Organizing is a way of understanding and controlling the world. In this module, we'll discuss this from the perspective of "information architecture". Information Architecture organizes Web sites to make it easy for people to find what they need.

This information is largely based on the book, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites, by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville.

In in creating a Web site, the designer needs to keep two important perspectives in mind:

• The User’s Perspective
• The Producer’s Perspective

Users’ goal: to find information or services quickly and easily

• Some know exactly what they’re looking for
• Others have only a vague, general idea
• So good architecture supports multiple ways of finding information

Web site "owners" want good return on their investment

It's hard to give hard-and-fast figures, but we can give general ideas: Good organization of a Web site will give the site owners

• Time saved (= $$)
• Customer retention

Solve design problems early to save time and money!

The process involves several related aspects of design:

• Clarify site’s mission and vision
• Determine content and functionality
• Minimize the politics
• Map out how the site will change and grow
• Specify how users will find information by defining:
  • Organization
  • Navigation
  • Labeling
  • Searching systems

The Web allows multiple organizations for the same content, so what’s most important in creating good organizational structure?

• Creative problem solving
• Ability to "push the envelope"
• Thinking "outside the box"

Many organizational challenges face Web designers! Information used to be organized by librarians, but now everyone who puts information on the Web has to organize it.

The challenges include:

• Ambiguity
• Heterogeneity
• Differences in Perspectives
• Internal Politics
  

Language introduces ambiguity

• Example: pitch - what are all its meanings?

Labels can be misleading

Items can be classified in many ways

• Example: tomato - vegetable, fruit, or berry?

Abstract concepts are even harder to categorize!

Definition: "An object or collection of objects composed of unrelated or unlike parts"

Opposite: homogenous

Are Oreo cookies really homogenous?

Web sites are heterogeneous in three ways:

• Granularity: the level of detail the Web shows
• Multiple formats: the Web can convey many types of information
• Multiple audiences

What are some examples...?

This makes it difficult to impose one, simple organizational structure

People organize their information differently

• Example: files on a computer

There is no one "right" way to organize information

The "user" view is what we strive for - but there are many potential users of a Web site

The way information is organized affects how people perceive it.

Departments and people want to be perceived as important.

This leads them to fight over the way the organizational Web site shows them.

Web designers need to be sensitive to politics.

Their goal is to make sure the users' perspective is most important.

Organization Systems are composed of two parts:

• Organization SCHEME
• Organization STRUCTURES

These are logical ways of thinking about information - they are separate from the implementation details of a Web site.

There are two kinds of scheme:

• Finding a friend's name in the phone book: exact organization
• Finding marshmallows in a supermarket: hybrid topics/task-oriented organization

Exact organization schemes divide information into well defined, mutually exclusive sections, and are used for known-item searching.

Features:

• Relatively easy to design and maintain
• Little intellectual work necessary

Examples:

• Alphabetical
• Chronological (by time)
• Geographical (by place)

Ambiguous schemes divide information into categories

They are usually more difficult to set up and maintain, because items don't always fit well into categories.

• Example: tomato = vegetable? fruit? berry?

People use ambiguous schemes more often than exact schemes, and they are useful when people don't know exactly what they are looking for.

They usually move from general to specific information

Examples

• Topical: based on general classification, like plant and animal species
• Audience-specific: designed for known groups of users
• Metaphor-driven: based on familiar things known to everybody
• Hybrid schemes: mix several types of organization - can be good or bad

Organization Structures are ways in which people can navigate to information. Structures can be looked at in various ways (see module W70c); the ones we'll look at here include...

• Linear: one after another
• Hierarchy: top-down
• Hypertext: any piece of information can be linked to any other
• Database: information can be brought out as needed

Linear structure is the simplest, involving only links to a "next" page, or possibly a previous one. For this reason, it has limited applications on the Web. Slide shows are an example of linear structure.

A guided tour is one use for a linear structure.

• Purposes:
  • Introduction to new users
  • Sales pitch for subscription-only sites
• Methods:
  • Linear navigation <- Previous and Next -> links
  • Screen shots with narrative text

A hierarchy is a top-down approach, familiar to most people. Many real-world organizations use hierarchies, for example:

• military structure
• most corporate structures
• plant and animal species

A hierarchy is a good structure to begin with, but don't let it trap you!

Designing Hierarchies

Hierarchy provides the best combination of understandability and simplicity in designing a Web site. Here are some general guidelines for designing with hierarchies:

• Mostly keep items in only one category
• Balance broad and deep structures
• Broad or shallow structures, such as the directory "tree" illustrated here:
  
  • allow shorter paths to information...
  • ...but can give an overwhelming number of choices.
  • 10 menu items is about maximum

• Deep structures:
  • simplify the first pages...
  • ...but can require too many clicks
  • 5 levels of depth is about maximum

Distributed or Hypertext structure allows any piece of information to be linked to any other. This gives great flexibility to the designer, but can lead to confusion for both the designer and the user.

As an organizational principle, the best way to use distributed structure is to add it to a simpler structure such as a hierarchy, in the form of links that take the user to all the important pages on the site.

What Is It?

A Database is:

• Collection of information
• Divided into records
• Records consist of fields
• Each field has the same kind of information

Database Advantages

• Information put into a database can be displayed in many ways
• Sites based on databases can be repurposed easily
• Information can be used in different contexts (Web, printed, etc.)
• Every field can be a different way to organize the records

Database Disadvantages

• Records must follow rigid rules
• Entire content of a Web page cannot easily be put into a database
• Database information must be merged into a Web page template

Designing Databases

• Relational database records are grouped into "tables"
• Each database table is linked to others by key fields
• Database design can be complex

Implementing Databases

• Static HTML pages can be produced once and put on a server
• Dynamic Web pages can be produced "on the fly"
• Static Web pages can be indexed by Web search engines
• Dynamic pages can't be indexed by search engines, and are sometimes called the "dark matter" of the Web.

For consistency, large Web sites should use controlled vocabularies. A controlled vocabulary is a list of words or expressions where

• one expression will always be used to represent the same thing on a Web site
• one thing on a Web site will always be referred to with the same expression

This allows easier searching, and for browsable indexes can be generated automatically.

The term cohesive refers to things that "stick together". The issue here is, how do we create Web sites that "stick together"?

Start the organizational process by making a list of contents. Then break down the (proposed) contents into components.

The smaller the components, the easier it is to organize them.

Information systems work best when applied to narrow domains of homogeneous content.

Remember "Exact" and "Ambiguous" organization schemes?

• If your users will be doing any known-item searching, use exact organization schemes.
• If they are likely to do some ambiguous browsing and associative learning, use ambiguous organization schemes.
• Use both types whenever possible

Most large sites require all three major types of structure:

• Hierarchical
  • Good for overall "umbrella" organization
• Hypertext
  • Good for less structured, creative relationships
• Database
  • Good for structured, homogeneous information