Partial Recall » Search & Retrieval

Apple Home Page Search

This morning I went to the Apple home page to find one of their commercials. I went to search and noticed that the behavior mimicked Apple’s own operating system and the “suggest” features available in browser search boxes. What I liked is that it not only offered suggested terms but displayed media previews along with the term. I realize this isn’t especially groundbreaking, given the amount of AJAX development in recent years. However, it reminded me that as Peter Morville analyzes search patterns, another to add to the list is the behavior of providing suggestions before a user has even executed a search. This might remedy the need to distinguish between a basic and advanced search, or the need to revise a search after seeing results. Notice the screen capture image (click image to see original) where I entered “ads” as my search term.

Tags: [Apple, search patterns, search, Peter Morville, Partial Recall]

Information Architecture Summit 2008

This year your peers and industry experts will speak about how topics such as social networking, gaming, patterns, tagging, taxonomies, and a wide range of IA tools and techniques can help as users ‘experience information’.

– April 10-14, 2008 (Miami, Florida USA)” – (About the Summit)

I went to last year’s summit and found it very informative. You might consider checking it out – it’s in Miami!

(hat tip: InfoDesign)

Tags: [iasummit2008, information architecture, Partial Recall, user experience, usability, interaction design]

What I Learned at Usability Conferences 2007

Yesterday, the local UPA DC chapter hosted,”What I Learned at the Usability Conferences – 2007.” I was part of a panel that represented the following conferences:

Information Architecture (IA) Summit
March 22-26, 2007, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) Conference
May 2007, San Jose, California, USA
Society for Technical Communication (STC) Annual Conference
May 13-16, 2007, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Usability Professionals Association (UPA) Annual Conference
June 11-15, 2007, Austin, Texas, USA
University of Maryland HCIL Open House

Here are some of the notes I had prepared:

What I Learned at the IA Summit – 2007

Resources:

Opening Keynote: Joshua Prince-Ramus

http://www.iasummit.org/proceedings/2007/prince_ramus_joshua

Joshua is best known as the architect of the Seattle Central Library. In his keynote, Joshua outlined issues surrounding limitations of space, resources and differing business goals and provided a glimpse into how his firm pushes for the best solution given these constraints. He had presented a similar talk to TED in February 2006:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/49

Closing Plenary: Rashmi Sinha

http://www.iasummit.org/proceedings/2007/sinha_rashmi

Rashmi is the creator of SlideShare. She discussed how her team bucked traditional usability methods to rapidly deploy a social web site product in beta mode. Her slides can be accessed from SlideShare:

http://www.slideshare.net/rashmi/ia-summit-closing-plenery/

Creating the Adaptive Interface: Stephen Anderson

http://www.iasummit.org/proceedings/2007/the_conversation_gets_interest

Stephen offered an inspiring presentation by arguing that the desirability of an application can be related to the adaptability of the interface. “More than removing unused menu options or collaborative filtering, this would include functionality that is revealed over time as well as interface elements that change based on usage.” His slides can be accessed from SlideShare:

http://www.slideshare.net/stephenpa/the-conversation-gets-interesting-creating-the-adaptive-interface/

Best Practices for Form Design: Luke Wroblewski

http://www.iasummit.org/proceedings/2007/best_practices_for_form_design

Luke takes the seemingly insignificant “form” and argues that clearly presented information, interaction, and feedback can make all the difference when a user needs to communicate with a company (i.e., commerce, access, engagement). His slides can be accessed from SlideShare:

http://www.slideshare.net/psykoreactor/best-practices-for-form-design/

Rich mapping and soft systems: new tools for creating conceptual models: Gene Smith and Matthew Milan

http://www.iasummit.org/proceedings/2007/rich_mapping_and_soft_systems

Gene and Matthew explain that Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is a holistic problem solving framework that can be used to design and model interactions between organizations, people, environments, products and services. Identifying the CATWOE (Customers, Actors, Transformative Process, Worldview, Owners, Environmental Constraints) helps to add context to any project by articulating the “root definitions” of the problem. Their slides can be accessed from SlideShare:

http://www.slideshare.net/gsmith/systems-thinking-rich-mapping-and-conceptual-models/

Tags: [usability, iasummit2007, CATWOE, Gene Smith, SlideShare, Rashmi Sinha, Joshua Prince-Ramis, UPA, user experience, Stephen Anderson, Partial Recall]

IA Summit 2007 Redux: Rashmi Sinha

A closing plenary from Rashmi Sinha.

