Presented at MIX Conference (Taipei, Taiwan; May 4, 2018)

1. Falling in and out
and in love with
Information Architecture
Lou Rosenfeld • May 4, 2018

4. what I’ll cover
What information architecture is
Why we fall in love with it
Why we fall out of love with it
And why we fall back in love with it

5. 1
What is
information architecture?

6. A definition
“The craft of structuring, organizing, and
labeling information to make it easier
to find and understand.”

7. Questions to answer
What are the common information needs?
What are common information-seeking behaviors?
What content goes where?
What content goes together?
What content is most important?

8. Information architecture
ingredients

9. (obligatoryVenn diagram)

10. From http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000024.html

11. Information architecture components
• Labeling systems: metadata, controlled vocabularies, thesauri
• Organization systems: taxonomies, content models, ontologies
• Navigation systems: top-down/site-wide, contextual
• Search systems: interface design, indexing, results design

12. Finding +
understanding
=
iterative searching /
browsing / learning

13. Information architecture
is always present

14. From https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chess#mediaviewer/File:Opening_chess_position_from_black_side.jpg

15. From https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Postcard-for-correspondence-chess_%28trimmed_image%29.png

18. Information architecture
is invisible

19. Information architecture
is invisible
…until it’s not

21. From https://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?178

22. From https://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?178

24. today

25. today

26. today
search
navigation,
labeling, organization

27. today

28. today
content model
metadata
metadata
content object
content object
content objectcontent object
content object

29. Information architecture
helps makers
as well as users

30. From https://biblioklept.org/2013/05/15/joseph-hellers-handwritten-outline-for-catch-22/

31. From “Information Architecture in Real Life” Are Halland:
https://www.slideshare.net/aregh/information-architecture-in-real-life-part-i
From “Information Architecture for the WWW” 2nd ed.

32. Information architecture
is a lens on culture

35. Information architecture
can be dangerous

37. 2
Falling in love with
information architecture

38. It’s natural to
organize stuff…
the Bower Bird
Ptilonorhynchidae

39. From http://www.viralforest.com/bower-bird/
the Bower Bird
Ptilonorhynchidae

40. From http://www.viralforest.com/bower-bird/
the Bower Bird
Ptilonorhynchidae

41. From http://www.viralforest.com/bower-bird/
the Bower Bird
Ptilonorhynchidae

42. the Information Architect
Homo sapiens inconfusus

43. the Information Architect
Homo sapiens inconfusus

44. the Information Architect
Homo sapiens inconfusus
…and fun too

45. The gravity of the gaps

46. The gravity of the gaps

47. It’s necessary
to organize stuff
Read about my experience consulting for the US Department of Veterans Affairs: http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/2009/07/shame_and_disgust.html

48. It’s necessary
to organize stuff
…and ethical too
Read about my experience consulting for the US Department of Veterans Affairs: http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/2009/07/shame_and_disgust.html

49. 3
Falling out of love with
information architecture

50. Mgmt.
incentives
for teams
"Org chart"
site map
Topical
guides
Site-wide
site index
Content
inventory
Content
analysis
Ubiquitous
simple
search IF
Index all
enterprise
content
K-logs for
key people
Wikis for
key teams
Top-Down
Navigation
Bottom-Up
Navigation
Search
"Guerrilla"
Information
Architecture
"Shallow"
topical
hierarchy
Topical
site map
Topical
subsites
Product
hierarchy
Business
function
hierarchy
"Deep"
topical
hierarchy
Specialized
content
index
Select
content
models
Identify
content
objects
Metadata
for objects
Linking
rules for
objects
Connect
content
models
Spell-
checking
Stemming
Develop
"Best
Bets"
Clustered
by existing
metadata
Remove
duplicate
results
Clustered
from auto-
classification
Consistent
document
titling
Clustered
by topical
metadata
Clustered
by fielded
criteria
Document
auto-
classification
Document
auto-
categorization
Consistent
semantic
metadata
Cross-walking/
switching
vocabs.
Meta- or
enterprise
thesaurus
Link staff
directory
to k-logs
Link staff
directory
to wikis
Broaden
k-log
coverage
Broaden
wiki
coverage
K-log
aggregation
(RSS)
HR
incentives
for KM
K-logs made
searchable
Wikis made
searchable
Site
hierarchy
Site map
"Org chart"
hierarchy
Site index
Selective
navigation
Content
modeling
Metadata
development
Search
queries
Search results
Content from
teams,
communities
Content from
experts
Launch
content
models
Synonyms
from
thesauri
Enterprise Information Architecture Roadmap
Louis Rosenfeld http://www.louisrosenfeld.com
Version 3.0; February, 2006 Your mileage will vary.
Many enterprises have failed to integrate content from across
departmental "silos" in ways that make sense to users. This Roadmap
breaks down information architecture design into four major tracks, and
plots concrete steps within each track over time with the goal of making
information easier to find across silos. Use the Roadmap as a straw man
to inform and shape your own enterprise IA strategy.
Want more?
• Definitions, explanation, and discussion:
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000359.html
• Enterprise Information Architecture seminar with Lou Rosenfeld:
http://louisrosenfeld.com/eia/
Consistent
structural
metadata
Use connective
tools (a la
Technorati)
K-logs linked
from
taxonomy
Wikis linked
from
taxonomy
Enable user
keyword
tagging
Metadata
gap
analysis
Delete site
index
Faceted
navigation
Politicized
main page
User-
centered
main page
Main page
Enterprise
-centered
main page
"Revise
search"
interface
Search
interface
Consistent
specialized
search IFs
Consistent
simple search
IF design
Metadata
attribute
inventory
Metadata
tagging
Acquire
external
CVs
Metadata
value
inventory
Enable author
keyword
tagging
Manual
tagging of
key areas
Tuning of
automatic
tagging
Concept-
searching
Very Soon Near Term Long Term Way Off © 2006 Louis Rosenfeld LLC.
All right reserved.
Site-wide index
from common
queries
Faceted
metadata

