My presentation at Kent State IAKM

Applying information architecture to university web sites Kent State University April 26, 2007 Keith Instone keith<current year>@instone.org © 2007 Keith Instone Blog item for this presentation: http://instone.org/ksu07

Hi, I am Keith IBM > ibm.com > User experience > Information Architecture lead Computer science > Human-computer interaction > Hypertext > Web usability > Information architecture Argus associates (Polar bear) – AEFA, Egreetings, E&Y, RipShot (?), Weather.com, … User experience network Telecommute to work from Toledo BGSU Computer science researcher, ca. 1988-1998 (including working on bgsu.edu in the very early days of the web)

Overview About information architecture Stories from ibm.com Applied to university web sites (esp. kent.edu) Theme: Site organization  User experience  Perception of the university Practical: Navigation Warning: a lot of “geeky IA stuff” Or, “deep and profound IA concepts”? Separate presentations on user experience, methods and deliverables But I welcome questions to connect to them

What is information architecture? (from IA Institute) The structural design of shared information environments. The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability. An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape. Also: Information architect role – when you focus on organizing information within a set of broader activities (my definition)

Elements of User Experience jjg.net/elements

The best starting point re: IA for the web Intro: Defining IA, Practicing IA, User needs and behaviors Principles: Organization, Labeling, Navigation, Search, Thesauri/CV/Metadata Methodology: Research, Strategy, Design Practice: Education, Ethics, IA Team, Tools/Software Organizational IA: ROI, Business strategy, Enterprise IA Case Studies: MSWeb, evolt

Kent State IAKM Information Architecture Broad: information space design Narrow: web design and navigation (my focus today) Information Use Broad: user experience Narrow: usability and evaluation Knowledge Management Sharing information  knowledge

Why practicing information architecture (for any large organization) is hard Company Division / Department / Unit Company Division / Department / Unit Company Division / Department / Unit How customers need to do business with the company How students/parents/people need to interact with the university

Strategic and Tactical IA Big IA Strategic IA Helping the university get its act together What to do Little IA Tactical/Design IA Helping the university execute on its plan How to do it Magic moment: The issues are well-thought out, fully funded, the right teams are in place, the politics are over, …

IBM stories  University examples (examples to explain concepts & foster discussion, not be critiques) Audience views IBM story, university samples, discussion/Q&A Org chart-itis IBM story, university samples, discussion/Q&A Faceted finding IBM story, university samples, discussion/Q&A Navigation concepts IBM story, university samples, discussion/Q&A

Mixture of Specific-to and Relevant-for content for E&U Relevant-for Relevant-for Specific-to Specific-to Relevant-for Specific-to

Mixture of Specific-to and Relevant-for links for E&U

University audiences: Relevant-for vs. Specific-to

Kent Audiences (Quick links) Current students Future students Faculty & staff Parents & visitors

Kent Audiences (Left nav links) Current students Future students Faculty & staff Parents & visitors

Housing: A common destination for several audiences (audience sub-sections) Faculty & staff Resources Housing top page Faculty & staff Housing Current students Resources Undergrad Housing Housing Housing Faculty & staff entry point

Audience views: Discussion points Specific-to vs. Relevant-for What proportion do you have? How do you decide what is Relevant-for? How do you help users know which to expect? Audiences How do you architect sub-sites for audiences? How do audiences relate to the major categories (academics, athletics, admissions, …)? What is the impact on the user experience? And thus on the perception of the university? Audience as page of links vs. a space for the audience Keep top of mind: Is this relevant-for this audience or specific-to it? Does it matter?

#2 Does anybody care about your org chart? (Or, how does it feel to air your dirty laundry in public on the web?)

