11. Durability
“Durability will be assured when foundations are
carried down to the solid ground and materials
wisely and liberally selected” Vitruvius
12. The hotel had several desig
features that made up for i
foundation:
The reflecting pool (visible
the picture above) also
provided a source of water
for fire-fighting, saving the
building from the post-
earthquake firestorm;[1]
Cantilevered floors and
balconies provided extra
support for the floors;
A copper roof, which canno
on people below the way a
roof can;
Seismic separation joints,
located about every 20 m a
the building;
Tapered walls, thicker on lo
floors, increasing their stre
Suspended piping and wirin
instead of being encased in
concrete, as well as smooth
curves, making them more
resistant to fracture.[2]
13. I’m searching for “my
architect, not
“movies, directors,
actors”
Technical Earthquakes
14. Social Earthquakes
If people post jobs in
discussion areas, any user can
move them to job board
If people use
connection invites to
spam/market, they
can be reported.
15. Convenience
“When the arrangement of the apartments is
faultless and presents no hindrance to
use, and when each class of building is
assigned to its suitable and appropriate
exposure” Vitruvius
Sound familiar?
We’re talking
usability!
16. ckspace headquarters in in a former mall. The
lding is so usable for moving people around, it's
sily repurposed.
bert Venturi calls this a “decorated shed”
17. Malls online
epitomize
convenience,
and are typically
extremely
usable.
Anthropologie is
elegant and
functional.
This simple
model could be
repurposed for
any side dealing
with objects and
metadata
18. The MIT project, they were interviewing
me for MIT and they sent their facilities
people to Bilbao. I met them in Bilbao.
They came for three days.
W: This is the computer building.
Bilbao did not G: They were there for three days and it
rained every day. And they kept walking
leak. I was so around. I noticed they were looking
under things and looking for things, and
proud. they wanted to know where the buckets
were hidden, people putting buckets
out. I was clean. There wasn't a bloody
leak in the place. It was just fantastic.
But you've got to -- yeah, well, up until
then, every building leaked.
W: Frank had a sort of -- sort of had a
fame -- his -- his fame was built on that
in L.A. for a while. You know, Frank,
you've all heard the Frank Lloyd Wright
story when the guy -- the woman called
and said, "Mr. Wright, my -- I'm sitting in
the couch and the water's pouring in on
my head," and he said, "Madame, move
your chair."
G: So, some years later I was doing a
little house on the beach for Norton
Simon, and his secretary was kind of a
hell-on-wheels type lady -- called me
and said, Mr. Simon's sitting at his desk,
and the water's coming in on his head,
and I told him the Frank Lloyd Wright
story.
W: Didn't get a laugh.
G: No. Not now either.
http://www.ted.com/talks/frank_gehry
_asks_then_what.html
19. I call it the "Then What?"
Okay, you solved all the
problems, you did all the
stuff, you made nice, you
loved your clients, you
loved the materials, you
loved the city, you're a
good guy, you're a good
person... and then what?
What do you bring to it?
See his great TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/frank_gehry_asks_then_what.html
20. “Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance
and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and
have seen no occasion to change.” Frank Lloyd Wright
21. Beauty (delight)
“when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, and
when its members are in due proportion according to correct principles
of symmetry.” Vitrvius
23. SEAGRAM BUILDING (Philip
Johnson did interiors, 1957) Seagram
This logical and elegant 38-
Building
story skyscraper (525' H)
has alternating horizontal
bands of bronze plating
and bronze-tinted glass
New York City
and decorative bronze I-
beams which emphasize
its verticality. Placed to
the rear of its site and set 1957
back from Park Avenue, it
incorporates a large plaza
in the front as part of the
design--thus avoiding the
need for set-backs. It
uses granite pillars at the Is this Beautiful?
base and has a two-story
glass-enclosed lobby.
30. Information Architects
• What is IA?
• IAI definition
1. The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites,
intranets, online communities and software to support
usability and findability.
