Today's class:
The organization and presentation of information for a user-directed purpose.
Information design is a process, not a set of rules.
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
by Rosenfeld & Morville (O'Reilly)
Job of Information Architect: (p.11)
Graphic Design
Information or Library Science
Journalism
Usability Engineering
Marketing
Computer Science
"It just amazes me, the ads I see from headhunters," says Adobe's Wendy Govier, who runs the software designer's Web site and is herself in the market for a Webmaster. "They're looking for someone who's a good writer and editor, knows Java, Perl and C++, a graphic designer who knows production and can coordinate projects across multiple departments to do both the Internet and the intranet...a hybrid of 20 people." (Web Review)
Edward Tufte remarked that most sites reflect the organization's structure rather than the information needs of the user.
Most corporate sites have to serve multiple missions, multiple departments. Is there a central site serving all? Does each department have a site? Does each product have a site?
Job of Information Architect is to establish a user-centered design process.
|
Scheme |
Example |
|---|---|
|
Chronological |
What's New, Press Releases, Archives. |
|
Geographical |
Maps; Spatial Layouts, including tours. |
|
Alphabetical |
Reference lists; Dictionary browsing. |
|
Topical |
Subject-specific site |
|
Task-oriented |
get a stock quote; buy; sell; research |
|
Audiences |
create paths for different audiences; customers; distributors; |
|
Metaphor |
desktop; library; showroom; |
Linear structures are fairly rigid but useful.
Hierarchical organizations are usually flattened on the Web.
Associative structure (hypertext) provides for point-to-point leaps, where user maintains his or her own context. Trouble with associative structures is that user often doesn't know where he or she is about to go.
|
|
Oakland | Locator | Turk.Dict. | S.Speak | Russian | Breadcrumbs | Art |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Chronological |
X | X | X | ||||
|
Geographical |
X | ||||||
|
Alphabetical |
X | ||||||
|
Topical |
X | X | |||||
|
Task-oriented |
X | X | X | ||||
|
Audiences |
X | X | |||||
|
Metaphor |
X | X | X |
Minimalist strategy
| User interface | User access to features and functions |
| Presentation interface | Enhance communication. |
| Information interface | How information is organized for access |
Experiential -- Entertainment/Journalism/Travel
Another good example: A Passion for Art by Corbis
Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet
Women's Suffrage Collection at Library of Congress
icons unclear
information not really usable, more like decoration;
garish, unsettling graphics
Let's Buy Pants from the Gap
Let's Buy a Car from GMbuypower.com
We were stretching the magazine metaphor as far as we could go. In our first half-year, we had the resources to build fairly complex story layouts.
Digital Academy, October 13, 1995
Mozilla, Dec. 8, 1995
Webula, October 27, 1995
Web95, December 22, 1995
Leonard's Clickstream
Review elements of current design.
An Interactive entertainment produced by Tom Arriola