Transcript Government Web of the Future

Information Architecture
Government Web Managers Conference
and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
Hallie Wilfert
Information Architect
SRA International, Inc.
What I’ll talk about
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What is information architecture (IA)?
Why is it important?
Best Practices in IA
A Case Study
“Selling” IA to others
The Future of IA
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Information Architecture
1. The structure design of shared information
environments
2. The combination of organization, labeling,
search and navigation systems within web
sites and intranets
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Also web applications
3. The art and science of shaping information
products and experiences to support usability
and findability
4. An emerging discipline and community of
practice focused on bringing principles of
design and architecture to the digital
landscape
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Information Architect
1. Clarifies the mission and the vision for the site,
balancing the needs of its sponsoring
organization and the needs of its audiences
2. Determines what content and functionality the
site will contain
3. Specifies how users will find information in the
site by defining its organization, navigation,
labeling, and searching systems
4. Maps out how the site will accommodate
change and growth over time.
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
AKA
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User-Centered Design (UCD)
User Experience Design (UX or UXD)
Usability Design
Interaction Design (IaXD)
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
Information Architecture
Library Science
Journalism
Human-Computer
Interaction
Computer
Science
Sociology
Anthropology
Communication
Visual Design
Architecture
Psychology
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Information Architecture
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Information Architecture
 The most important function of an IA is
USER ADVOCATE
 Provides the balance between the user
needs and the business needs
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
A web site
Context
Content
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
Users
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Context
What else is
going on?
The Information
Ecosystem
Context
The
“Competition”
The Organization
The Funding
Content
Users
The Staffing
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Content
What stuff does
the web site
contain?
Context
What kind of
stuff is it?
How much of it
is there?
What does it
look like now?
Content
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
Users
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Users
Who is the site
for?
Context
And what do they
want from it?
Tasks & Goals
Level of
Experience
Users
Content
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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At the intersection
Context
Content
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
Users
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Good Information Architecture
 Is invisible
 Communicates the right information
 Finds the right solution for the problem
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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IA in the Government
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IA in the Government
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IA in the Government
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IA in the Government
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IA: The specifics
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Organization
Labeling
Search & Navigation
The Users
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Organization
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Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
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Organization
 Grouping of information into logical
categories, for example by
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Task
Audience
Subject / Category
Date
Location
Alphabetical
 Most sites use a hybrid approach
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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For example…
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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For example…
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
23
For example…
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
24
For example…
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
25
For example…
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
26
For example…
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Task Based Navigation
 Organizing site by task
 Allows users to quickly identify their path
 Is specific
 Improves the “scent of information”
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Tasks on Information Sites
 Task is to find information!
 Break down the type of information
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Informational Sites
 A policy organization
 Conducts studies
 Holds events
 Issues reports
 Converted to tasks
 Locate a study underway
 Attend an event
 Download a report
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ENERGY STAR.gov
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ENERGY STAR.gov
 Site audit for the Commercial and
Industrial branch of the ENERGY
STAR.gov web site
 Identify tasks through opened ended
questions from the Foresee survey data
 Grouped micro-tasks into macro-tasks
 Content inventory matched content to task
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Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Organization Tools
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Content inventory
Card Sorting
Task Analysis
Mental Modeling
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Content Inventory
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Content Inventory
 Use a spreadsheet
 Systematic log of all content on web site
and relevant information about that
content
 Incredibly tedious, but essential
 Columns will likely include:
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Name of page
URL
Type of content: html, PDF, excel, photo
Owner of content
Content status: Redundant, Outdated, Trivial
Recommendation for action
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Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
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Card Sorting
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Card Sorting
 Use sticky notes or index cards
 Informs the structure, organization,
labeling of your design
 Provides insight into users’ mental
model of the task at hand
 Very easy & low tech
 Open or Closed
 Open allows users to determine the
categories and sort the cards
 Closed asks the users to sort cards into
predetermined categories
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Task Analysis
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Task Analysis
 Use your voice and sticky notes/ index
cards
 Interviews with users and stakeholders
 Goal is to elicit top tasks
 Why, why, why?
 Get as much in the users own language
as possible
 Sort these too!
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Mental Modeling
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Mental Modeling
 Use more pen & paper or use your
sticky notes!
 See what is going on in people’s minds
as they accomplish their goals
 Identify tasks needed to reach goals
 Map current content to tasks
 Identifies gaps in content
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Mental Modeling
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Labeling
 Do the labels make sense to everyone?
 Are they obvious and written clearly?
 Are they used consistently through the
site?
