IA Notes

structured brainstorming that shows relationships among concepts

-visualize how ideas are connected and how knowledge is organized

-show relationship ideas

-gather information in a random, organizing manner

-improves comprehension and problem solving skills

• brainstorm
• post-it notes
• create a mind map
• chunking
• -developed by george miller
• -how people remember data/info
• -reduce information overload
• -groups of 7 +/- 2 items
• -inherent relationship with labels applied to those chunks of information

A methodical review of a web site's content, or a taking stock of what you've go.

Content inventory answers the "what" goes where?

You need to know what you have to work with before youcan organize it better

Helps in getting to know the content deeply As important to a re-architecture as understanding usergoals and business goals

Offers an opportunity to create associations acrossgroupings, identify redundancies, and possibly, slice italong a different grain.

• A Survey
• A Detailed Audit
• A Content Map

A high-level review (not detailed) of core site pages,usually taken atthe beginning of a project

Helps to understand the scope and nature of thematerial—the type of content, what topics it covers,and so on

Provides a clear understanding of the major chunks ofsite content

Can be used on its own, or as a launching point forother inventories

A comprehensive page-by-page site inventory

When complete, the audit lists every page by name and URL, assigns it a unique number to identify it, and listsmajor attributes of the page that will eventually formpart of the important meta data

Often easier to begin the detailed audit by doing aquick survey to flesh out a basic framework beforebeginning the page-by-page site review. Thecompleted audit is useful during migration to contentmanagement systems

High-level “chunking” of content taken from a 6000 line spreadsheet. Easier for team to wrap their headsaround.

however, the term is now applied in a wider, moregeneral sense and now may refer to a classification of things,as well as to the principles underlying such a classification.

Labels like organization and navigation systems aresystems on their own right.

• Labeling systems require planning to succeed.
• You can make a bad impression with a label
• -“Cool”, “Hot”, “Stuff” -- Professional?
• - “Order Processing & Fulfillment” -- Self-Centered?

<META>/<TITLE> Tags Indexing “heard but not seen”View the source code - are meta tags present where they should be?

• Headings
• Be consistent in terminology, granularity, and punctuation
• Link Labels (contextual links)
• Embedded links in the text
• Never “Click Here”
• Highlight only the essential words

• Iconic LabelsCan have a different meaning in a global context Few truly recognizable icons
• Hard to convey abstract concepts

Show the user your organization and navigationsystems

Communicate without taking up too much of thepage’s vertical or horizontal space, and theuser’s cognitive space.

Consider using standard labels:

• Home, Home Page, Main, Main Page
• Search, Find, Browse, Site Map, Contents, Index Contact, Contact us, Contact Support, Feedback Help, FAQ
• News, What’s New
• About, About Us, About <company>, Who we are

• Current Web Site
• Other Web Sites
• Books (Table of Contents) about the subject
• Labels from Content (Brochures, Reports, etc.) Controlled Vocabularies

• Users come first
• Put things where they are easy or logical to find (Couldyour mom find this?)
• Use simple, descriptive names for items and pages
• Avoid duplicating information
• How will you present bulky, lengthy information?
• multiple information pages (Level 3 and 4)
• one single introductory page plus link to downloadable file
• one page but with additional page-specific navigation links(anchor links)
• Review and consolidate your site structure as it evolves

1. Define your site’s goals (vision statement – web specific)

2. Define and profile your audience & develop tasks(scenario, demographics

3. Undertake a content inventory (survey, audit, map)

4. Organize/Group your data (Structure, facet-basedbrowsing?, Metaphor?)

5. Label your content (concept mapping, facet-based browsing?,Metaphor)