2. The structural design of shared information environments.
3. An emerging community of practice focused on bringing
principles of design and architecture to the digital
landscape.
32. In the physical world
• Things that have
fixed locations
– We find with
maps and signs-
- wayfinding
• Things that don’t
– We find with
organization
and wayfinding
33. In the digital world
• Nothing is fixed
• Wayfinding and organization is the two
keys to findability
• Role of IA is to shape the digital space to
enable findability.
34. Make things findable
• Organization
– Build on Metadata
– Browse systems
– Search systems
• Wayfinding
– Labels
– Visual cues
35. Make things appear
• Serendipity systems
– See also
– Related
– Popularity relationships
– Also built on metadata
36. Definition
The structural design of an information
space to facilitate task completion and
intuitive access to content.
Information Architecture for the World-Wide Web Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville
43. What can help
• Navigation
• Related Search
• Search (with autocomplete, related terms)
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-
them/
44. DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO
KNOW
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-
them/
45. What can help
• Related information
• Recommendations
• Push technologies
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-
them/
47. What can help
• Favorites
• Personalization
• Visited link color
http://boxesandarrows.com/four-modes-of-seeking-information-and-how-to-design-for-
them/
48. Redesign
TASKS
• Find a baseball
• Find a gift for a upcoming party for a seven
year old
• Make users aware some balls are on sale
• Find again a good choice for that party
49. Classification has Consequences
• A physician who doesn’t see a new cure
• A poor student who can’t find financial aid
• A store where a product isn’t found
50. IA has Solutions
Information Architecture manages information
to make it findable
– Tagging with metadata
– Organizing with CV’s
– Creating navigation
systems
– Optimizing search
64. From “Why the Cassowary is not a bird”, R. Bulmer, Man, Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967)
64
65. From “Why the Cassowary is not a bird”, R. Bulmer, Man, Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967)
65
66. Who Cares?
• Ornithologists
• The Karam
• Information Architects
66
67. Dewey Decimal System
• 200-299 – Religion
Categories
• 40+ categories
related to
Christianity
• 1 for Judaism
• 1 for Islam (&
related)
67
68. Who Cares?
• Religious Scholars
• Librarians
• Information Architects
• Jews and Muslims
68
69. Context is King
• Classification reflects social and cultural
organization
• Information Architect must understand this
context
69
70. Get to know your audience…
1. Who are they?
Football Fan
70
71. Get to know your audience…
1. Who are they?
Football Fan?
71
72. Get to know your audience…
1. Who are they?
Show me
2. What do they care about? photos!
Are the Patriots
going to make the
playoffs?
What happened in
the last game?
72
73. Get to know your audience…
1. Who are they?
2. What do they care about?
3. How do they think of the information
and content?
Conference,
division…
Schedules,
standings…
73
74. Get to know your audience…
1. Observe others
2. Study Competitors and similar sites
3. Review your search logs
4. Do a card sort
74
75. Now what?
• Organize your information so it makes
sense to your audience
• Structure your information to help users
find it
• …using metadata
75
82. Metadata: what is it?
“Metadata tags are used to describe
documents, pages, images, software,
video and audio files, and other content
objects for the purposes of improved
navigation and retrieval”
‘Information Architecture for the World Wide Web’, 2nd ed., (2002)
Rosenfeld, L. & Morville, P.
82
86. Not all Metadata is equal
• What are users interested in?
• What do you want users to be able to find?
• What metadata makes management
easy?
• Tag content for findability
• Tag content for management
86
87. Exercise
• BALL
• Write as many descriptive words (or short
phrases) on your post-it
• One word (or phrase) per post-it
• Don’t share– yet! Hold on!
87
93. The French Academy
• Founded in 1635
• Multiple dialects
• Goal: purify the French language
• Goal: unify the nation (ensure that the
State and all citizens speak the same
language)
93
95. So what?
• So what are your goals?
• How will you ensure that your users and
your system speak the same language?
• How will you ensure they continue to do
so?
