The sociotechnical analysis of complex web sites

The sociotechnical analysis of complex web sites
I. Introducing information architecture II. The roots of IA: social informatics • What is SI? • Information ecologies • The sociotechnical contexts of ITC III. Conducting the analysis • How and why do the research? IV. Elements of IA • What IAs do

Introducing information architecture A professional role in web design and the design of digital media collections IAs are responsible for the overall structure and organization of the site It involves organizing a site’s content into categories and creating an interface to support those categories Also designing navigation and searching systems to help people find and manage information A systematic, question-based process for creating digital products to communicate meaning and improve users’ performance It is user-centered

Information science: Social science Argus Associates. (1998). Information architecture defined [It] involves the design of organization, labeling, navigation, and indexing systems to support both browsing and searching. It plays a central role in determining whether users can easily find the information they need. [It] begins with research into mission, vision, content, and audience. This ... provides a foundation for the development of a successful information architecture design that supports long-term growth and management

“Proper World Wide Web site design is largely a matter of balancing the structure and relationship of menu or ‘home’ pages and individual content pages or other linked graphics and documents. The goal is to build a hierarchy of menus and pages that feels natural and well-structured to the user, and doesn’t interfere with their use of the Web site or mislead them.” Lynch, P. J. (1995). Yale University C/AIM WWW Style Guide

A working definition A digital information space containing organizational labeling, and navigation schemes The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and allow intuitive access to content The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and intranets to help people find and manage information An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to digital environments Rosenfeld and Moreville (2002) p. 4

Other definitions It is the term used to describe the process of designing, implementing, and evaluating information spaces that are humanly and socially acceptable to their intended stakeholders Dillon (2002) JASIST 53(10) p821 The design and development of a wide array of information products and services, and, as such, involves the use and coordination of numerous technical components Databases, metadata, dynamic content management, multiple media, information modeling Latham (2002) JASIST 53(10) p825

What does an IA have to know?
Information science: information organization and access Computer science: programming and databases Usability engineering: understanding how people use the site Graphic design: developing imagery that supports the site’s mission Writing: to explain this to peers and decisionmakers Marketing: developing the site so that is can be sold to its intended audience Psychology: understanding the intended audience

What else does an IA have to know?
Interaction design The creation and maintenance of tasks and processes that users will encounter in an information space Content management The processes, policies, and procedures that govern how content is moved through the information space Knowledge management The processes, policies, and procedures that govern how the organization handles its “intellectual capital”

What does an IA have to do?
Thinking What are the relevant content domains? Given the constraints what can be done? Planning How are these domains related to each other? What is the structure of these relationships? Designing What arrangement best supports the structure and organizational requirements? Managing What people, tools, and resources are available?

An IA should Enjoy working with information: gathering, evaluating and organizing it Like research: interviewing stakeholders and analyzing results Be curious about tools and processes of site development Want to improve performance Be ready to fight battles to help users Have a good working know edgle of organizations Be interested in communicating complex ideas clearly

A broad view of IA It involves developing and communicating a holistic view of a web site It includes the overall social and technical structure of the site and the relationships among its elements It requires the classification of site goals and objectives IA places the web site into a larger social context How will it affect the work flow, communications patterns, and distribution of power in the organization? How will it appear to its users?

Basic concepts of IA Information Data to which we give meaning Data: facts and figures Knowledge: Internalized and interpreted information Structuring Levels of granularity for elements in an information space Organizing Arranging these elements into meaningful categories and establishing relations among them Labeling Naming these categories

Involves user-centered design Information management
Basic concepts of IA Finding Designing the information space to enhance users’ abilities to locate what they want Involves user-centered design Information management The processes, policies, and procedures involved in carrying out the information life cycle in an organization Art and science Scientific methods to bring rigor to IA research Usability, experimentation, ethnography Dealing with ambiguity and complexity is also intuitive IA

It focuses on digital (web-based) information spaces
A set of items held by an information system and the relations among them The items may include keyterms, documents, queries, and user representations Newby (2000) A complex information space (C) stores a total number (N) of information units in a medium (M) of storage A user (X) has relevant information units (R) in the information space according to the scope of X’ s information foraging goals Abrams (1997)

Use of the architectural metaphor
Architecture shapes experience This is easy to understand with physical spaces Information spaces can be designed using architectural principles They are constructed to provoke a reaction in you They can be designed to allow users to carry out tasks To help you get a job done To entertain you To help you learn Where does this metaphor break down?

