Log In
Or create an account ->
Imperial Library
Home
About
News
Upload
Forum
Help
Login/SignUp
Index
Preface
What’s New in the Fourth Edition
Organization of This Book
Audience for This Book
Conventions Used in This Book
Contacting the Authors
Using Code Examples
Safari® Books Online
How to Contact Us
Acknowledgments
I. Introducing Information Architecture
1. The Problems That Information Architecture Solves
Hello, iTunes
The Problems Information Architecture Addresses
Information Overload
More Ways to Access Information
Enter Information Architecture
Places Made of Language
Coherence Across Channels
Systems Thinking
Recap
2. Defining Information Architecture
A Definition
Just Because You Can’t See It, Doesn’t Mean It Isn’t There
Toward a Damned Good Information Architecture
Context
Content
Users
Recap
3. Design for Finding
The “Too-Simple” Information Model
Information Needs
Information-Seeking Behaviors
Learning About Information Needs and Information-Seeking Behaviors
Recap
4. Design for Understanding
A Sense of Place
The Architecture of (Real-World) Places
Places Made of Information
Organizing Principles
Structure and Order
Typologies
Modularity and Extensibility
The Happiest Place(s) on Earth
Recap
II. Basic Principles of Information Architecture
5. The Anatomy of an Information Architecture
Visualizing Information Architecture
Top-Down Information Architecture
Bottom-Up Information Architecture
Invisible Information Architecture
Information Architecture Components
Browsing Aids
Search Aids
Content and Tasks
“Invisible” Components
Recap
6. Organization Systems
Challenges of Organizing Information
Ambiguity
Heterogeneity
Differences in Perspectives
Internal Politics
Organizing Information Environments
Organization Schemes
Exact Organization Schemes
Alphabetical
Chronological
Geographical
Ambiguous Organization Schemes
Topical organization scheme
Task-oriented schemes
Audience-specific scheme
Metaphor-driven scheme
Hybrid schemes
Organization Structures
The Hierarchy: A Top-Down Approach
Designing hierarchies
The Database Model: A Bottom-Up Approach
Hypertext
Social Classification
Creating Cohesive Organization Systems
Recap
7. Labeling Systems
Why You Should Care About Labeling
Varieties of Labels
Labels as Contextual Links
Labels as Headings
Labels within Navigation Systems
Labels as Index Terms
Iconic Labels
Designing Labels
General Guidelines
Narrow scope whenever possible
Labeling is easier if your content, users, and context are kept simple and focused.
Develop consistent labeling systems, not labels
Sources of Labeling Systems
Your current information environment
Comparable and competitive environments
Controlled vocabularies and thesauri
Creating New Labeling Systems
Content analysis
Content authors
User advocates and subject matter experts
Directly from users
Card sorting
Free-listing
Indirectly from users
Search-log analysis
Tuning and Tweaking
Recap
8. Navigation Systems
Types of Navigation Systems
Gray Matters
Browser Navigation Features
Placemaking
Improving Flexibility
Embedded Navigation Systems
Global Navigation Systems
Local Navigation Systems
Contextual Navigation
Implementing Embedded Navigation
Supplemental Navigation Systems
Sitemaps
Indexes
Guides
Configurators
Search
Advanced Navigation Approaches
Personalization and Customization
Visualization
Social Navigation
Recap
9. Search Systems
Does Your Product Need Search?
Search System Anatomy
Choosing What to Index
Determining Search Zones
Navigation versus destination
Indexing for specific audiences
Indexing by topic
Indexing recent content
Selecting Content Components to Index
Search Algorithms
Pattern-Matching Algorithms
Recall and precision
Other Approaches
Query Builders
Presenting Results
Which Content Components to Display
How Many Documents to Display
Listing Results
Sorting by alphabet
Sorting by chronology
Ranking by relevance
Ranking by popularity
Ranking by users’ or experts’ ratings
Ranking by pay-for-placement
Grouping Results
Acting on Results
Call to action
Select a subset of results
Save a search
Designing the Search Interface
The Box
Autocomplete and Autosuggest
Advanced Search
Supporting Revision
Repeat search in results page
Explain where results come from
Explain what the user did
Integrate searching with browsing
When Users Get Stuck
Where to Learn More
Recap
10. Thesauri, Controlled Vocabularies, and Metadata
Metadata
Controlled Vocabularies
Synonym Rings
Authority Files
Classification Schemes
Thesauri
Technical Lingo
A Thesaurus in Action
Types of Thesauri
Classic Thesaurus
Indexing Thesaurus
Searching Thesaurus
Thesaurus Standards
Semantic Relationships
Equivalence
Hierarchical
Associative
Preferred Terms
Term Form
Term Selection
Term Definition
Term Specificity
Polyhierarchy
Faceted Classification
Recap
III. Getting Information Architecture Done
11. Research
A Research Framework
Context
Getting Buy-In
Background Research
Introductory Presentations
Research Meetings
Strategy team meeting
Content management meeting
Information technology meeting
Stakeholder Interviews
Technology Assessment
Content
Heuristic Evaluation
Content Analysis
Gathering content
Analyzing content
Content Mapping
Benchmarking
Competitive benchmarking
Before-and-after benchmarking
Users
Usage Analysis
Search-Log Analysis
Customer-Support Data
Participant Definition and Recruiting
Surveys
Contextual Inquiry
Focus Groups
User Research Sessions
Interviews
Card Sorting
User Testing
In Defense of Research
Overcoming Research Resistance
You’re likely to save time and money by doing research
Managers don’t know what your users want
We need to do information architecture research
Recap
12. Strategy
What Is an Information Architecture Strategy?
Strategies Under Attack
From Research to Strategy
Developing the Strategy
Think
Articulate
Communicate
Test
Work Products and Deliverables
Metaphor Exploration
Scenarios
Sample scenario
Case Studies and Stories
Conceptual Diagrams
Sitemaps and Wireframes
The Strategy Report
A Sample Strategy Report
Executive summary
Audiences, mission, and vision for the site
Lessons learned
Architectural strategies and approaches
Content management
The Project Plan
Presentations
Recap
13. Design and Documentation
Guidelines for Diagramming an Information Architecture
Communicating Visually
Sitemaps
High-Level Architecture Sitemaps
Digging Deeper into Sitemaps
Keeping Sitemaps Simple
Detailed Sitemaps
Organizing Your Sitemaps
Wireframes
Types of Wireframes
Wireframe Guidelines
Content Mapping and Inventory
Content Models
Why Do They Matter?
Supporting contextual navigation
Coping with large amounts of content
An Example
A Valuable Process
Controlled Vocabularies
Design Collaboration
Design Sketches
Interactive Prototypes
Point-of-Production Information Architecture
Putting It All Together: Information Architecture Style Guides
The “Why” Stuff
The “How” Stuff
Recap
A. CODA
Putting the Arc in Information Architecture
A Recap of What We’ve Learned
Now It’s Your Turn
B. Appendix
Books
Professional Organizations
Index
← Prev
Back
Next →
← Prev
Back
Next →