Rashmi is the creator of SlideShare.

[Runtime: 49 slides | Please make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Flash installed on your computer to watch this slideshow. To download it, please visit: http://www.adobe.com/ ]

Tags: [Rashmi Sinha, SlideShare, User Experience, PowerPoint, Slideshow, Partial Recall, IASummit2007]

IA Summit 2007 Redux: Joshua Prince-Ramus

It’s been over a month since the IA Summit, and I’m only now getting a chance to write about the experience. I took notes from many of the sessions I attended, but I’ll try to link to available videos or slides when possible.

An opening keynote: Joshua Prince-Ramus.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn how much commonality there is between “brick and mortar” architecture and information architecture. Joshua outlined issues surrounding limitations of space, resources and differing business goals and provided a glimpse into how his firm pushes for the best solution given these constraints. He had presented a similar talk to TED in February 2006, so seems best to just show you his related talk.

[Runtime: 20:09 | Please make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Flash installed on your computer to watch this video. To download it, please visit: http://www.adobe.com/ ]

Tags: [Joshua Prince-Ramus, architect, architecture, Seattle Public Library, TED, IA Summit, IA Summit 2007, Partial Recall, information architecture]

Findability in DC Webcast

The Library of Congress has posted its webcast of Peter Morville’s July 20th talk on Ambient Findability. You can view the 45 minute webcast here.

Tags: [Ambient Findability, Peter Morville, findability, usability, information architecture, Library of Congress, video, webcast]

Findability in DC

On Thursday July 20 (11:30 – 12:30), Peter Morville will speak at the Library of Congress about his book, “Ambient Findability,” a history of how people search for information, and how they now find their way through a world of information overload.

Although I am slammed at work, I’m hoping to attend.

Tags: [Library of Congress, Peter Morville, Ambient Findability, Washington, DC, Partial Recall]

HCIL Symposium: Day 1

Note:

Due to the large amount of content, I will be updating this a bit more to fill in the blanks of the later sessions of the day. Check back for more info.

Welcome

Jenny Preece opened the symposium discusssing the College of Information Science and its collaboration with the HCIL. Dr. Preece indicated that the team is very interested in social, collaborative technologies and processes.

Benjamin Bederson continued the welcome, discussing the interdisciplinary nature of the group (psychology, information science, computer science). Web 2.0, he indicated, is succeeding because there us a greater focus on issues of usability, democracy, and user-centric design.

Link to Poster Session Images

International Children’s Digital Library

reaches 1 million users
Now has 1000 books freely available
www.childrenslibrary.org

Keynote: Ben Shneiderman

Creativity Support Tools: A Grand Challenge for HCI

Software must support the creative process
A new research direction is emerging
Dramatically improved creativity support tools are possible
Multi-dimensional in-depth long-term case-studies (MILCs)
Guidelines for design are emerging

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IA Summit Redux: DC-Style

On Saturday May 20, the local chapter of DC information architects got together to recap topics that were addressed and discussed at the 2006 IA Summit. This was a long time coming for me. I’ve been meaning to attend these local meetings, but life has, of course, gotten in the way.

Livia Labate has provided a wealth of useful material, including MP3 recordings of the local DC event, as well as links to material that was presented at the Summit.

Anyway, the following is a brief summary of my notes. Certainly these notes do not codify the entirety of the redux – just my own brain dump based on notes taken at the event. The topics to be addressed are listed below (those in bold are the ones we had time to discuss):

Overview

Summit Overview#
Tagging#
Wireframes#
New Technology#
Content Management
Business and IA
Theory#
International

Summit Overview

Dan Brown facilitated the DC-IA redux, and one of the things he discussed centered around the format of the Summit. He mentioned that in the past, there was a greater selection of things to attend and a greater variety of topics. On the other hand, he mentioned that there were better opportunities to connect with people outside of sessions this past year. He asked for input on how to create a culture that would both maximize connections outside of sessions and make good use in-session time.