II. What is social informatics?
• Technological and social determinisms There have been two main ways to portray the relationship between Its and society Technological determinism Social determinism

Both of these share a number of weaknesses
A deterministic relationship is always one way (an oversimplification) Technology use in workplaces demonstrates that there is much more contingency and complexity The “independent variable” is assumed to have causal powers Technology does have agency People are not as passive as they are assumed to be They minimize the social and institutional context The effects of the same ICT in a school and in a dotcom will be very different

There is a third alternative
Mutual shaping This approach is an advance because is overcomes the main weaknesses of the previous two There is no one way causality It accounts for contingency and complexity But: it does not account well for the context

Social informatics is a fourth alternative
It is the interdisciplinary study of the design and uses of ICT that takes into account their interactions with institutional and cultural contexts The focus is on the social aspects of computerization The roles of ICT in social and organizational change The uses of ICT in different social and organizational social settings It is problem-driven People work in many different disciplines and use different theoretical and methodological approaches

organization manipulation presentation visualization
Social informatics is the study of information and computing, their sciences, technologies, applications, influences and effects It encompasses the information life cycle organization manipulation creation discovery storage use destruction processing presentation visualization transmission retrieval

SI assumes a relationship of mutual shaping among ICT, the people who design and use them, and the settings in which they are designed and used The “setting” Mutual shaping

SI is a different approach to studying ICT in society because of the explicit focus on the sociotechnical context This means focusing on The ways that the social organization of ICT is influenced by social forces and social practices The impacts of the beliefs and values of the people designing, maintaining, and using ICT The impacts of organizational beliefs and values where the ICT are designed and used SI seeks to understand how people and organizations act on these values and beliefs and use their power in relation to ICT

SI research involves three main orientations
Normative: to recommend alternatives for practitioners who design, implement, use, or develop policy about ICT Ex: participatory design Analytical: to develop theories about ICT in institutional and cultural contexts and conduct empirical work designed to contribute to theorizing The goal is a deeper understanding of how the evolution of ICT use in a particular setting can be generalized to other Its and other settings Ex: The web of computing

Critical: to challenge commonly held assumptions about ICT
It does not uncritically adopt the beliefs and values of the people and organizations that commission, design, implement, or use specific ICT It examines ICT from multiple perspectives These include the people who use them in different contexts, as well as people who design, implement or maintain them It examines ICT failures and service losses, as well as idealized expectations of routine use Ex: the paperless office, the productivity paradox

These are examples of the types of SI research
Impacts of ICT in groups, organizations, and larger scale social settings Analysis of the use of ICT in specific social contexts Public uses of the internet Life with computer-mediated communication (CMC) The social shaping of information systems The production, distribution and use of electronic texts The roles of ICT in changing or reinforcing patterns of work life, community life, and the character of institutions

III. Conducting the analysis
• Why do the research? Theoretical reasons Research on organizations can help developers avoid problems that can undermine projects Practical reasons It is a necessary step in the project life cycle It saves time, money, and effort It allows you to figure out what you have to do You can get a sense of the existing situation You can understand what the constraints are and who can impose them

What we can learn from organizational informatics?
1. ICT do not exist in social or technological isolation ICT are embedded in cultural and institutional contexts that influence them in empirically discoverable ways These include: The ways in which they are developed The kinds of workable configurations that are proposed How these configurations are implemented and used The range of consequences they have for the people who use them and their organizations

2. ICT are “socio-technical systems,” an interrelated and interdependent mix of :
People who design and use ICT Their beliefs, values and social and work practices Their institutional positions and power Financial and technical decision makers Organizational and professional norms of use Hardware and software The support systems that aid users The maintenance systems keeping ICT up and running

