INFO 440 - L07 - 10/21/04 - Information System Design
Notes By: JARS (JAMIE, AARON, RYAN, SEAN)
            ethnic versions: rajs, sarj

"Information Architecture"

-- Your Design Report! --

Project Report Guidelines
    > URL: http://bibliophile.ischool.washington.edu/boikocourses/default.asp?subpagexsl=assign.xsl&pagexsl=index.xsl&treeid=a_teamproj&id=a_teamproj 
    > Boiko HATES PDFs. Send PDF = Instant Death. Use Word instead! But W0|2D sux!!

The Report Template - What to fill out...
    > Available from the <acronym title="Unified Resource Identifier">URI</acronym> above
    > Three drafts--good ones - Note in revisions section
    > Sections are what you came up with, not how you cane up with it
    > Introduction: The overview of the thing
    > Design Problem: From 1st lab--should be as good, if not better, than this lab
    > User Analysis: From 2nd lab--2nd verse, same as the 1st
    > Always specify what you're "bringing forward" from previous method
    > Like all good papers you need a conclusion at the end which you sum it up and talk about successes and problems
    > Appendix: Where you show me what you did to come up with the results
    > Outside sources not necessary, but if you do cite the sources you use in an official way
    
About Your Project Report
    > Strategic Design
        - Do it soon.
        - Choose a system 
            * That you can actually design in the next 6 weeks (i.e. small)
            * That you can find a good user for
            * That you can find good information for
            * That interests you enough to carry you through
    > Personas
        - Do the persona on a single user to make things easier
        - Find a user who will stick with you
        - You will come back to this same user over the course of the design
        
Requirements
    > Find a person to play boss from outside your team
        - Use my boss profile
        - Create your own
        - Find a real boss 
            * but not expected
            * may have to simulate and create your own boss profile
            * use someone outside your team
    > Do at least 1.5 hours of design session with a boss and the person behind the persona
        - You will probably want more than one meeting  (suggest at least 2)
        - Take notes during the meeting
            * don't jump to the requirements (like in the lab)
        - Transcribe to requirements later
        - Be sure to capture info, task and interaction research todo's to help you later


-- Information and Design --

How do you design information?

What is Design?
    > The activity where you imagine then figure out the details behind something
        - Imagine = Creativity
        - Figure out = Leg and brain work
        - Something = Information

Remember the function complex?
    > When you talk about the function of something, you are talking about:
        - Its use (Use)
        - The needs it meets (needs)
        - The methods you use to create it (methods)
        - Its looks and feels (aesthetics)
        - Your goal for it (telesis)
        - What else it brings to mind (associations)

Not what we mean by information design
    > Edward Tufte (Information Visualization)

How will we study the design of information?
    > From Information Architecture (IA)
    > From content modeling (BB)

Who are Rosenfeld and Morville?
    > LIS Grads (Students of Joe Janes)
    > Entrepreneurs
    > Authors (first out of the blocks)
    > Practitioners

What is IA?
    - A la English -
    > Information: The common forms of knowledge artifacts we find around us
    > Architecture: The art and science of designing structures
    > Information Architecture: The art and science of designing information structures
        - Examples of Information Structures:
            * Database schemas
            * Navigation bar
            * Site Map
            * Gallery
            * Table of Contents
            * And on, and on, and on...
    - A la Rosenfeld & Morville -
    > Organization, labeling, and navigation schemes in an information system
    > The structural design of an information space
    > Making web sites manageable and accessible
    > A new discipline bringing architecture and design to the "digital landscape"

What do IA's do?
    > Organization systems (structures): Creating indexes, taxonomies, associations, sequences, thesauri
    > Labeling systems (what something's called): Choosing and organizing the way concepts will be named and pointed to
    > Search systems (how things are found): Creating effective automated info retrieval systems
    > Metadata: Developing the schemas and other representations that encode the above.
    > Navigation systems: The use of all the above to assist a person to get what they need.

Some IA Deliverables
    > Wireframes
    > Blueprints
    > Metdata schemas
    > Controlled Vocabularies

-- Description vs. Prescription --

Why there is never one without the other
    > Description says what “is”
    > Prescription says what “should be”
    > When you describe
        - You can’t describe everything
        - You make choices
        - Your choices prescribe reality
    > When you prescribe
        - If you want to be understood
        - Begin from what people already know
        - What they know is a description of their reality
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