What is Information Architecture? f Rik Williams, UX Architect, Moor ields Eye Hospital rikwilliams.net/talks/what-information-architecture/
A presentation at Lunch and Learn with JustEat in December 2021 in by Rik Williams
What is Information Architecture? f Rik Williams, UX Architect, Moor ields Eye Hospital rikwilliams.net/talks/what-information-architecture/
Objectives What you will learn in this session… What is information? What is architecture? What is information architecture (IA)? 3 tenants: Ontology, Choreography and Taxonomy Summary
‘Information + Architecture’
What is Information?
Information ≠ Content ≠ Data
Information is the meaning extracted from a particular sequence of things.
Information is what a person understands to be true based what they experience .
Content is whatever is being arranged or sequenced for a person to interpret.
Data are the facts, observations and questions that a user has about a thing.
We cannot create information. Instead we make content that is able to be perceived in a way that we hope will be based on what users know.
Without thinking about how your content is perceived and the data users might have available, you might not be creating the information intended.
What is Architecture?
Architecture is the the complex or carefully designed structure of something.
Physical spaces Digital spaces City, building System, app, site Hallways, lifts, stairs Sections, menus, flow, links Windows, doors Dialogs, viewports, homepages Rooms, Spaces Pages, States Locks, keys Passwords, credentials Furniture, paintings Interface elements, images Desire lines Desire paths Squares, rectangles CSS box model
Thinking about architecture is optional, but architecture always exists.
“You may not have an information architect on your team, but you de initely have information architecture in your experience.” f Sarah R. Barrett
If we don’t think about it we are letting it grow organically which usually means that it’s hard for people to use.
o t s r a e y 8 d 3 l i bu s y ne 1 m i h c 7 s e c a l p f re i 47 161 Winchester Mystery House roo ms 10, 00 0p an es gla of ss 8-w eek em s to pty
16 websites Source: content inventories
4.2 million users Source: content inventories
11,067 assets Source: content inventories
1 patient
What is Information Architecture?
“Information architecture makes sense of mess.” Abby Covert
“If you’ve ever tried to use something and thought, ‘where am I supposed to go next?’ or ‘this doesn’t make any sense’, you are encountering an issue with an information architecture.” IA Institute
“Information architecture is the practice of deciding how to arrange the parts of something to be understandable.” IA Institute
IA is a critical discipline for user experience (UX) design
User experience (UX) design is a process to create products and services that provide meaningful and relevant outcomes for people.
UX involves the design of the entire process of acquiring and integrating the product or service, including aspects of branding, design, usability and function.
Architecture UX DESIGN Industrial Design Information Architecture Content Design Interaction Design Visual Design User Research Human Factors & Ergonomics Human-Computer Interaction
Only visual desig n? Vo ice?… Only here? Not throu ghout ? Source: Jesse James Garrett, 2000
IA Source: Design Council
Source: Havana Nguyen
Information architecture focuses on the organisation of data and objects into structure in a system.
f IA de ines what types of content and functions will be available for people under what labels, sequences and hierarchies.
Why is information architecture important?
f An effective IA helps people to make meaning and ind what they’re looking for — in the real and the virtual worlds.
“[IA] takes user research insights and synthesises them into structure.” Sophia Prater
“Information architecture provides actionable blueprints for what’s being designed and built.” Abby Covert
“Well-de ined leads to welldesigned.” f Lindsay Eryn
IA can de ine… Which content is most essential for people at each stage of a journey? How important is this thing compared with this other thing for the customer? What are the relationships between these objects for a user? What labels should we use to make this system easy to navigate? What content do we require to meet a customers needs? How can it be reused? Where should a user be able to get to from this location? f How to categorise items so that they are indable? f • • • • • • •
Good IA for Users… • Increases… • speed by lowering the time to complete tasks. • value by making the right product/service. • accessibility by making the system understandable, consistent and predictable. • accuracy by aligning with real, valid, mental models. • focus by keep an onus on task, purpose and outcome. f • Reduces… • cognitive load by making the unclear, clear. • errors by not providing misleading (or hard to ind) choices. • abandonment by enabling/signalling task progression/completion. • frustration by meeting real needs without fuss or bother.
Good IA for Organisations… • • • Increases revenue by: • • • increasing likelihood of conversions / sales. reduces risk of abandonment to a competitor. reduces costs of contacting customer support. Reduces content duplication. Creates competitive advantage.
Examples of Information Architecture
Architecture UX DESIGN Information Architecture Content Design Human Factors & Ergonomics Visual Design User Research
UX DESIGN Information Architecture Content Design Interaction Design Visual Design User Research Human-Computer Interaction
“What we mean when we say what we say.” Dan Klyn
f Ontology is a declaration of meaning in a speci ic context — but meaning is slippery!
f These are ish
The meaning behind a label/term can be completely different between organisations and their users.
Meaning is… Subjective Sociopolitical Psychographic Lost in translation Not talked about enough
f f Poorly de ined ontology causes indability issues, user errors and retention problems.
“Make the website orange “Orange” orange”
Live example
“The arrangement of the parts to accomplish speci ic goals with and across contexts” f Ashley Kay
f How content is grouped, classi ied and labelled within a shared environment.
Classi ication …or how we order things Page divided into sections Pages that a website has Mobile application sections Rooms in a building Dewey Decimal System f Alphabetically sorting a directory of people
Intentions …or how meaning and classi ication is interpreted by Users Consume more content ( ind/extract value) Contribute more content (social posts) Increase telephone calls (sales) Decrease telephone calls (support) f f Referring people (growth)
How to organise anything (I double dare you to try to break this!) There are only 5 ways to organise things… • • • • • Location Alphabet Time Category Hierarchy
“Organising things isn’t hard. Agreeing on how to organise things is hard. Rik
LATCH principles Way of organising records Location Band’s country, or city Alphabet Artist name Time Release date Category Genre Hierarchy Sub-genre
“It takes knowledge to know that a tomato is a fruit and wisdom to know not to put it in a fruit salad.” Miles Kington
Choreography comes together when meaning (ontology) and categorisation (taxonomy) interact with each other to create an experience.
Choreography is the sequence of steps a user can take, across contexts/channels.
Examples of Choreography in IA The difference in features between a desktop and a mobile experiences (Insta) A limitation of functionality based on the role of a user (free/paid plan) The change of interface for a irst-time user vs. long-time user (Facebook). f • • •
Ontological Choreography Taxonomical Choreography How does the language you are using change in certain contexts or channels? How does the structure you are using change in certain contexts of channels? Label changes Navigation schema changes Icon substitution Content hierarchy changes Meaning changes Limitation of features
Placemaking — the act of determining how to communicate the intended purpose of a place to its users.
How do you know what these places are for? Subtle cues which denote where you are and what you can do here.
Placemaking A single room can be changed slightly to communicate different intentions to users.
We have to decide how we want our users to move
f The interplay of ontology, taxonomy and choreography can’t simply be designed: it needs to be architected irst.
Summary
Information architecture is all about organising content or things, describing them clearly and providing ways for people to get to them.
f Good information architecture helps people to ind information they need. It can also help them learn and make better decisions.
f f A lot of information architecture work relates to websites and intranets, but is just as relevant for music and movies, a computer ile system, your paper iles at home or even groceries on supermarket shelves.
Discussion
