dc spug feb 2015 the secret sauce to information architecture
TRANSCRIPT
Perfecting Information Architecture (IA): Exposing the Secret Sauce for Success
Jill Hannemann, Practice Director for SharePoint Advisory Services
Portal Solutions
February 2, 20151
Jill Hannemann@[email protected]
Editor, Digital
Workplace Today
Director of Advisory Services
10+ years in Knowledge
Management
SharePoint expertise: information architecture, records management, content migration, document management
Culinary project: It’s soup and chili season!
About me
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About Portal Solutions
We deliver Digital Workplace Products and Solutions that
help organizations share what they know and find
what they need by connecting people, data, and
content.
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What are we going to talk about today?
1. Information Architecture Challenges
2. Secret Sauce for Successful Information Architecture
3. Information Architecture Best Practices• Metadata Case Study
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IA CHALLENGES
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“Search doesn’t work!”“I can’t find what I’m looking for!”
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Garbage in… Garbage out…7
Disparate databases, applications and file shares.8
People try to develop their own folder structures. A folder-based organization doesn’t scale. 9
To find content online we need to be speaking the same language. And that language is called Taxonomy and Metadata.
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Some of the facts…
• Unstructured content = 80% or more of all content
• Need to add structure to make it useful
• Information is about meaning, semantics
• Search is about semantics, not technology
• Can’t Google do it?• Link Algorithm – human act of meaning
• Doesn’t work in enterprise
• 1,000’s of editors adding meaning
• New technology makes it possible – Text Analytics
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Secret Sauce for Successful IA
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What is Metadata? Supermarket ExampleMETADATA FIELD SAMPLE VALUES
Departments(Product Category)
Bakery- Cakes- Breads
Frozen Food- Deserts- Frozen Meals- Vegetables
Meat & Poultry- Beef- Chicken
Produce- Fruits- Vegetables
…
Product Brand Lean CuisineOscar MayerQuakerThomas…
Price $10$20$30…
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Metadata Example – Shoes Store
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Metadata Applied to Documents
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Audience
• Internal
• Executives
• Managers
• External
• Suppliers
• Customers
• Partners
MetadataTopics
• Employee Services
• Compensation
• Retirement
• Insurance
• Further Education
• Support Services
• Infrastructure
• Supplies
• Products and Services
• Finance and Budget
Title
Author
Department
Audience
Topic
Metadata per Document Type
Presentations
Forms
Policies
TitleSub-headerPresenter's NamePresenter's Title DateClassification
TitleNameDateJob TitleDepartment #EntityClassification
TitlePolicy NumberDepartmentLast UpdatedClassification
METADATA
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IA DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
• Information Architecture (IA)
Secret Sauce for Successful IA
(Navigation, Search, Taxonomy, and Metadata)Key Ingredients
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IA’s Key Ingredients
Key Ingredients
• Taxonomy and Metadata:• End user focus• Think creatively when designing it• Use simple words based on the organization’s language
• Site Navigation: • A flatter taxonomy structure with maximum 3 levels
deep• At least 5 sub-categories per category, but no more than
15• Avoid overlap between content or duplication of
content• Search:
• Flexible and dynamic search approach that allows easy sort and filter based on metadata
• Document Management:• Content types and classification• Filtering, searching within libraries and lists
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IA in SharePoint• What’s practical? What should you build?
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Mapping IA to SharePoint elements
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Navigation/Content Types
• Navigation should be thoughtfully determined
• Content types can create consistency with…• Metadata
• Templates
• Presentation layer
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Search/Navigation
• Leveraging metadata tags to refine results
• Assign to…• Pages
• Documents/Files
• List items
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Columns
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• Document library
• Lists
• Filtering
• Sorting
• Group By
Building IA: Where to start
• Assessing your needs• Redesigning…
• Site map?
• Navigation?
• Department site?
• Team site?
• Library/List?