Tagging

James Melzer addressed the topic of tagging, focusing primarily on using the bookmark tool del.icio.us.

Some discussion revolved around making a distinction between a group versus a crowd. A group, James indicated, is intentional, known, and planned. In contrast, a crowd is unknown and not planned. Del.icio.us embraces both, and James noted that sometimes crowds become groups in Del.icio.us because is sometimes ends up being the same people who are the forefront of tagging, and their aggregate work sets trends for other users.

Tagging::Kinds of Tags

Description (Singular)
Categorization (plural)
Opinion
Action (temporary, personal)
Relation (for userid)
Insider Reference (e.g., “enterprise_ia”)

Wireframes

Nathan Curtis discussed wireframes. Apparently, Nathan worked at K12 for a few months just before I arrived. I’ve heard very good things about him – in particular, how he shared some of his wireframing techniques with current K12 IAs.

Wireframes::Techniques

Nathan explained that there was a discussion of using different wireframing techniques/tools, including:

paper prototyping
Adobe Flash (interaction)
iRise
MS Visual Studio
XHTML
MS Visio

Wireframes::Challenges

Nathan mentioned that IAs need to struggle with representing interactions over time. With the advent of RIAs such as Flash and Ajax, IAs need to be able to communicate how information is to be presented, but how user behaviors will affect the feedback and visual representation of a web application. Nathan mentioned Bill Scott at Yahoo! and how he uses interaction storyboards, complete with interaction matrices to document all behavior changes for a given interaction type.

One technique Nathan mentioned was to segment the “modules” that comprise a wireframe. In other words, reusable widgets can be saved as components to be used over and over again. In addition, Nathan commented on Kevin Cheng’s use of comics to communicate HCI usability issues with stakeholders.

New Technology

Nathan briefly discussed how new technologies are affecting the profession. For instance, Laszlo and Adobe Flex make it easier to move from a rapid prototype to a working solution. The web metaphor is moving away from “pages” to “mashups,” so IAs need to be able to embrace change and add new skill sets to accomodate for this change.

The group also discussed game design and the use of incentives as a way to interact with the user.

Theory

Olga Howard took some more time to cover the distinction of “crowd” versus “group.” With regard to tagging in Del.icio.us, the group discussed how there may be a flurry of different tags used to classify objects, but over time, the number of tags flattens to an accepted assortment.

Next, the discussion turned to Morville’s championing of “findability.” The basic questions to ask include:

Is it useful?
Is it desirable?
Is it valuable?
Is it credible?

Conclusion

Since I have not been able to attend the IA Summit yet, I found this redux to be pretty informative. In addition to getting useful information, I enjoyed spending time with other like-minded individuals who have a passion for creating usable intuitive products.

Tags: [dc-ia, dcia, Livia Labate, Partial Recall, brownorama, James Melzer, information architecture, iasummit, wireframes]

Rethinking EIA: Becoming Information Ecologists

Summary

Enterprise Information Architecture (EIA) refers to the process of making information easy to access throughout a discrete entity – in this case, an organization. According to Wikipedia, Information Architecture is, in part, defined simply as “the practice of structuring information (knowledge or data).” Note that this simplified definition makes no reference to the Web or information systems of any kind, a la Richard Saul Wurman.

This post attempts to rethink EIA and argues that information architecture need not be constrained to designing structures and managing content as it relates to the Web or for any electronic system for that matter. Instead, I argue that an enterprise information architect might also be called, as Thomas Davenport coins it, an “Information Ecologist.” In addition to the commonly defined responsibilities of the iA (little ‘i’), the EIA or IE adds the following skillsets/responsibilies to his or her repertoire:

Information Audit/Mapping
Business Process Engineering

The end result is that not all information finds its way into a web-based system. Some information may be best kept in other formats. However, an IE’s responsibility is to structure information so that it is valued as a resource on par with human capital, physical capital, and the like. Although information systems are best suited for information management and information findability, the IE must map all information in order to have a comprehensive inventory.

Background

I’ve been at my new job for close to three weeks now and during the first week I was inserted into a project. Without getting into specifics, K12 develops both digital (online) and “hardcopy” products for specific educational market segments. Their current CMS is the backbone of their production efforts.

