Information architecture is very often the over looked, under valued and misunderstood element of information management projects. Shiny and spectacular, feature rich software applications get all the attention.

However, in our experience, getting your information architecture right is one of the single most important elements to a project, and can make the difference between a mildly annoying, slightly confusing user experience and a site or system that is structured in such a way that the information is where the target users 'expect' the information to be.

Getting it right

To ensure that you get it right, you need to clearly understand your different target audiences and their motivations will need to be identified, as well as an understanding of their terminologies, graphic vocabularies and how they "view the world". The site, system and content can then be structured in a way that delivers the expected result. It should be remembered that the 'information architecture' of the site or system (deciding where content exists) should not be taken forward without consideration of the online brand development and 'voice' of the user interface. Content, layout, site structure and 'voice' should all feel harmonious and consistent.

Very often this means going beyond a simple taxonomy, considering wider aspects of tagging and folksonomy, whilst also focussing on brand messages and functionality, enabling users to access and understand content without creating artificial barriers through misunderstandings.

Ixxus has a leading information architecture practice and can help you get it right for your project.

The Ixxus Approach

Herewith an overview as to our thinking and approach:

• When a user is searching for a piece of information, you need an understanding of what problem they are trying to solve, the user’s context and use of terminology, how information is classified and processed.
• If you understand these and the content is properly analysed, classified and tagged, you dramatically improve your system’s sensitivity and specificity.
• A key foundation enabler is to have your Information Architecture in place - early

Companies and organizations face increasing pressure to manage the huge volumes of information now created, and are waking up to the fact that technology and software alone cannot solve their problems.

An Information Architecture is vital to enable your information to be created, managed and used as efficiently as possible.

• Historically search engines alone have been used to provide information access and retrieval services - this had limitations:
  • It’s estimated only 33% of relevant information was captured via key word searching.
  • Search engines assumed that you knew what you were looking for and could be specific in the use of your keywords.
• Typically search engine users never use more then a single term in a search.
  • Hence, search terms will return a much greater number of hits.
  • Often no attention is paid to the fact that a single word search might require:
    • synonyms,
    • alternative spellings or
    • the same concept expressed in a different language.
• A Yahoo market research exercise showed 75% of participants preferred browsing a taxonomic structure to searching as it allowed them to view all the documents related to a particular topic.

An Information Architecture consists of:

• Metadata Framework creation
  • Defining the metadata policies and specifications governing information flows across an organisation.
• Metadata Schema development
  • Developing a formal definition (schema) of the metadata required for the organisation requires detailed expertise of existing metadata standards and how they might be applied and modified for the organisation’s particular knowledge management environment.
• Thesauri, Taxonomy development
  • As the organisation’s datasets expand, the task of organising them becomes increasingly problematic and complex. By creating thesauri and taxonomies this data can be organised enabling more efficient navigation.

The Introduction of Taxonomies

• A taxonomy seeks to encompass and provide labels for all the significant concepts within a particular domain.
• A taxonomy provides a hierarchical structure for these concepts, from the broadest to the narrowest, allowing users to understand the context of each label or term as they navigate.
• The taxonomic structure can be applied to topics, organizations, places, or any other categories of concept which relate to each other hierarchically.
• For a law firm for example, typically a taxonomy consists of the following core classifications:
  • practice group,
  • sub-practice group,
  • topic,
  • jurisdiction,
  • office,
  • language, and
  • document type.
• A true legal taxonomy will account for legislation, regulations, rulings, business sectors and a whole range of very specific legal markers.
• It is the basis for storage and retrieval of a firm's best practices legal documents - precedents, know-how and work product (along with business development, professional development and administration documents).

The focus of an Information Architecture and the reality of what’s typically in place today

• An Information Architecture at its highest level needs to support two goals:
  • Make it easier to profile / submit content
  • Improve the find-ability of the content
• Typically, within an organisation one will find:
  • Different versions of the same taxonomy in place
  • Different field labels for the same metadata
  • Different formats for the profiling and selection of the same metadata
    • i.e. drop-downs, check boxes, radio buttons

How can we help you?

An Ixxus service - Information Architecture Audit and Roadmap.

• Ixxus have developed a short consulting engagement to perform an Information Architecture Audit of an organisations existing data standards as they are currently used in the information management systems.
• Findings and recommendations are delivered.
• Additionally, a roadmap is developed for establishing an Information Architecture to fully support the organisations existing or planned information management systems.
• This initial exercise can be delivered in approximately 20 days.
• It can be conducted independently of any ongoing enterprise content management or enterprise search project.

Description of Services - Audit

• Analysis of organisations existing data standards (i.e. metadata / taxonomies) as they are currently used in knowledge and content management systems
• Content Analysis, with focus on metadata and organisation
• Audit content which will form the basis for any newly to be developed information system
• Analyse and detail the metadata schema for each application using a standard pro-form to show which taxonomies (and other metadata) are utilised; from where they are sourced; their structure. Highlighting inconsistency issues and areas for improvement.
• If a future knowledge management vision is known or in development:
  • Definition of what taxonomies and other profile / metadata will be needed to be indexed, managed and retrieved to achieve the organisations future vision
  • Show how applications taxonomies deviate from organisations vision. Highlight issues and make recommendations of what activities and changes will be required.

Deliverables

• Metadata / Taxonomy audit of each (TBD) system describing the ‘as is’ situation
• Gap analysis compared to future vision (if known) with recommendations for change / improvement
• Roadmap presentation

If you would like to know more about how we can help you with your information architecture, why not call us for an initial chat on 0207 033 2333?