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Exploring Information Architecture: Impacts on Indexing and User Experience

This presentation by Fred Leise at the American Society of Indexers National Conference discusses the concepts and importance of Information Architecture (IA). It delves into IA’s relationship with indexing, highlighting user experience, content organization, and the processes involved. Leise emphasizes the relevance of IA skills for indexers and how understanding IA can enhance indexing services. By exploring methodologies such as user testing, content analysis, and navigation strategies, this session aims to provide insights for effective content structure on websites and intranets.

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Exploring Information Architecture: Impacts on Indexing and User Experience

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  1. Information Architecturefor Indexers Presented by Fred Leise American Society of Indexers National Conference Galveston, Texas May 18, 2002 © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  2. Overview • About me • Goals for this presentation • What is information architecture (IA)? • Users • Context • Content • Process © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  3. About Me • Indexing experience • Freelance indexer since 1995 • Indexing instructor • Scholarly texts in the humanities • IA experience • Argus Associates, Inc. • Freelance IA © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  4. Goals for This Presentation • Introduce IA concepts and vocabulary • Explore relationship of IA and indexing; importance of learning about IA • IAs as target market for indexing services • IA skills related to those of indexers; IA as possible area of skills expansion © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  5. What is Information Architecture? • A relatively new craft (8–10 years old) • Part of the field of website/intranet design • Based in areas of expertise from librarianship: • Information retrieval • Classification: collocation and differentiation • A solution to the problem of finding information on web sites © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  6. Related Subjects • Usability / User experience/Interaction design • Information design • Graphic design • Information technology / System Design © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  7. Definition of IA • Structure of information • Usable organization of information © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  8. Structure of Information • Single data point: no relationships © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  9. Single Data Point © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  10. Structure of Information • Two data points: multiple relationships © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  11. Near Chocolate Bar : Cocoa © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  12. Far Peppermint : Steel © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  13. Overlapping Tall : Freckled © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  14. Subset Employees : Administrative Assistants © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  15. Isomorphic Cancer : Oncology © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  16. What is Information Architecture? • Structure of information • Usable organization of information © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  17. Usable Organization of Information • Implications: • Users: Who is using the information? • Content: What is the information? • Context: Where is the information being used? © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  18. Content Users IA Context © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  19. Users: Variables • Age • Experience • Content knowledge • Users must be able to use the site, otherwise it is a failure. © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  20. Users: Methodologies • User interviews • How do they use the current system • What would they change to make it better? • User testing • How well do users do on assigned sample tasks? • Do they search or browse? • What other information finding aids do users use? Colleagues? Bookmarks? © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  21. Users: Methodologies • Search log analyses • What terms to do users currently use when searching for information? • Are there many unique terms used or are there a number of commonly used terms? • Are there groups of related/alternate search terms (include common misspellings) © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  22. Context: Everyday Life • Human beings as natural classifiers • Organization of menus • Organization of grocery stores • Organization of car manuals • Organization of catalogs © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  23. Context: Web Sites/Intranets • What are the business goals affecting the site? Purpose of site? • Vanity web sites • Information web sites • E-commerce web sites © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  24. Context: Methodologies • Opinion leader/project team interviews • What are their goals for new/revised site? • What resources are available for site creation/ revision? • What challenges do they see to completing the project? • What would they do to make the current site better? © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  25. Content • Organization of information • Navigation • Labeling © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  26. Content: Methodologies • Content analysis • Sampling of content currently on site or to be put on site • Heterogeneous or homogeneous? • 500 documents or 5 million documents? • What types of documents? • Applications, reports, white papers • Document format? PDFs? DOCs? © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  27. Organization of Information • Top-down organization • Looks at totality of content • Enumerative classifications (hierarchies / taxonomies / ontologies) © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  28. Organization of Information • Bottom-up organization • Looks at content objects • Faceted classifications • Indexing using authority files / thesauri • Metadata © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  29. Organization of Information: Methodologies • User testing • Open card sorting • Closed card sorting • Task completion © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  30. Navigation • Types of navigation • Global: applies to entire site • Local: applies to parts of site • Supplemental: additional finding aids Site maps Site indexes • Contextual: within paragraphs © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  31. Global Navigation Local Navigation Supplemental Navigation Contextual Navigation

  32. Navigation • Clarity: understandable, unambiguous • Consistency: word form (verbs, nouns) • Information scent: differentiation, i.e., where is the information I want likely to be? • Depth vs. breadth © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  33. Labeling • Labels for navigation • Labels as headings • Labels as contextual links • Labels for index terms © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  34. Navigation labels Heading label Contextual link labels

  35. Index term labels

  36. Labeling • Clarity • Consistency • Label granularity matches content granularity © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  37. IA Process • Research • Design • Testing • Implementation • Maintenance • Revision: Research, etc. © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

  38. Contact Information Fred Leise 900 W. Ainslie St. Chicago, IL 60640 773-561-1993 www.ContextualAnalysis.com fredleise@contextualanalysis.com © 2002 ContextualAnalysis

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