent illustrations of this style of scheme are organizing by topic, task (such as e-commerce websites), audience type, metaphors and hybrids.
Organization structures were also mentioned and included hierarchies and taxonomies, database models and social classification. When discussing the structures, the authors stress the importance of making sure that the size is well balanced. You don’t want it to be too deep or too shallow. Nor do you want it to be too wide or too narrow. This is why organization structures require so much planning.
In chapter six, the authors discussed labeling systems and how these systems can be employed to build up an excellent and thriving search system. Labeling serves as a form of description and in the field of IA, can be used on websites to call attention to bigger amounts of data. Authors Morville and Rosenfeld (2007), stated that, “labels are often the most obvious way to clearly show the user your organization and navigation systems” (p. 83). There are several varieties of labels that mainly exist to two formats: textual and iconic. Textual tends to see the most use and can consist of contextual links that are hyperlinks to data located on other pages, headings which are labels that explain the content that comes after them, navigation system choices which are labels that signify the choices in navigation systems and index terms which are keywords, subject headings and tags that correspond to what the user is searching for. The labels I was most familiar with were headings and index terms as I heard them described in other classes and have used them when doing research for projects. They really are an excellent help when you are conducting Internet searches.
Creating successful and easy to understand labels is very complicated as one can never be sure that the labels will be accurately understood by the users. According to the authors (2007), “we must remember that content, users and context affect all aspects of an information architecture and this is particularly true with labels” (p. 98). The authors do provide some guidelines in designing labels which include having as narrow a scope as possible and making sure that one creates consistent labeling systems.
All in all, both of these chapters, while being very technical, were quite interesting. Having already been a little familiar with organization and labeling, it was nice to go a bit more in depth into the concepts and get some clarification on a few things.
References
Morville, Peter & Rosenfeld, Louis. (2007). Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. Sebastopol, CA. O’Reilly Media, Inc.
For week three, we were required to view several websites one of which was Louis Rosenfeld’s Media/Search Analytics website at http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/searchanalytics/. This site provides information on a research topic called “search analytics” which is rapidly attracting interest. I found this site to be really fascinating and a great help on how to improve your searching process. On the site, there was an excerpt from the book titled “Search Analytics: Conversations with your Customers” by Louis Rosenfeld & Marko Hurst. According to the authors (2010), “When you perform search analytics on your site’s data, you’re using a highly useful user research method that can: Help information architects improve the findability of information, help authors and editors ensure that their sites provide appropriate content, help interaction designers improve the design of search interfaces and search results, help IT professionals better understand the demands place on their sites’ search engines, help managers better understand the people who interact with their organization, its content, and its products, and provide organizations with a unique, cost-effective way to engage with their customers and employees” (p. 1). I enjoyed reading the blog and the details about the books. Additionally, I appreciated the design of the site and how easy it was to navigate.
Another website that was mentioned was a page on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia about Contextual Design. Contextual Design was created by Karen Holtzblatt and Hugh Beyer. It is a design process that is user-centered and it includes ethnographic methods for collecting pertinent data to the product, rationalizing workflows, field studies, and system & designing human-computer interfaces. This is also an area that is becoming steadily more significant and can really assist people in establish the result or usage of a system. My feelings are that it allows an information architect to obtain complete knowledge of the perceptions of the user and as a result, can prefect the process so that the user can have a better experience the next time around. I was also interested to learn how contextual design has been utilized in building digital libraries. This is really important to me as libraries have been expanding into the digital world and so many people are taking advantage of it. The only issue I have with the page is that it is by Wikipedia and I know from some of my other classes that it does not always have the most accurate of information. However, after viewing the references and the external links that were provided, I can conclude that the information on the page is factual. I will say that if I was trying to provide information to the public about a topic like this, I would not use Wikipedia as a way to promote it as I would be worried that it would undermine the topic’s credibility.
References:
Rosenfeld, Louis & Hurst, Marko. (2010). “Search Analytics: Conversations with your Customers” Brooklyn, NY. Rosenfeld Media, LLC .
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