I am enjoying taking this on as my first project, in part because it forces me to understand the business of K12 and its workflows. I’ve been able to interview different stakeholders and users, thereby forcing myself out of seclusion and getting to know my colleagues. In the process, however, I’ve been faced with the dilemma: What exactly is a CMS and what is the hand-off between system processes and people processes?

Defining a CMS Means Analyzing an Organization’s Information Assets

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Information Architecture (IA) Summit (As an aside, I hope to attend next year – although it’s hard to be participatory now that I’m a relatively new parent), and subsequently, two of the many sessions that interested me: in this case, the session on Enterprise Information Architecture, along with Dan Brown’s [slides], really got me thinking about the definition of who and what information architecture is.

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Selling Usability to the BigWigs

It seems that for the last few years I have been involved with usability testing in some shape or form, although I suppose it could be debated if there were any “usability tests” at all. These “tests” were more heuristic, always informal in nature and continue to this day – in no way did they involve the scientific measurement of users and their interactions with the system in question. There are a few explanations why the testing has been so informal…

First, you cannot force end-users to evaluate the system unless they are paid, bribed, or are already convinced of the benefits of the system. Sure, ideally it would be great to enlist a bunch of excited users to test the system and provide feedback, but often there are constraints. In my experience, the constraint has always been money, time, and prestige. There’s little money devoted to formal testing with end users. End users do not have the time for testing. A majority of the primary users of web-based systems I supported were scientists or Ph.D.s who were not open to testing the system. Still, even when end-users were kind enough to participate in beta testing, the focus was often on what the paid software testers reviewed – does the system work, are there bugs, etc. There was no systematic review concerning how usable the system was and how long it took for end users to accomplish needed tasks without giving up. In addition, the beta testers often did not fully represent the types of users of the system.

Concepts such as “information architecture” and “user experience” have been all but void in my work environments. Places that I’ve worked at have never even heard of these concepts, much less valued the user experience enough to hire an employee to meet these needs. Traditional “testing” usually involved making sure the software worked as advertised with as few bugs as possible. The usability of a system was never a consideration. Just pay a contractor to provide some training sessions and throw in a user’s guide.

I believe as software development processes have matured, more consideration has taken place to the user experience, particularly as the trend has moved from client/server-orientated solutions to web-based solutions. After all, a heightened user experience and the greater usability of a website translates into a larger customer base, with a greater possibility for increased revenue. A number of people (such as here, here, and here) have discussed the power of a well-designed web presence from a ROI perspective. In fact, Jakob Nielsen indicates that,

“Development projects should spend 10% of their budget on usability. Following a usability redesign, websites increase desired metrics by 135% on average; intranets improve slightly less.”

Which brings us back to the need for usability testing. What would the Internet World look like if all software development teams included information architects, user experience professionals, and the like? Well, for one, there would be much more usable and user-friendly sites.

A wise client would award an incentive-based contract to a contracting team. Can you imagine a contract that paid for ROI milestones? Project managers would need to do a lot of up-front work with their clients, not only to determine the nitty gritty requirements, but to determine the strategic objectives for the design of any solution. It is only by determining an organization’s strategic objectives that software development teams can build a solution that can meet the needs of their clients and all stakeholders. So to the bigwigs out there with the purse strings, demand that any software project plan include sufficient funding for proper business analysts, information architects, and user experience professionals, including funds for usability testing. A few bucks now will save you money, it will increase brand loyalty, and it will increase satisfaction among your end users.

Tags: [ROI, IA, UX, information architect, usability, user experience, human factors, HCI, human computer interaction, Internet, web design, Jakob Nielsen]

Egocentrically Altruistic Web 2.0

John Battelle recently asked readers to come up with a tagline for the next Web 2.0 conference. This will be the third such conference.

Year One included the tagline “The Web Is a Platform” to which Battelle remarks,

“That felt spot on, because the idea of the web as a place you could build on the work of others was a pretty new idea.”

Year Two included the tagline “Revving the Web” to which Battelle remarks,

“…because it was all about the services and businesses and opportunities that arose from the Web – all of which taken together made the web more robust and more exciting.”