95
96. When humans and computers
interact
I want
I’ve got music.
music
96
97. Humans are good at figuring
things out
Rap.
Hip Hop Rock.
Dance.
97
100. And need help
?
Acid
Reggae?
IA
Let’s give them “Reggae”
and “Trance”
100
101. Of course, the IA can’t always be
there…
Thus Controlled vocabularies (CV)
Amy Warner defines a controlled vocabulary (CV)
as “organized lists of words and phrases, or
notation systems, that are used to initially tag
content, and then to find it through navigation
or search.”
101
102. Controlled Vocabularies
I define them as
Documented relationships of words and
concepts to assist people finding stuff.
Same dif.
102
104. Controlled vocabularies
• Relationships
B
A=B A A B
Equivalence
Hierarchal Associative
Christmas=
Winter Holidays > Christmas
Xmas
Christmas Tree | Santa
Claus
104
105. Synonym rings
• Simplest type
• Helps with search, indexing
• Simplifies maintenance
105
106. Synonym rings include
• Acronyms: BBC, British Broadcasting
Company; MPG, miles per gallon
• Variant spellings: cancelled, canceled;
honor, honour
• Scientific terms versus popular use
terms: acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin;
lilioceris, lily beetle
– From Synonym Rings and Authority Files
by Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel
106
107. Why Bother?
I’m tired of typing “Controlled
Vocabulary--- CV is shorter.
• Sometimes on
intranets, CV’s are
skipped
• You think you can
force people to use
proper terms
• But people are lazy
107
108. Why Bother?
I want a cannon camera.
• On the internet you want
to be found
• Plus users use short
queries
– Average queries are 2.5
words– 30% of searches are
one word queries
• On large scale sites, there is
enough data to do this
programmatically, but on small
sites, not.
108
109. Bizrate built a business off
mispellings
It may be the Canon PowerShot S30
109
110. But what do people call it?
Canon
S30 Cannon
S30
S30
Powershot
S30
110
113. Classification schemes
• Types of relationships
• Sibling:
Gap.com directories
» Men
» Women
» Maternity
» Body
» Boys
» Girls
» Baby boy
» Baby girl
113
116. Classification Schemes
Other Relationships
Alphabetical (administrative metadata)
Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Moore, Alan
Chronological (administrative
metadata)
New for You > New Releases > Books
Topic (descriptive metadata)
Comics > Graphic Novels > Horror
Amazon uses all of these, and more….
116
117. Thesauri
• Cadillac of Controlled Vocabularies
• Includes associative relationships
Preferred Variants Siblings Parent Associated
term
Christmas X-mas, Hanukah, Winter Santa Claus
Nöel Kwanzaa holidays
117
121. Content Inventory
Identify all content and attributes
• Link ID • Maintainer
• ROT • Expiration
• Document type • Access
• Topics/Keywords • Author
• Location • Existing/planned
121
122.
123. Term harvesting
• Look Inward • Log harvesting
– Your site – Search engines
– Current keywords – Overture
• Look outward • Ask people
– Magazines – Interviews
– Competitors – Card sorts
– Discussion lists – Free Listing
124
124. Sorting Terms
A Card Sort for Architects
• Multiple Groupings
– Equivalent UF cheese=fromage
– Broader terms BT cheese | dairy
– Narrower terms NT cheese | cheddar
– Related term RT cheese | crackers
125
125. Sleeping Bags
BT Camping
NT Down Sleeping Bags
NT Synthetic Sleeping Bags
NT Family Sleeping Bags
NT Cold Weather Sleeping Bags
NT 2-Season Sleeping Bags
NT 3-Season Sleeping Bags
NT Back Packing Sleeping Bags
NT Expedition Class Sleeping Bags
NT Ultralight Sleeping Bags
RT Backpacks
RT Ultralight Backpacking
RT Sleeping Bag Liners
RT Sleeping Pads
RT Stuff Sacks
RT Pillows
From Creating a Controlled Vocabulary
by Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/creating_a_controlled_vocabulary.php
126
126. Sorting conflicts
• Cheese goes in dairy or in sandwich
materials?