3. A “socio-technical system” can also be seen as an “information ecology”
Nardi and O’Day define an information ecology (IE) as A system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a particular local environment In IE, the spotlight is not on technology, but on human activities that are served by technology It is a setting where people and technology come together in some type of social relationship, guided by the values of the setting, organization, and/or profession

It is a complex system of parts and relationships in continual evolution
“Locality” is important because the IE responds to local environmental changes and local interventions When one element changes, effects can be felt throughout the system Local changes disappear if they are incompatible with the rest of the IE Diversity is essential for change Different parts of an IE coevolve, changing together according to the relationships in the system This occurs as new ideas, tools, activities, and forms of expertise arise

A “local habitation and a name” captures the essence of an IE
The “habitation” of a technology is its location within a network of relationships. This refers to its set of family ties in the local IE The “name” of a technology identifies its meaning for the people who use it It positions the technology more directly under the control of its users Only the participants of an IE can establish the identity and place of the technologies that are found there

4. There are apparently contradictory outcomes from ICT implementation and use
The same type of ICT may have very different effects in two different organizations In one case, control over work can be centralized while in another, decentralization results Adding ICT may be enrich and/or deskill work routines SI accounts for the varying consequences of ICT use in organizations by emphasizing The importance of the social and organizational contexts The effects of the context on ICT implementation and use

5. Design continues in use
Many IS are redesigned over their lifetimes (upgrades, bug fixes, customization) People and groups using ICT reshape them in ways that their original designers did not anticipate because: Circumstances of the situation of use changes Needs change Uses change People who use the ICT change The organization changes Designers should understand the relevant IE

6. There are always political and social consequences from the implementation of ICT in organizations They can enable and constrain social relationships and work practices They can legitimate and undermine organizational and personal power ICT can enable or constrain organizational change There are typically winners and losers from the implementation of ICT This helps us understand the motivations for different groups supporting and opposing specific forms of ICT developments

• How to do the research There are different ways to set up the problem Ask an open-ended question Set up a relationship and test it There are a variety of ways to study an organization You can talk to people interviews You can ask people to fill out forms surveys You can watch people observation You can test people experimentation There are variations within these approaches as well

There is a difference between academic research and IA research
There is less need for rigor You don’t have to worry about generalizability Peer review is not an issue There are good reasons to use good research practices If your methods are reliable, you can reuse them You can be assured of quality data and reasonable conclusions You can have consistency within and across projects Over time this can lead to best practices You can then train new employees more easily

The goal of the research is to understand the “sociotechnical context” of the web site
Given the constraints of the project, what is the best way to learn about the organization’s “information ecology”? What is it that you want to know? What is the “big picture?” Vision What is the role of the web in the organization? How is the current and/or future site viewed in the organization? What are the short and long term goals for the site? How does the organization plan to use the site?

What is the “big picture?”
Resources What can the organization afford? What types of financial, technical, and human resources can be made available for development? What is the long term commitment to maintaining and upgrading the site? Audiences Why do/should people come to the site? What do people do when they come to the site? What are the major tasks that they would like people to do?

Research strategies Determine who it is you should be talking to Study the web site carefully See what departments or groups in the organization are represented on the site Note all names and contact information Use your initial contact Learn how the organization is structured and try to figure out who has a stake in the web site Confirm your hunches with your contact

Settle on your strategy or strategies
Individual or telephone interviews? Group or conference calls? Individual face-to-face interviews? Group meetings Each has its advantages and drawbacks Face-to-face interviews and group meetings are good ways to gather information In addition to the research value, these strategies also serve a social function You learn about stakeholder biases You learn about political and power relationships

IV. Elements of information architecture
Components Constituent parts of a digital information space Web site: pages, navigation scheme, site map functionalities Dimensions Web site: multidimensional information space with hypertext navigation Boundaries Lines of demarcation around the information space Web site: not clear because of linking

Purpose The functions of the information space Web site: provide access to information, educate, sell, entertain Heterogeneity Characteristics of the content Web site: many different media types, formats, programming and markup languages Centralization How the information space is controlled Web site: becoming more decentralized in content management and technical maintenance

Orientations to information architecture
Social: Doing the research What are the mission, vision, and goals for the site? What will be the central metaphors for the site? How will the site grow and change over time? What will be the impacts on the organization? Technical: Design and build How will the site be organized ? What content and functionality will the site contain? What types of navigation, labeling, and searching will be used?

