New Ideas for IA

• Readings review- How to manage the process

• Content Management• Process Management

- New ideas in design• Information Objects• Content Genres

• Web page design review• Topic Presentations• Review homework• Next week’s homework

Managing the process of IA

• Are there any universal rules for IA process management?- Understanding & involving users- Defining requirements- Design principles

• Guidelines• Technology compliance

- Verifying the designs- Deploying the systems

• What else is universal?• How does the process change?

Is it all about the content?

• Creating content is much easier- Tools & skills

• Distributing content is less expensive- Anyone can publish (repeatedly)

• Is more content always better?- Presenting information vs. an information

application

• How do you coordinate all this content?- Creation can outpace coordination- Management of the process is key

Content Management Marketplace

• CMS use is now a huge business• Technical comparisons & field study are part

of review• Enterprise Content Management is now

standard- Full cycle- Production oriented- Delivery oriented

CMS VendorsCMS Vendors

• Documentum (among many products)• Interwoven• Vignette• FileNet• Stellent• IBM & ORACLE (turn key or custom solutions)• What about open source?- Better for smaller projects- More customizable (in less time)

CMS EvaluationCMS Evaluation

• Is it enterprise wide usable?• What is a typical process cycle time?• Is it part of a larger system?• Features, Usability and Application Layers?• What is the licensing?• Does it support metadata & taxonomies?

CMS AdviceCMS Advice

• Know the vendors history & future plans• Services cost more than the software• Negotiate service level expectations• Training takes (lots of) time• Involve more than just the CMS IT staff and

Ias• Test, test, test before you buy

IA for Content Management

• CM now means Tools + Technology• IA has become synonymous with information

architecture for the web, but IA is so much more- Content modeling- Reuse- Metadata - Repository structure- Workflow- IA for User Experience (modeling)

So what is Content Management?

• “Content management is the dynamic organization of information architecture, business management, software and network engineering, content creation, and publications development. If you don’t master each of these areas, CM will fail.”

- Bob Boiko

• We need models for content- Headers, footers, other boilerplate- Semantic information (metadata)- Critical, frequent content vs. additional information

Keys to Content ManagementKeys to Content Management

• Process- Structural reuse- Version control- Creation coordination

• Technical- Pointers to content, not inclusion- Consistency helps with good design- Reuse

• Locked• Derivative• Nested

CMS DesignCMS Design

• CMS sit on a database & databases do not have a hierarchy, so why do we need to structure them?

• IAs use the CMS to retrieve information• While search and retrieval can be used to find

information, logical groupings of content help users to rapidly find content

• How to structure- Content can appear in multiple places- Consider using multiple groupings of content (e.g., by

product, by type of information)- Consider creating reusable content structures (e.g., graphics,

product descriptions)

CMS Workflow CMS Workflow

1. Determine a starting point for your workflow.

2. Figure out a logical place for the workflow to end.

3. Identify all players from beginning to end of the workflow.

4. Sketch the tasks.

5. Identify interaction patterns among players and tasks.

6. Allocate time frames for tasks.

7. Identify notification patterns-who needs to know what at any given stage of the workflow.

CMS Workflow Cont.CMS Workflow Cont.

8. Identify approval patterns.

9. Determine all the "what ifs" that may knock your workflow off its path.

10.Once all roles are identified, tasks are sketched, notification and approval patterns are identified, examine your workflow to see if it can be simplified.

11.Repeat these steps for all the workflow processes you need to support your unified content life cycle.

CMS AppliedCMS Applied

• CMS is for all the users, not just the IA & Web Developers

• CMS becomes the hub of the IA process• Users may interact with CMS via dynamic

pages or searches• Time needs to be taken to architect content

for:- Reuse- Retrieval- Tracking- Delivery

Implementing a Pattern Library

• Yahoo! is drowning in content• Teams often develop something new instead

of finding & reusing• Extra efforts are required• User experience on Yahoo! Is inconsistent

• Communicate standards across the company• Increase productivity of the design staff

The solution? A Pattern Library

• Make a central place for submitting, reviewing & utilizing content

• Tasks- Understanding & agreeing on the problem- Developing a workflow- Generating organization cooperation- Designing the Pattern Library application- Promoting & Using the pattern library as a

standards body

Pattern Library Tips

• Involve contributors in the project- Contests- Peer recognition- Make part of performance evaluations- Hold training sessions- Defined incentives for management

• Easy content descriptions *& labeling)- Title, author, rationale…- Standards, links to research…

Pattern Library in ActionPattern Library in Action

• Test the IA of the CMS application• Make it easy to see what/why/who

Content Genres

• We understand types of content & their uses

Content GenresContent Genres

• “a distinctive type of communicative action, characterized by a socially recognized communicative purpose and common aspects of form” - Orlikowski & Yates

• Genres emerge as a response to purpose• Web site designs can serve (too) many

purposes- Designing can become a thing unto itself- Designing can get out of control

• How can we use genres to constrain use & avoide overwhelming users?

Variety of Content GenresVariety of Content Genres

Do we mean templates?Do we mean templates?

• Yes, but templates are driven by genres- Why not leverage what users already know?- Can users know too much?

• Templates are more about appearance, not functionality- Tabs don’t make the most sense- Flipping “pages”- Shopping carts

• Genres are about content & purpose• Presentation suggests how to use the content

Let’s look at some IA tools

• http://atlassian.com/software/confluence/• http://www.karmatics.com/aardvark/• http://www.taskspro.com/• http://www.jotspot.com/• http://www.codezoo.com/• http://www.basecamphq.com/

Let’s look at some designsLet’s look at some designs

• http://semanticstudios.com/• http://www.infosci.cornell.edu/• http://www.parsons.edu/• http://www.stanford.edu/group/dschool/• http://www.chelsea.arts.ac.uk/• http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/