ASIST - Data workshop 2007

ASIS&T IA Summit Pre-Conference

Designing with structured data

Margaret Hanley

23rd March 2007ASIS&T, 1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510

Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA

Phone (301) 495-0900 Email: [email protected]

Introductions

Margaret Hanley

• Independent IA consultant

• Worked as an IA for the last 12 years

• Worked on three continents – Australia, • Worked on three continents – Australia, USA and UK

• Been both a consultant and internal staff to companies like Sensis (Yellow Pages in Australia), Argus Associates (US), Ingenta (UK), BBC (UK) and DNA Consulting (UK)

Information architecture – the

future

What do there examples have in

common?

Data at the core of the applications

realised:

In interfaces

As APIsAs APIs

Mash-ups

Progression

We are moving from architecting for one site to...

A web of data

A web of data sources, services for exploring and manipulating data and ways

that users can connect them together*

* Tom Coates My 'Future of Web Apps' slides

Posted February 13, 2006 1:10 AM.

http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2006/02/my_future_of_web_apps_slides/

By understanding the data as IAs we have:

• the ability to use data in our sites

– Understanding the data well enough to be

able to use it

– Think about different interfaces that allow

people to manipulate it

• The opportunity to create the data in our organisations

– To set it free

– Extend the brand

– Re-use across an organisation


future


future

Tags

•Snow

•London

User actions

•Add Photo

•Send to group

•Add to set

•Blog this

•London

•Broadcasting_House

•Tom

•Gavin

•2004


future


future

Creating the data to start with

• We are used to creating a feed for one purpose (filling in a sales order)

• Do we architect the content from the • Do we architect the content from the beginning without knowing what interface that will be created from it?


future

Additional skills – combining data with presentation

• How does the API work?

• How will a layer of data over the top be • How will a layer of data over the top be represented in the interface?

• Can we design the layers of interface and data – pretending we are the end-users who build on top of content?

• What guidelines will we give them?


future

• Focusing not on a progression of pages, but interaction between data and the user in the application

• Showing states and feedback within the • Showing states and feedback within the application


future

• Identifying that user involvement and participation “in” the site is as important as the authoritative content

• This could range from • This could range from

– Tagging

– Creating the content itself

– Creating a social network

Why we should care• We can create more engaging interfaces

• We can create more complex applications

• Rather than content sites, we are presenting sites to interact with; this is a combination of interface design and data combination of interface design and data design

• It takes CMS implementations to the next level, rather than designing pages we are designing objects as Karen described earlier today

Two components

• Data that is well structured and described

• Interfaces that are clear and have controls for interaction

Data

Data that is:

• Well structured

• Available to users either as human or machine readable formatsmachine readable formats

• Can be used on a web page for display or combined to create a new interface or data

Data

• Is not necessarily complex info like GPS

• Needs the hook – the ability to map to something else either by explicit user action or by the properties of the content action or by the properties of the content

• Example – Flickr photos and maps – Explicit action of the user to place it on the

map and therefore tag it with location

– Property would be the putting into your camera the place when you were taking the photo

InterfacesTwo types

1. Mash-up interface (Map my run)– Clarity of interface

– Usually a base interface that allows the data to be layered and manipulated

– Controls for the user– Controls for the user

2. Original interface (YouTube)– Designing the interface of your components for

mash-up or manipulation

– Ease of use

– Creating an interface that continues the brand, even though a mash-up

New types of interaction

• Animating – generating movement in the representation

• Annotating – augmenting a representation by placing notes or marks on it

• Chunking – Grouping a number of similar or • Chunking – Grouping a number of similar or related, but disjointed, visual elements into a single visual structure

• Composing - putting together separate visual elements to create a new representation. Similar to chunking. Composing focuses on the representation as a whole, chunking on creating the sub-components

• Karl Fast, IA Summit presentation 2005 http://www.iasummit.org/2005/finalpapers/148_Presentation.pdf


• Cutting – Removing unwanted or unnecessary portion of a representation

• Filtering – Showing, hiding or transforming a select subset of the visual elements of a a select subset of the visual elements of a representation according to certain characteristics or criteria

• Fragmenting – Breaking a representation into it’s component or elemental parts. The reverse of composing or chunking


• Probing – Focusing on or drilling into some

aspect, property or component of a

representation for further analysis and

information

• Rearranging – Changing the spatial and /or

direction of elements within a representation

• Repicturing – Displaying a representation in an

alternative manner so it can be viewed from

different perspectives


• Scoping – Changing the degree to which a representation is visually constructed/deconstructed by adjusting its field of viewfield of view

• Searching – Seeking out the existence of or position of specific features, elements or structures within a representation

Annotating

Composing

Filtering

PIPs

• Programme information pages – a page for every programme episode, broadcast on BBC

• Cross-divisional project• Cross-divisional project

– Radio and Music interactive and New Media

Central

– Now being used to supply information to the

iPlayer

Programme hierarchy

• Brand

• Group

• Blackadder

• Blackadder

goes forth

• Friends

• Tenth series

• Episode

• Broadcast

instance

goes forth

• Episode 6 -

Goodbyeee

• 31/03/2007

• Episode 3: The

One with

Ross's Tan

• 23/03/2007

Standards and data sources

• Standards

– TV Anytime – standard developed by broadcasters

– SMEF – BBC standard data model

• Classification• Classification

– BBC I & A post-coordinated classification system

– TV Anytime – faceted classification (genre, format,

small subject list)

– SID – ad hoc taxonomies; two level deep

– Web site – combination of subject, format and genre

PIPs

• Creating the data – I sat down with database architect and he and I came up with PIP XML

• The core aspect to PIP XML was the • The core aspect to PIP XML was the factual information about a programme; the programme hierarchy, short and long descriptions, genres

• Non-core information was added as content objects by the CMS

PIPs

• What came first- the interface or the data?

• We had a really strong idea about how we could use the programme information, even if we didn’t have the interfaces even if we didn’t have the interfaces developed - schedules, pages, snippets

• So it was a bit of both ☺


future

Exercise

• We have about ½ hour to start to create an interface using data.

• Please get into groups of about 5-6 to do this exercise. this exercise.

• Your exercise sheet has the instructions.

ASIST - Data workshop 2007

Documents

Transcript of ASIST - Data workshop 2007