Introduction to Information Architecture

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What Is Information Architecture
March 2011

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Outline
— What is Information Architecture
— Categories and Classification
— Five ways to organize information: LATCH
— Exploiting existing and potential metadata

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I. What is Information Architecture

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Information Architecture is
— discovering the kinds of information the site contains
— matching this information to the needs of the users
— determining the appropriate metadata structure
Information is
— a difference that makes a difference
— a pattern that provides a structure for understanding

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Jesse James Garrett: 5 Layer Process Model
— The Elements of User Experience,
Jesse James Garrett (2000)

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Information Architecture > Facets of User Experience
— Peter Morville (2004)

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The IA must understand
the data
— text coding systems: SGML/XML
— database storage
— information retrieval
the interaction models
— principals of user interface design
— user-based design methodology
— the limits of current web browser technology

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The IA must mediate
— the requirements of a client, who wants to present
information
— the needs of the user, who needs to find and consume that
information
— balance between the desirable and the possible

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Category and Classification
Categorization is
— the mental process of grouping things by perceptible similarity within
a given context.
— Creating groups through direct experience (bottom-up)

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— Categorization of
music
— Categories of music are
an expression of
listener’s perception
and as communities
emerge (bottom-up)

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Further category examples
Categories can be high-level: Categories can be continuous
Three Categories of Drugs Categories of Hurricanes:
• Depressants Category 1: 74-95 mph winds
• Stimulants Category 2: 96-110 mph winds
• Hallucinogens Category 3: 111-130 mph
winds
Category 4: 131-155 mph
winds
Category 5: 155+ mph winds

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Category and Classification
— Categorization is
the mental process of grouping things
by perceptible similarity
within a given context.
— Classification is
a set of classes
assigned according to a predetermined set of principles
used to impose order on a set of entities.
— Taxonomic classification establishes stability by applying
a set of rules to one domain (top-down)
— Classification system offer inter-operability benefits across applications

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— Classification of
biology
— Each living organism is
classified in the Tree of
Life taxonomy

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— MESH Classification of human diseases
— Each disease is located in one or more places in the Medical Subject
Headings (MESH) maintained by the National Library of Medicine in
Washington DC

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Category vs. Classification
— 3 Categories of hair color — Classification of hair color

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LATCH (+):
Five ways to organize information for ease of use (+One)
Location
Alphabet
Time
Category
Hierarchy
see Richard Saul Wurman, INFORMATION ANXIETY 2
plus Common Focus

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Location
“Location is chosen when the information who you are comparing
comes from several different sources or locales. Doctors use different
locations of the body to group and study medicine. Concerning an
industry you might want to know where on the world goods are
distributed.” WSW
— Location is the X/Y position in the context of a representation
— In the most abstract sense, the X and Y positioning of any object on a
plane is a purely visual distinction
— Location can be used to organize information a geographical region
(states, countries)
— Location can be used in relation to an object (such as the body)

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Alphabet
— “Alphabet is best used when you have enormous amount of data. For
example words in a dictionary or names in a telephone. As usually
everybody is familiar with the Alphabet, categorizing by Alphabet is
recommendable when not all the audience is familiar with different
kind of groupings or categories you could use instead.” WSW
— Reference to the order sequence of the letters in an alphabet
— Common 26 letter European alphabet
— Alphabetic order varies according to language

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New York Times Blog Directory,
November 2009

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Metropolitan Museum Timeline of Art History

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Time
“Time is the best form of categorization for events that happen over
fixed durations. Meeting schedules or our calendar are examples. The
work of important persons might be displayed as timeline as well. Time
is an easily framework in which changes can be observed and
comparisons made.” WSW
— Absolute reference to actual event in time
— Sequence of events in linear time, hours, days, months, years, decades,
centuries
— Potential for cycle as well as sequence

25. Herbert Bayer, WORLD GEOGRAPHIC ATLAS. A Composite of Man’s
Environment. Chicago: Container Corporation of America, 1953.

