Information Architecture

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Audience

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Purpose

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Different buildingsDifferent purposes

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the same is true for web sites

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logical structures

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structural design of shared information

environments

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Information architecture is...

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• Information

• Structuring, organizing, labeling

• Finding and managing

• Art and science

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“web sites... are not lifeless, static constructs.”

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“Rather, there is a dynamic, organic nature to both the information systems and the broader environments in which they exist.”

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Information ecology

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OrganicWednesday, February 6, 13

Streaming informationWednesday, February 6, 13

Organization

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“We’re talking messiness and mistakes, trial and error, survival of the fittest.”

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What isn’t Info. Architecture?

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Graphic designSoftware developmentUsability engineering

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3Wednesday, February 6, 13

1. Context

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Context

• business goals

• funding

• politics

• culture

• technology resources

• constraints

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2. Content

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(The Stuff)

• documents

• applications

• services

• schema

• metadata

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Content

• document / data types

• content objects

• volume

• existing structure

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3. Users

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Users

• audience

• tasks

• needs

• information seeking behavior

• experience

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User Needs User Behaviors

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Avoid being too simple.

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Specific info through targeted keyword search?

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Multiple options?

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Browsing?

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Exhaustive research?

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Finding it again?

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Let’s apply this.

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Visualizing Architecture

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Content Mapping

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