• Audience size will correlate with your approach
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Site Map/Nav
Sites
LibrariesLevel of Complexity
Addressing Complexity
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Rec
ord
Tem
po
rary
Typ
e o
f C
on
ten
t
Individual Team Enterprise
Audience
Type of ContentTemporary Record
AudienceIndividual Team Enterprise
Authentication
The Importance of Content in your Company
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Rec
ord
Tem
po
rary
Typ
e o
f C
on
ten
t
Instant Message
Social
Team SitesOnline Storage
Intranet
Document/Record Management
Individual Team Enterprise
Audience
For Complex IA…Building Taxonomy and Metadata
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Spice it up!
Defining the metadata and taxonomy categories is like adding the finer nuances to your secret sauce
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Just create… a Mindmap of SharePoint IA
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Finding the right tool for the job…
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User Centered Design
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Optimizing SharePoint to be designed around how users can, want, or need to use it, rather than forcing them to change their behavior to accommodate it.
Taxonomy Build-Out StartLegacy shared drive folder names and filenames as source of terms
Good as source of terms, not as source of structure
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Legacy nested folder hierarchy New faceted metadata
To gather and group similar documents together
To refine and narrower a search by specific criteria
Designed by person who is uploading and storing documents for personal use
Designed to help all members of an enterprise find documents
A document can go into only one folder A document can be assigned multiple metadata terms
A folder can be located within only one parent folder
A metadata term may display “under” more than one metadata facet
May become quite deep e.g. 6-7 levels Not so deep, usually only 2-3 levels
Folder names at deeper levels can become long and complex
Term names stay simple, since they are intended to be used in combination
A couple rules…One of these things is not like the other…
Maintain consistent degree of generality in sibling categories. 34
Document Types
Proposals Contracts Reports
Document Types
Proposals Contracts Desk
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Card Sorting ExerciseBuilding, Testing, Validating Design
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Why Card Sorting?
• Card Sorting is a UX research method that seeks to understand how users mentally classify information and determine what labels best summarize the contents of that classification.
• Card Sorting can be done to generate labels and categorization structures, and it can be done to validate them. The best use of card sorting is the former.
Card Sorting Exercise Types
• Open card sorting allows participants to create and name their own categories. Using the open card sorting method allows you to see how participants mentally classify the cards and what terms they use as categories.
• Closed card sorting allows you to set and name your categories. This helps you evaluate if the category names you set provides an effective way of organizing content.
• Hybrid card sorting is a mix of the open and closed card sorting methods. You can set predetermined categories, but if a participant cannot find a suitable category to sort a card, you can allow participants to create their own category during the survey.
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Variations on Running the Sort
• Moderated (Facilitated, or focus groups/workshop)• Facilitator can ask questions
• Leverage a cross organizational group to elicit feedback
• Unmoderated (No context, or online survey)• No context in the sort
• Users sort based on their interpretation of the cards and categories only
• These can mix and matched based on the project’s needs. The best case would be to do a few moderated and the rest unmoderated.
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Card Sorting Exercise Steps1. Identify and label the cards (approx. 50).
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Tips to Pick Cards for Card Sorting• The card labels should be meaningful to the
participants.• Never include only existing content. Use
your research and understanding of business objectives to consider future content.
• Don’t introduce bias in your cards by using overly descriptive titles.
• Ensure your cards are exhaustive enough to get a broad overview but not so exhaustive that the card sort is tough to complete.
• Meet with the project team to validate your cards.
• Never include stakeholders/project team in your card sort with other users.
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Card Sorting Exercise Steps1. Identify and label the cards (approx. 50).
2. Ask users to sort the cards in the order that makes sense to them.
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Card Sorting Exercise Steps1. Identify and label the cards (approx. 50).
2. Ask users to sort the cards in the order that makes sense to them.
3. Once the results are in, analyze the data and identify any similarities using visuals and statistics.
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Card Sorting Exercise Steps• The result? Well-defined content categories.
