1. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Introduction Margaret Hanley Business Analyst/Senior Information Architect BBC Worked on three continents – Australia, USA and UK Been both a consultant and internal staff to companies like Sensis (Yellow Pages in Australia), Argus Associates (US), Ingenta (UK and BBC (UK)

2. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 IA Tools and Deliverables Some IA tools Deliverables to go with them

3. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 IA tools It depends… –Based on what you want to do, achieve and the amount of time you have

4. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 One example The BBC health site Needed to be re-organised but there was no budget for external consultants or user testing Only had 2 weeks What to do?

5. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 One example 2 week timeframe Business Context – Interview the editor and the team working on the project to identify goals, users and any changes that will happen within the next 6 months Users – Identify existing personas, do card sort with BBC staff who meet the persona profile Content – do content analysis of the site Deliverable - New top-down structure with labeling that was acceptable to team

6. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Second example 3 months Come up with a new way to think about Internet Directory structure What to do?

7. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Second example Business context –Interview opinion leaders –Interview stakeholders –Read business plan Users –Test with internal users of the system –Search log analysis Content –Analyse the directory structure –Do competitive analysis

8. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Second example Deliverables –Report –Results of all parts of the methodology –Project Plan for the next phase of development

9. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Difference between the two Health web site One person (though experienced) Two weeks Known problems with known solution Directory Four IAs 3 months Unknown solution required lots of thinking

10. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Types of methods - Users Card sorting (open and closed) Deliverable – Top-down structure with site map Bench marking and task based testing Deliverable – Understand problems with the site Common tasks and problems identified User interviews Deliverable – Users mental models, understanding their environment Persona development, scenarios and tasks Deliverable – modeling typical user so that the user can be referred to within the design process; wireframes, task flows

11. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Types of methods - users Search log analysis Deliverable – most common words, types of facets entered by actual users; what is cannot be found easily on the site Server log analysis Deliverable – understand how the user currently moves through the site Prototyping Deliverable – A tested design before the actual development

12. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Types of methods - content Content inventory Deliverable – list of content in the site, to know what is there Content analysis and audit – looking through existing content Deliverable – way to understand the connections and patterns between content Comparative analysis Deliverable – identifying best features and elements of existing sites Content modelling Deliverable – content objects or templates for pages

13. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Types of methods - context Opinion leader interviews Deliverable – business objectives and measures for the site Stakeholder interviews Deliverable – what is or is not working now; what has been tried already Workshops, advisory committees Deliverable – commitment to the same vision for the information architecture solution

14. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Deliverable – task flow Process Flow for Customer Interaction

15. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Deliverables - affinity diagramme

16. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Deliverables - wireframes

17. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Deliverables – rules of thumb You create deliverables for someone –Yourself –To communicate with the client, design team or development team Create deliverables with them in mind; don’t overdo them If possible negotiate at the beginning of the process – what is exactly required for it to be implemented, discussed or designed

18. Tuesday, 8 th June 2004 Thank you Questions or comments? Margaret Hanley mairead@yahoo.com