Welcome To Swooper Security @ Kingscliff Tafe

Intro: The Project Breif

Project site, "http://www.uacmedia.com.au/tutorials/ursh/index.htm", is far from meeting its goals, throw many means and reasons .

• The site has issues in regards to intuitive navigation. It has not simple, large, obvious , or flowing form; travel as one transitions through pages is confusing.
• The arrangement of content is not grouped in logical coagulations of hypermedia and text.
• Information, to the user, is not readily available: no site map, no support.
• Accessability to critical/assessment content is by 3 clicks or more.

Information Architecture

‘It’s the new black’

“ ... (often abbreviated "I.A.") is the practice of structuring information (knowledge or data) for a purpose. These are often structured according to their context in user interactions or larger databases. The term is most commonly applied to Web development, but also applies to disciplines outside of a strict Web context, such as programming and technical writing.” Wikipedia.org

  Introducing the highest levels of functionality and content into a structure that is also conducive to intuitive navigation, doesn’t happen by chance. Organisations of every area must recognise the importance of information architecture or else they run the risk of creating great content that no one can ever find, and paths of navigation that do nothing but waste time. 
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When Finding is the New Doing

  In the previous years of computer-and-human history, Computer and digital systems used to be considerably frustrating as they did very little; of that it was quite bad. People using systems became frustrated because applications were new, and the restrictions behind computing technology was vast and mostly unexplored to humanity in general. It was thus, that many simple users became readily frustrated – technology had not been made to synchronise with the human logic and expectations.  
  But technology has progressed and evolved, and so to the people both behind the development and the user-end. Now ‘technology’ can do practically whatever people want it to do.
So why doesn't everyone using a computer have a large smile on their face?

  The shear wealth of functionality and information has become the new problem. The challenge facing organizations is how to guide people through the vast amount of information on offer, so they can successfully find the information they want and thus find value in the system?
 Navigation is far from an intuitive reflex and does not happen by chance.

The Importance Of Information’s Architecture

The chaotic and disfunctional design of the strings binding the data for users, can not only be a frustrating affair for the end recipients, but also {and more importantly} as a highly detrimental operation for the organisation. For instance:

• For intranet's it means low adoption rates and staff reverting to unsupported off-line resources.
• For web sites with online shopping facilities it has a significant impact on revenue. Research suggests that a significant number of shopping attempts fail not because the user has evaluated the products on offer and decided against a purchase, but because the navigation system has failed and user can't find the product they are interested in.

  Information architecture is the term used to describe the structure of a system, i.e. the way information is grouped, the navigation methods and terminology used within the system. An effective information architecture enables people to step logically through a system confident they are getting closer to the information they require.
Most people only notice information architecture when it is poor and stops them from finding the information they require. Information architecture is most commonly associated with web sites and intranet's, but it can be used in the context of any information structures or computer systems.

In Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites they define information architecture as:

• The combination of organisation, labelling, and navigation schemes within an information system.
• The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content.
• The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and intranet's to help people find and manage information.
• An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

Common problems

The most common problem with information architectures is that they simply mimic a company's organisational structure.
Although this can often appear logical and an easy solution for those involved in defining the architecture, people using systems (even intranet's) often don't know or think in terms of organizational structure when trying to find information.
Effective I.A. must reflect the way people think and have empathy for the way they feel or want somethign, thus, be “intuitive”.

Styles of information architecture

There are two main approaches to defining an information architecture. These are:

• Top-down information architecture

This involves developing a broad understanding of the business strategies and user needs, before defining the high level structure of site, and finally the detailed relationships between content.

• Bottom-up information architecture

This involves understanding the detailed relationships between content, creating walkthroughs (or storyboards) to show how the system could support specific user requirements and then considering the higher level structure that will be required to support these requirements.
Both of these techniques are important in a project. A project that ignores top-down approaches may result in well-organised, findable content that does not meet the needs of users or the business. A project that ignores bottom-up approaches may result in a site that allows people to find information but does not allow them the opportunity to explore related content.
Take a structured approach to creating an effective I.A.

Creating an effective information architecture in 9 steps

The following steps define a process for creating an effective information architectures.

• Understand the business/contextual requirements and the proposed content for the system. Read all existing documentation, interview stakeholders and conduct a content inventory.
• Conduct cards sorting exercises with a number of representative users.
• Evaluate the output of the card sorting exercises. Look for trends in grouping and labeling.
• Develop a draft information architecture (i.e. information groupings and hierarchy).
• Evaluate the draft information architecture using the card-based classification evaluation technique.
• Don't expect to get the information architecture right first time. Capturing the right terminology and hierarchy may take several iterations.
• Document the information architecture in a site map. This is not the final site map, the site map will only be finalised after page layouts have been defined.
• Define a number of common user tasks, such as finding out about how to request holiday leave. On paper sketch page layouts to define how the user will step through the site. This technique is known as storyboarding.
• Walk other members of the project team through the storyboards and leave them in shared workspaces for comments.
• If possible within the constraints of the project, it is good to conduct task-based usability tests on paper prototypes as it provides valuable feedback without going to the expense of creating higher quality designs.
• Create detailed page layouts to support key user tasks. Page layouts should be annotated with guidance for visual designers and developers.

Developing an information architecture in this way enables you to design and build a system confident that it will be successful.

Information architecture and usability

Some people find the relationship and distinction between information architecture and usability unclear.
Information architecture is not the same as usability, but the two are closely related., usability encompasses two related concepts:

• Usability is an attribute of the quality of a system:

"we need to create a usable intranet"

• Usability is a process or set of techniques used during a design and development project:

"we need to include usability activities in this project"
In both cases usability is a broader concept, whereas information architecture is far more specific.

Information architecture as an attribute of the quality of a system

An effective information architecture is one of a number of attributes of a usable system. Other factors involving the usability of a system include:

• visual design
• interaction design
• functionality
• content writing.

Information architecture as a process

The process for creating an effective information architecture is a sub-set of the usability activities involved in a project.
Although weighted to the beginning of the project, usability activities should continue throughout a project and evaluate issues beyond simply the information architecture.
 
Content  Analysis