53. Big IA challenges require
changing culture more than sites

54. Big IA challenges require
changing culture more than sites
and… big evidence

55. Reports from the user research group

56. Query data from the search team
XXX.XXX.X.104 - - [10/Jul/2013:10:25:46 -0800] "GET /search?
access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1
&site=AllSites&ie=UTF-8&client=www&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=ww
w&q=lincense+plate&ip=XXX.XXX.X.104 HTTP/1.1" 200 971 0 0.02
XXX.XXX.X.104 - - [10/Jul/2013:10:25:48 -0800] "GET /search?
access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ie=U
TF-8&client=www&q=license+plate
&ud=1&site=AllSites&spell=1&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=www&ip=XX
X.XXX.X.104 HTTP/1.1" 200 8283 146 0.16
XXX.XXX.XX.130 - - [10/Jul/2013:10:24:38 -0800] "GET /search?
access=p&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1
&site=AllSites&ie=UTF-8&client=www&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=ww

57. Logs from the call center

58. Reports from analytics applications

59. “Learnings” fromVoice of the Customer research

60. Reports from CRM applications

61. Surveys behind Net Promoter Score

62. Studies from the research center

63. Analysis of
social media

64. Brand architecture research

65. No shortage of evidence
But how do we make sense of it?

66. What
Why

67. Methods employed:
quantitative versus qualitative

68. Goals: help org or users
Organizational goals
Users’ goals

69. How they use data: measuring
world we know versus world
we don’t
Measuring the world we know
Exploring the world we don’t

70. Descriptive data
Statistical data

71. The blind men and the
elephant
The insight gap

72. The operations gap

73. WeWork’s Polaris
1. Siloed research
2. Gaps in research memory
3. Reports instead of insight

74. WeWork: "nuggetization" +
metadata

75. WeWork: "nuggetization" +
metadata
content objects
metadata

76. WeWork: "nuggetization" +
metadata

77. WeWork: "nuggetization" +
metadata

78. WeWork: filter/search this stuff
content objects
metadata

79. WeWork: an insight
content objects
metadata

80. 4
Falling back in love with
information architecture

81. Opportunity
Information architecture
for enabling operations

82. metadata

83. metadata

84. metadata!!!!

85. from DevOps: https://devops.com/2014/04/07/evolve-devops/
DevOps => DecisionOps
DevOps

86. from DevOps: https://devops.com/2014/04/07/evolve-devops/
DevOps => DecisionOps
DevOps DesignOps

87. from DevOps: https://devops.com/2014/04/07/evolve-devops/
DevOps => DecisionOps
DevOps DesignOps ResearchOps

88. from DevOps: https://devops.com/2014/04/07/evolve-devops/
DevOps => DecisionOps
DevOps DesignOps ResearchOps InsightOps

89. from DevOps: https://devops.com/2014/04/07/evolve-devops/
DevOps => DecisionOps
DevOps DesignOps ResearchOps InsightOps
Operations is nascent… and requires IA
CreativeOps, Social Media Ops, DataOps…

90. Opportunity
Information architecture
enables Artificial Intelligence

91. “AI requires machine learning, machine learning
requires analytics, and analytics requires the
right data and information architecture (IA). In
other words, there is no AI without IA.”
— RobThomas, general manager at IBM Analytics.
From VentureBeat, January 2018 https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/12/the-road-to-ai-leads-through-information-architecture/

92. From presentation “AI and ML Demystified”; Carol Smith at Midwest UX 2017:
https://www.slideshare.net/carologic/ai-and-machine-learning-demystified-by-carol-smith-at-midwest-ux-2017/16-AI_and_ML_Demystified_carologic