Doing the research Preparation Site goals The audience User experience User scenarios The competition The design document

Consider this question:
“What should our team create to give people experiences that are useful, usable, and desirable, that create value for our business and our clients?” How can we answer it? Rettig emphasizes the importance of an ethnographic approach “Go where people work, learn, live and play. Discover unexpressed or masked needs. Let your design be driven by genuine understanding of the people you are trying to serve.” Rettig, M. (2000). Ethnography and information architecture.

In practical terms, this means:
Observation: go into the setting and watch people Shadowing: follow them around Examining artifacts and their uses Interviews: interview people in their workplace This can be structured or unstructured Sampling: can involve time or task sampling They fill out activity diaries on your schedule Self-reporting: they have the greatest amount of control Ask them to take pictures or keep journals

Site design begins well before the first page is ever coded
This early stage requires considerable research The first step is to understand the goals of the site owners How well do you understand their business? What are their main products and services? What are their business rules? Then work to understand the audience for the site Who do they sell to? Write user profiles and scenarios Conduct needs requirements

Determining the goals for the site
Can be done informally with conversations with key stakeholders Can be done formally at meetings with clear agendas Questions to consider Who should you talk to or include in the meeting? Who has to buy in to the concept? Goal To achieve a group consensus

The basic set of questions should include:
What is the mission or purpose of the organization? Check the answers you get against company literature What are the goals of the site? As people talk about goals for the site, categorize them into short term and long term goals Who are the intended audiences? Check these answers against the company’s market research Why will people come to the site? What are the main tasks that people are expected to perform?

Gather all of the data and begin analyzing them
This involves sorting and categorizing Goals, activities/tasks, main content areas Prepare a preliminary listing of these and use “member checking” Be prepared for conflict, disagreement, and compromise There should be a deliverable (a design document) It summarizes the key points of the site and acts as an initial blueprint The major stakeholders should all sign off on the document

Technical: Design and build
Code Scripts Words Images Presentation: visual display Structure: Organization of content Behavior: What people do on the site <html> <head> <title>Web page</title> <script language=javascript> </script> </head> <body> Text <IMG SRC=image.gif”> </body> </html> Basics of web architecture

Site design and basic questions
Where am I? Where can I go? What can I do here?

IAs work with four kinds of systems
Organization/structural systems These constrain the ways content can be grouped Labeling systems Artifacts of taxonomies that determine logical relations among content groups. Navigation systems Provide means of moving through the site based on the scheme for the labeling Searching systems Help resolve user problems with navigation, labelling and organization

What do IAs deliver? Site map This is a visualization of the taxonomy and structural relationships among content domains It also provides an overview of the navigation scheme Content maps These are detailed depictions showing what is on each page and how content on some pages is linked to content on other pages Page view A drawing or block diagram showing what information, links, content, promotional space, and navigation will be on each page

What else? Prototypes: An outline or storyboard of a functional prototype Could also be a working prototypes with HTML, Flash, Director, or PowerPoint Written reports A narrative description of the site linking it to organizational mission, messages, and marketing constraints Change management How will the site grow and change over time? What will be involved in maintenance?

Test, test, test Track down participants through customer lists, related organizations, discussion lists, conferences Pay them if you can afford it What should you ask? Get their name and use it Find out their web skill level and familiarity Ask other questions essential to viewing the results What should they do? Give them tasks, watch, and listen Let them browse, watch, and listen

The process of information architecture
Maintenance and updating Planning and strategy: predesign analysis Conceptual design: prototyping Feedback and redesign Information organization: Content development Launch Production: Navigation systems Search tool Labeling systems Operations Testing: Quality assurance and usability

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