 Are they appropriate for the site?
 Do they use jargon appropriately?
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Where do labels come from?
 The Users and the Language they use
 Site analytics
 User interviews
 Customer Service / Helpdesk
 Subject Matter Experts (SME)
 Stakeholder Interviews
 The Content
 Card Sorting
 Content Inventory
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Navigation
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Site Wide (Global) Navigation
Local Navigation
Context Specific Navigation
Supplemental navigation:
 Indexes
 Guides
 Site Map
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
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Navigation
Local navigation
Site wide navigation
Contextual navigation
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Navigation
 Consistency is important
 Don’t break conventions
 Site wide or industry wide
 Steal from others!
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Navigation
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Navigation
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Navigation
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
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Search
 Should be available from every page
 Reaches down into the long tail of
information
 Search engine logs can be used to
determine what is and is not being
found
 As well as language choices that inform
labels and metadata
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Involving Users
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User Testing
Focus Groups
Personas
Scenarios
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May 5-6, 2008
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Involving Users
 Where can I go to meet users?
 GET CREATIVE!
 Take paper prototypes on to the Mall and
talk to tourists
 Contact the communications office / public
affairs office
 Go to events
 Sit at your agencies’ booth at convention
exhibit hall
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Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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A Case Study
 We have been asked to refresh the site
www.homebuyers.gov (fictional)
 How can we use Information
Architecture to make the site great?
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A Case Study
Step 1: What do you have?
 Inventory the current content
 Determine what stays and what goes
 Look at site analytics to determine top
content and problem areas
 Card sort the content that is staying
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
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A Case Study
Step 2: What do you want to have?
 Stakeholder interviews
 What does the business want from the site?
 User Interviews
 What do the users want?
 Extract tasks from the interviews
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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A Case Study
Step 3: Put it all together
 Map content to tasks
 Prioritize tasks
 This is your navigation
 Fill in the gaps of missing content
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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A Case Study
Step 4: Does it make sense?
 Talk to users
 Run usability tests
 Create personas to remind people of
your key audience types and their needs
 Create scenarios and run your personas
through them
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Best Practices
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Be Consistent and Predictable
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
Follow Conventions
Investigate
Talk and Listen
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Selling IA
 What are the benefits of IA?
 Financial: Planning upfront saves time and
money later
 Financial: Common templates save money
(and are consistent with 508 regs)
 Customer Satisfaction: Designing with the
user in mind makes happy users
 Use anecdotes and personal experiences
to communicate the value of good IA
 Support value with analytics
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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A recent experience
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A recent experience
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Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
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A recent experience
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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A recent experience
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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A recent experience
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May 5-6, 2008
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Why did the Suntrust site work?
Limited the amount of initial information
Labeling was clear and appropriate
Directed me down a clear path
Information available on each path was
relevant
 Gave me what I needed when I needed
it
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Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Government Examples
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Government Examples
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Government Examples
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The Future of IA
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Web 2.0
Blogging
Tagging & Folksonomy
Aggregation of Content
Mashups
Social bookmarking sites
User Generated Content
User Organized Content
User Rated/ Reviewed Content
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Opportunities for Government
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Web 2.0 and IA
 Tagging
 Allows users to label content themselves
 Works best in highly controlled architectures
 Folksonomy
 A user generated taxonomy
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Tagging
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Tagging
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Folksonomy
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In Summary
 Think like an IA
 Advocate for your users
 Use the right tool for the job
 You can use IA iteratively
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Resources
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Books
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IA Web Resources
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Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Peter Morville & Lou Rosenfeld
Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug
Elements of User Experience, Jesse James Garrett. Also at http://www.jjg.net/elements
Mental Models, Indi Young. Also see http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mentalmodels/
Web Form Design, Luke Wroblewski. Also see
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/webforms/
User Interface Engineering – User Experience research group: http://www.uie.com
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Check out BrainSparks! (podcast) and the email newsletter
Boxes & Arrows – IA best practices, case studies, and other articles:
http://www.boxesandarrows.com
Information Architecture Institute – professional organization for IAs:
http://www.iainstitute.org
Peter Morville’s search & navigation pattern gallery:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/morville/collections/72157603785835882/
Usability.gov: http://www.usability.gov
Plain Language.gov: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/index.cfm
Alexa (web site rankings): http://www.alexa.com/
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
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Thank You!
 Contact:
Hallie Wilfert
SRA International
[email protected]
Hallie Wilfert, SRA International, Inc.
Government Web Managers Conference and Best Practice Awards
May 5-6, 2008
78