• A cheese basket?
• String cheese?
Choices fit strategy
127
127. Associations
• What is related
• What is required?
• What else is interesting?
Relevancy is king
128
128. Possible Relationships
• Process/agent
(camp fires/matches)
• Action/product of action (baking/cakes)
• Agent/counteragent
(allergies/antihistamine)
• Raw material/product (wool/sweater).
129
132. Is that all?
NO!
Life beyond enumerative
classification….
133
133. Faceted Classification
was developed, prior to the existence of
computers, by S. R. Ranganathan,
a Hindu mathematician
working as a librarian.
134
134. Ranganathan’s 5 Facets
• who: personality
• what: matter
• how: energy
• where: space
• when: time
135
135. Essential Qualities of a Facet
• Mutually exclusive; represents a characteristic
of division not found in any other facet
• Cannot be further sub-divided
• Relationships between facets are non-
hierarchical (though within facets…)
136
136.
137. Facets
The broad categories into which the
subject area is divided. A facet consists “... of a
group of terms that represents one, and only one,
characteristic of division of a subject field....no
two facets may contain terms that could represent
the same concepts.” —Louise Spiteri
138
138. Ordinary stuff?
Epicurious uses
facets to help
users find
recipes
139
143. Making Facets
1. Consider the universe of documents to be
indexed.
2. Consider user finding strategies.
3. Analyze each document to identify the facets.
4. Group isolates (simple-concept subjects) into
the facets.
5. Apply the notational system.
(I skipped some steps, to avoid wonking out….)
144
146. Homework
• Content inventory: what’s in your site?
• Organizational Scheme
– Hierarchal?
– Faceted?
– Combination?
• Portfolio Piece: Site map (a la Dan Brown’s
Communicating design Chapter 5)
Hinweis der Redaktion
Neolithic monument in present day TurkeyOccupied between 6300 BC to 5400 BCSupported a population of up to 6000 peopleIt was the largest and most cosmopolitan city of its time
Commodity, firmness, delight
The hotel had several design features that made up for its foundation:The reflecting pool (visible in the picture above) also provided a source of water for fire-fighting, saving the building from the post-earthquake firestorm;[1]Cantilevered floors and balconies provided extra support for the floors;A copper roof, which cannot fall on people below the way a tile roof can;Seismic separation joints, located about every 20 m along the building;Tapered walls, thicker on lower floors, increasing their strength;Suspended piping and wiring, instead of being encased in concrete, as well as smooth curves, making them more resistant to fracture.[2]
The MIT project, they were interviewing me for MIT and they sent their facilities people to Bilbao. I met them in Bilbao. They came for three days.W: This is the computer building.G: They were there for three days and it rained every day. And they kept walking around. I noticed they were looking under things and looking for things, and they wanted to know where the buckets were hidden, people putting buckets out. I was clean. There wasn't a bloody leak in the place. It was just fantastic. But you've got to -- yeah, well, up until then, every building leaked.W: Frank had a sort of -- sort of had a fame -- his -- his fame was built on that in L.A. for a while. You know, Frank, you've all heard the Frank Lloyd Wright story when the guy -- the woman called and said, "Mr. Wright, my -- I'm sitting in the couch and the water's pouring in on my head," and he said, "Madame, move your chair."G: So, some years later I was doing a little house on the beach for Norton Simon, and his secretary was kind of a hell-on-wheels type lady -- called me and said, Mr. Simon's sitting at his desk, and the water's coming in on his head, and I told him the Frank Lloyd Wright story.W: Didn't get a laugh.G: No. Not now either.
It's the "Then What?" that most clients who hire architects -- most clients aren't hiring architects for that. They're hiring them to get it done, get it on budget, you know, and not -- you know, be polite -- and they're missing out on the -- the real value of an architect.
Usonian houses were beautiful, human scaled.. And didn’t have closet space. Should we choose beauty over usability sometimes?
