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Structure and Function: IA for Web Applications

Structure and Function: IA for Web Applications. Structure - IA with content. In a content-only site, the user interface is easy, the information architecture is hard Lots of things topics with different sub-structures grows, hard to know how it’s going to expand but it’s understood.

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Structure and Function: IA for Web Applications

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  1. Structure and Function:IA for Web Applications

  2. Structure - IA with content • In a content-only site, the user interface is easy, • the information architecture is hard • Lots of things • topics with different sub-structures • grows, hard to know how it’s going to expand • but it’s understood

  3. Function - UI for applications • For desktop applications, the information architecture is easy • the user interface is hard • lot’s of different actions a user can take • they interfere with each other • effect of actions needs to be clear to the user • but it’s understood

  4. How is UI different on the web? • Supports more tasks at once • lots of domain-specific tools, not one general purpose tool • Supports different tasks • shopping, communication, decision-making • Combines traditional tasks with more things

  5. Typical Web applications • Shopping, for simple and complex products • Decision-making • Auctions and marketplaces • Verticals - applications embedded in portals • Process tracking, workflow, negotiations • Status tracking

  6. Structure of this talk • Team structure for these projects • How users and their intentions are different • Common IA challenges in a Web application • Object structure • Navigation • Other • Basic Advice

  7. Teams and Collaboration

  8. User Interface Designers • Design the task flow, and thus the page flow • Design page-level interaction • Bring a lot of knowledge about human-computer interaction Collaborate on: • information display • page layout • navigation

  9. Are you being a UI Designer? Are you: • choosing where to put info and buttons on a page • deciding when to show users info and when not • designing task flow • If so, learn the user interface domain as well

  10. Building a team • Typical design team: • UI Designer, Information Architect, Visual Designer • Useful people: • Ethnographer, technical writer, usability tester • Be flexible in ownership of tasks • Be collaborative in the design process • Be clear about inputs and outputs

  11. Different Audiences, Different Goals

  12. Who are the users? • People at work • Trying to make money • Trying to save money • Users often aren’t the people who buy the system • People at home doing something important

  13. Same questions, different answers • Frequency of use • all day, every day • Level of domain expertise • often deep • Language • jargon is extensive and important • How optional is it, what happens if it fails • not very - either it’s important or they are forced

  14. Common Challenges

  15. Information limits task Structure of things and their attributes sets what is possible • IA needs to see how the info interacts, flexes • Know what users should change, when, why • Guess what tasks the information allows that haven’t been thought of • Overlaps with a DBA role

  16. Information limits task If the user can’t enter it here, it can’t be chosen, searched on

  17. Information affects understanding The user’s mental model is made of things, their attributes, and what can be done to them • Make relationships between attributes sensible, obvious • Know what attributes will be compared in trade-off decisions • Have the UI surface interaction between attributes, the effects of actions

  18. Information affects understanding

  19. Keeping users in a task Ubiquitous navigation increases the chance for mistaken moves • Collapse general navigation • use sequence nav • Avoid related links on the pages for a task • Use pop-ups for honest side tasks • Try to make tasks short On a web app, users WANT to stay on task

  20. Keeping users in a task sequence navigation with collapsed global nav- MetaDesign

  21. Navigating between tasks • Some tasks need instant access at all times • need to understand the user’s day and mix of responsibilities • Some tasks are related and grouped • need to know the user’s more general intention to decide connections between tasks • Tasks are less likely to expand than lists of things • horizontal navigation often works

  22. Navigating between tasks Switch active orders and adding new ones, rarely email Switch between sourcing, buying, and looking for partners

  23. Flexible navigation Different situations demand different navigation • Looking for a task vs. completing a task • finding a thing vs. finding a task • different users, with different roles and permissions • Some of this is in the “global nav”, some is an issue of links that appear or don’t appear

  24. Flexible navigation Buyer has a different navigation than the agent

  25. Navigating tasks and sub-tasks • Use pop-ups judiciously • If the sub-tasks are optional, highlight the typical next step • Design a good multi-level sequence navigation • This is tied to the UI area of task flow, but determines pages and structure

  26. Navigating tasks and sub-tasks Effective use of pop-ups helps support sub-tasks -MetaDesign

  27. Look for a thing, then choose a task • The e-tail model, but often have more tasks • Have the right tasks available at the right level in the object hierarchy • What can I do to a class of objects? • What can I do to one object? • At what point do you have matrix navigation

  28. Look for a thing, then choose a task List of things with actions attached

  29. Maintaining tasks over time Many tasks extend over days and weeks • Have workbench for user’s tasks, what they are responsible for • Display status and provide access, due dates • Notification of events, with email or on that workbench

  30. Maintaining tasks over time Workbenches monitor and provides access

  31. Searching an application • Users are looking for how to do a task, not for a piece of info • Many pages should not be searched at all • Heavy use of meta-tags rather than full text search • Search is often part of a task, not just navigation

  32. Basic Advice

  33. Task-focused research • Can’t rely on card-sorts • Listening in context is often the only way to find jargon • Different groups of users are different • Collision repair shops differ in how they order parts, who does it, what they call the tasks

  34. Wallow in the information • Things, attributes, and relationships have a huge impact • Things define tasks • Tasks determine things

  35. Start IA and UI at the same time • UI (page flow) controls IA below the top level • Both need to learn the same stuff, work on the same design problems • Knowing the things requires knowing the tasks

  36. Is this information architecture?

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