IBM “all-services” org chart Global Services Systems Software Engineering services Centers Business consulting Application services IM services Lotus services Rational services Tivoli services WebSphere services Lab services Deep computing IT services Training & Education

IBM “all-services” (regardless of org chart) Global Services Systems Software Unified user experience (all IBM services) Engineering services Centers Business consulting Application services IM services Lotus services Rational services Tivoli services WebSphere services Lab services Deep computing IT services Training & Education Input content into shared environment Deliver integrated experience

Org chart: Discussion points What techniques do you use to fight org-chart-itis within universities? What is the impact on the user experience / perception of the university? Maybe “herding cats” is the “brand” you want to convey? (^: When do you centralize the content and when do you link? When is it worth it to centralize and publish out? Any examples where the org chart was overcome for a quality user experience? Any tips for at least getting each group to appear to be part of the same university? Keep top of mind: Are we just exposing our org chart? How can we do better? How can we move / publish / syndicate the content into architectures that match what our users need?

#3 What is possible when you centralize? (Faceted finding)

Faceted browsing Interaction style where users filter a set of items by progressively selecting from only valid values of a faceted classification system Facet values selected in any order the user wishes Null results are never achieved Leverages faceted classification schemes “ Slow and steady wins the race” interaction (click-page-click-page) Model: drill-down choices “naturally” reflect depth so far Faceted finding = faceted search + faceted browse + faceted query

Part of a trend: Filtering instead of Hierarchies Old days: Click-click-click on categories and finally get to the goodies at the leaf nodes Trend: One click, get a sample of results (“1-10 of 149”), select a category to get fewer results

The pieces of the faceted browse flow Top page Middle pages Destination page

Pieces of the user interface Results Facet history Facet selection # Results

Faceted finding: Discussion points Any examples of existing university applications? What user goals does this appear to be promising for universities? Any other favorite examples (non-university)? Keep in mind: Is this worth centralizing? Do users need many ways to find the same information? Do they need to learn along the way?

#4 Kinda interesting so far, Keith, but we really need help with our navigation ! Designing all pages as an entry point Navigation framework: global, local, contextual, personalized

“Stress test” questions (ca. 1997, more popular now with SEO) What is this page about? What site is this? What are the major sections of this site? Which one is this page under? What is “up” 1 level from here? How do I get to the home page of this site? How might you get to this page from the site home page? What does each group of links represent? More details, sub-pages of this one Nearby pages, within same section as this page Pages on same site, but not as near (in other sections) Off-site pages

Navigation Framework Global Local Content Contextual & Personalized Contextual & Personalized Global Breadcrumb Local

Global & Local Navigation Site identification, branding Major sections Utilities Almost every page Can (should?) change for sub-sites Where-am-I indicators Specific to this section of the site Varies from section to section, but consistent (hopefully) Parental, sibling, child relationships Where-am-I indicators

Contextual & Personalized Navigation Specific to this page Cuts across hierarchy (local navigation covers the stuff in the same bucket) Hand-crafted and/or automated Embedded in the content and/or given its own space on the screen Like contextual but based on WHO you are “ Recommendations” Who do you think I am? Why is this here? What am I missing?

About the 3 Types of Breadcrumbs The term “breadcrumb” is used for several different concepts – causing confusion during design discussions Location Breadcrumb – “You are here”, static Path Breadcrumb – how you got here, dynamic Attribute Breadcrumb – meta-information

Yahoo Directory: Everyone’s first exposure to breadcrumbs?

Yahoo Directory: @ means Transport Yahoo! uses the @ for a transport link – it does not go deeper in the site hierarchy (local) but instead leads to a completely new breadcrumb (contextual)

Navigation concepts: Discussion points What template do you use to encourage people to design each page as an entry point? How have you balanced global and local navigation? Do you have any personalized navigation? Are breadcrumbs effective for your sites? Keep in mind: Do you have a navigation framework that you can apply? How consistent does it need to be applied? When do you have sub-sites?

Final thoughts? Which IBM stories were most relevant to you? What are the other important IA issues at Kent State? (I may have an IBM story that is similar) What are your take-aways from this talk? (if any!) …

All I really need to know I learned in IA class … Share Put things back where you found them Flush Take a nap Hold hands, watch out for traffic, stick together

Thanks for your attention! Other stuff about IA, UX, navigation, breadcrumbs, faceted browsing: http://instone.org/

My presentation at Kent State IAKM

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My presentation at Kent State IAKM