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Document Taxonomy/Metadata in a Mindmap
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Or Excel works too…
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Goal: Groupings, not Hierarchy
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Online Card Sorting Tool
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Online Card Sorting Tool
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Online Card Sorting Tool – Results
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Taxonomy Workshops and Focus Groups• 1-2 days of guided discussions to define taxonomy, metadata, and related terms
consistently.• Create a “Starter Taxonomy” and initial metadata strategy.
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Taxonomy Workshops and Focus GroupsTarget Audience
• Cross-organizational group of subject matter experts and project owners from key business units
• Max. 12-15 attendees
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Document Categorization Process
Note: Identify dependencies between Document Types and specific Metadata Fields.
Identify Content Types
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IA BEST PRACTICES
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Best Practices for Information Architecture
Facilitate cross-organizational taxonomy
sessions
Identify all possible audiences
Refine and validate the taxonomy through various
iterations
Implement a change management strategy Have a clear plan to
build your site
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Best Practices for Information Architecture
Gain Management Support
Map Legacy Data to New Taxonomies for Content Migration
Communicate the Evolving Nature of
Taxonomy
Identify Metadata for Documents
Content Governance
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Final Thoughts
• What are your company’s main Information Architecture needs?
• Are you or your colleagues struggling to find content in your company’s Intranet?
• What card sorting methodology could you use in your organization to help improve content categorization? Online card sort? A workshop?
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METADATA Case Study
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Case Study• 2,000-employee company in the health care industry, a
highly regulated field. • Frequent records inspections from global regulatory
agencies.
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Business Case Details• Project Scope: Design and implement a pointer system in
SharePoint 2010 for multiple electronic and hard copy document repositories related to different products.
• Project Timeframe
Requirements Design Implementation Support
Nov 2013 – Feb 2014 Feb 2014 – Aug 2014
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Business Case
• Disparate databases applications, file shares
• Electronic and hard copy records
• Records search could take weeks or months!The Challenge
• Short project timeframe (audit from a Regulatory Agency)
• Limited Resources (SMEs)
The Project Constraints
• Taxonomy/Metadata Workshops
• Metadata analysis from existing repositories
• SharePoint 2010 Best PracticesThe Methodology
• SharePoint 2010 Records Search System
• Metadata, Managed Metadata, Content Types
• Advanced Search, Search RefinersThe Solution
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Project Team
Project Team
Portal Solutions
PM and IA Lead
Development Lead
Company Healthcare
PM
6 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Technical Support Engineer
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Project Scope• SharePoint-based document records search system
• Central metadata-based source of document records
• A pointer system to multiple document repositories
Document Records Search System
- Record Title - Record Type- Date- Author
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The System in Numbers
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Search: Basic Search and Advanced Search
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14 Content Types available to create New Document Records
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Text Fields
Managed Metadata Fields
Calendar Fields
Drop-down Fields
Various Types of Metadata Fields
* Mandatory Fields 68
Managed Metadata: Term store, Term Sets and Terms
• Example: Document Types hierarchy and synonyms.
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SharePoint 2010 Search Features
• List - Sort and Filter features
• List - Managed Metadata Navigation feature
• List - Key Filters feature
• Basic Search
• Advanced Search
• Refiners in the Search Results Page
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Search: List - Sort and Filter features• Example: Ability to sort the “Title” column in ascending or descending order, or to
filter by individual document title.
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Search: List - Managed Metadata Navigation• The Managed Metadata is configured to filter
two of the most important Managed Metadata fields : Document Type and CTD Section.
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Search: List - Key Filters feature• Four Key Filters help users look
for content in the Document Records list.
1. Document Approval Date 2. Document Effective Date3. Document Type4. Section Number
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Search: Advanced Search• Search for content based on specific metadata values (Properties).
Section NumberDocument TypeFMC CodeJurisdictionMarketMoleculeProduct NameReceiving SiteRegionsSending SiteSite OwnershipTest MethodsTrade Name
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Search: Refiners in the Search Results Page • Refiners assist users in finding the specific document records they are looking for
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