93. From presentation “AI and ML Demystified”; Carol Smith at Midwest UX 2017:
https://www.slideshare.net/carologic/ai-and-machine-learning-demystified-by-carol-smith-at-midwest-ux-2017/16-AI_and_ML_Demystified_carologic
Information architect as
teacher of algorithms

94. Opportunity
Information architecture
improves everyday experiences

95. Reconsidering the IA of books…
FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
What do you mean by “content everywhere”?
The way I talk about it, “content everywhere” doesn’t mean splattering your
message in every corner of the Web. It’s about investing in content that’s
flexible enough to go wherever you need it: multiple websites, apps, chan-
nels, and other experiences. Why? Because devices of all shapes, sizes, and
capabilities are flooding the market, and users expect to get your content on
all of them, which you can read about in Chapter 1.
Right now, most organizations can barely keep up with their large, unwieldy
desktop websites, much less multiple different sets of content for all these
different experiences. Content everywhere is all about learning how to pre-
pare one set of content to go wherever it’s needed—now and in the future.
What do you mean by structured content,
and why is it so important?
Today, most digital content is unstructured: just words poured onto a page.
To signify where one part ends and another begins, writers use formatting,
like upping a font size to be a headline or putting an author’s name in italics.
This works fine if your content is only going to be used on a single page and
viewed on a desktop monitor, but that’s about it.
Structured content, on the other hand, is created in smaller modules, which
can be stored and used in lots more ways. For example, you could display
a headline and a copy teaser in one place, and have a user click to read the
rest—something you can’t do if the story is all one blob. You can give the
same content different presentation rules when it’s displayed on mobile,
such as resizing headlines or changing which content is prioritized or
emphasized—automatically. In this way, adding structure actually makes
content more flexible, because it allows you to do more with it. You can learn
about this in Chapter 5.
But don’t I need different, simpler content for mobile?
Inserted an FAQ before
the TOC for additional
context, navigation, and
orientation

96. Reconsidering the IA of books…
FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
What do you mean by “content everywhere”?
The way I talk about it, “content everywhere” doesn’t mean splattering your
message in every corner of the Web. It’s about investing in content that’s
flexible enough to go wherever you need it: multiple websites, apps, chan-
nels, and other experiences. Why? Because devices of all shapes, sizes, and
capabilities are flooding the market, and users expect to get your content on
all of them, which you can read about in Chapter 1.
Right now, most organizations can barely keep up with their large, unwieldy
desktop websites, much less multiple different sets of content for all these
different experiences. Content everywhere is all about learning how to pre-
pare one set of content to go wherever it’s needed—now and in the future.
What do you mean by structured content,
and why is it so important?
Today, most digital content is unstructured: just words poured onto a page.
To signify where one part ends and another begins, writers use formatting,
like upping a font size to be a headline or putting an author’s name in italics.
This works fine if your content is only going to be used on a single page and
viewed on a desktop monitor, but that’s about it.
Structured content, on the other hand, is created in smaller modules, which
can be stored and used in lots more ways. For example, you could display
a headline and a copy teaser in one place, and have a user click to read the
rest—something you can’t do if the story is all one blob. You can give the
same content different presentation rules when it’s displayed on mobile,
such as resizing headlines or changing which content is prioritized or
emphasized—automatically. In this way, adding structure actually makes
content more flexible, because it allows you to do more with it. You can learn
about this in Chapter 5.
But don’t I need different, simpler content for mobile?
Inserted an FAQ before
the TOC for additional
context, navigation, and
orientation
Navigation

97. Story arc from Donna Lichaw’s
The User’s Journey
(Rosenfeld Media, 2016)
…and conferences

99. PARTY!

100. PARTY!

101. PARTY!
delayed Climax!

106. Now is
the time!
• Tribal information architecture is over
• Moving beyond website information
architecture
• More gaps than ever before
• The ethics of finding and using information
more important than ever

107. if we have time
a thought about
Venn diagrams

108. From https://uxdesign.cc/ux-venn-diagrams-82e11e35570e

109. From http://peoplevendor.com/ux-design-services/

110. From http://jemrosario.com/portfolio-item/camh-content-strategy/

111. From https://www.pinterest.co.uk/source/ux.stackexchange.com/

112. From https://ia.net/topics/the-spectrum-of-user-experience-1

114. It’s all about the intersection

115. It’s all about the intersection
convergence

116. It’s all about the intersection
It’s your journey; surrender to it
convergence

117. Thanks!
slides
https://rfld.me/2JQeGgH
Lou Rosenfeld
@louisrosenfeld
lou@rosenfeldmedia.com
www.rosenfeldmedia.com • @rosenfeldmedia