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Joseph Preistley: biographical timeline

28. French Regional & American Museum Exchange: Galleries

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Category
— “Category is an organization type often used for goods and industries.
Shops and services in the yellow pages are easy to find by category.
Retail stores are divided into e.g. men- and woman-clothing. This
mode works well to organizing items of similar importance.” WCW
— Categories are determined by similar content
— Each category is at the same level (“similar importance”)

31. New York
Times Blog
Directory,
November 2010

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Library of Congress American Memory: category as topic

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Hierarchy
“Hierarchy organizes by magnitude. From small to large, least
expensive to most expensive, by order of importance, etc. Hierarchy is
to be used if you want to assign weight or value to the ordered
information.” WSW
— Organized by sequence of importance
— Recursive sequence of whole to part, largest to smallest
— Hierarchy implies sequence of quantity

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Tree of Life

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A Sixth Method: Common Focus
— Organizing information by what users are touching
— Currently viewed
— Most discussed
— Most popular
— People who bought this item also bought…

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Le Monde: Most commented / Most emailed

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Amazon.com: exposing common purchase behavior

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How do we design navigational links between items?
— Indentify patterns that can be used to built links between units of data
— Patterns can come from the nature of the data AND/OR nature of use
— Shared Metadata: Structured information about a unit of data
• Such as date/time, owner, ID, subject, etc.
— Find facets / attributes / properties that can be associated used to identify
similarities between units of data in a collection
• Author name
• Publication date
• Subject

43. Implicit metadata:
— Document type
— File name
— Time/Date stamp

44. Implicit metadata:
— Documents
— Images
— Books
— Blogs

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The role of Metadata
— Associating the same metadata with items in different
collections can be used to
• Extract “related” item lists
• Create topic collections
— Unique Identifier (UID) codes for elements that appear in
several contexts can be particularly valuable
• Stock trading codes
• Book ISBN
• Part number

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Further Examples of Applied Metadata
— Scientific Publishing:
• Digital Object Identifier (DOI) used by publishers to identify a
publication unit, such as a scientific article, independent from the
print location (journal, vol. issue. page) or current URL location.
— Biomedical/Pharmaceudical:
• UID code for pharmaceutical product
— Finance:
• Symbol for publicly traded companies, stocks and bonds used to link
data and news

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Further Examples of Common Metadata
— Art: — Cinema:
• Artist • Movie title
• Title • Genre
• Collection • Director
• Exhibition • Actor(s)
• Location
— Writing: — Photographs:
• Author • Date/time
• Title • Location
• Publisher • Tag
• Subject/Tag • Title

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Différents types de visualisation / Visual forms of
sensemaking
— Spatial / Spatiale
— Argumentational / Argumentaire
— Faceted / En facettes
— Hierarchical / Hiérarchique
— Sequential / Séquentielle
— Networked / Groupée
from A classification of sensemaking representations,
Faisal, Attfield & Blandford , 2009

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Spatiale: distribution d’éléments exprimant leur relation d’un point de vue spatial, selon leur
emplacement dans une espace compréhensible comme une ville, un pays, une rivière, une
frontière,etc.
The Geography of Buzz:
Art, Culture and the Social
Milieu in Los Angeles and
New York, Currid &
Williams, 2009

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Spatial: visual distribution of items expressing their spatial relationship. Items appear in relation to
their location within an understood space: city, country, coast/river outline.
Art collections by museum, by collection, museesFRAME.org

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— Argumentaire: organisation multiple de propositions ou d’idées sous une forme argumentaire ( si/
alors/ pour/ contre) afin de rendre les relations entre les idées explicites.

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— En facettes : appliquer un lot commun de propriétés à plusieurs objets et les afficher, afin de
comparer les objets entre eux.
— Example: theyrule.net

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— Hiérarchique : organiser le contenu dans des catégories afin de grouper et de représenter les
quantités et les thèmes. Treemap of Google feeds by Marcos Weskamp
see Newsmap.jp

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— Sequentielle : organiser les éléments selon une séquence temporelle.
Corporate intranet management process for Schlumberger

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— Sequential: organize items along a time series. see American Time Use Survey

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— En réseau: relier les éléments en groupe / cluster diagrams
Mapping Iran’s Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere, Kelly & Etling

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— Blogosphère des élections présidentielles de 2007 blogopole.fr by RTGI/linkfluence

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See Data Visualisation and Journalism by Geoff McGhee for further examples