For November’s conference, Battelle suggests the tagline “Disruption” by indicating,

“…the year the Web – in all its forms – really flexes its muscle and begins to seriously turn the soil of the global economy in deep and permanent ways. Think of the disruptions in the media and entertainment industries – probably the deepest disruptions so far. But we’re only in the first inning or so of the disruptions in the mobile and communications space (how excited do YOU think AT&T is about Google offering free Wifi, for example? Or eBay buying Skype?). And the disruptions of search and clickstreams on commerce is only now beginning, and the same is true for the massive IT industry (Microsoft Live, anyone?). And the disruption on our cultural life – in government, for example (can you say warrantless wiretaps meets the Database of Intentions?) – is only beginning to dawn on all of us.”

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You Gada.Be Kiddin’ Me

Well, I may have found a search tool that makes up for some of the limitations of my last post regarding Rollyo. It seems Chris Pirillo of G4TechTV’s Call for Help fame created gada.be, a search tool that allows for unique easy-to-remember urls along with capabilities for RSS search feeds. I look forward to the development of this tool. If I had two nickles to rub together, I’d even consider investing.

Tags: [search, Chris Pirillo, G4, TechTV, rss, gada.be, meta, find]

You Can Roll a Rollyo to Your Pal

Since I’m always on the prowl for all that is gadgety-cool as well as anything that may make my life easier, I came across a search tool with a twist…

Rollyo “is the fast, easy way to create personal search engines using only the sources you trust.” In other words, you add the Internet sites that you would like to search on. Therefore, you purposefully limit the universe of possible web sites to search – think of it as a filter to your Internet searching. In addition, you can create multiple search engines based on your interests. For instance, I may add trusted weather Internet sites for my “weather” search engine or add Internet sites devoted to Apple Computer for my “Mac” search engine. You can also share your search engines with others.

The site, although in beta, appears to have quite a following, or at least quite a number of endorsements – Hollywood celebrities like Debra Messing and Rosario Dawson, politicos like Arianna Huffington, to blogger celebrities like Heather B. Armstrong (”Dooce”) and Jason Kottke.

My only suggestion to the team would be to add an RSS feed based on your search engine criteria – that way you can easily see new search results without having to go to the site. I’ve just registered, so hopefully over the next few days I’ll be able to try it out. Go for it!

Tags: [search, Rollyo]

Catching up to Google?

Today, Yahoo! introduced its Instant Search beta – it allows users to potentially return answers as you type. Think Google’s “I’m feeling lucky” but without the wait, because Yahoo’s search beta leverages AJAX technologies.

Tags: [Yahoo, Yahoo!, AJAX, search, Google, beta]

User Interactions With Information Systems

I will receive my MIM degree after completing a summer class that lasts for 6 weeks. “User Interactions With Information Systems” is a course that greatly interests me. I certainly hope that I will have work opportunities in the future that embrace practices related to this course.

Vera Rhoads, the instructor, seems plugged-in with the IA community. She will be enlisting some guest speakers, including the following:

July 26, 2005: Thomas Vander Wal – Personal Information Cloud and Folksonomy;
August 4, 2005: Dan Brown – What Do Practitioners Actually Do; and
August 11, 2005: James Melzer (CLIS graduate) – How To Stay Current and How to Make a Difference.

Vera also hinted at the possibility of getting Louis Rosenfeld to stop by the class, but I’m not too optimistic about that – considering he will be coming to the DC area in mid September to host a seminar.

Tags: [Thomas Vander Wal, Dan Brown, James Melzer, Louis Rosenfeld, Lou Rosenfeld, Folksonomy, Infocloud, personal infocloud, usability, information architecture]

Search, Folders, and the Need For Automated “Smart” Tagging

The End of Folders? Nope.

I recently read related posts on Dan Brown’s Green Onions and Brad Hill’s Unofficial Google Weblog regarding the buzz about the supposed demise of “folders” on personal computers. Dan discusses this buzz – that people may be moving away from classifying electronic information based on a hierarchical “folder” framework, instead complementing this habit by applying the concept of attributing “labels” (often more than one) to this information. Dan appears not to buy into this theory, instead arguing that the the concept of folders (or a hierarchical structure of organization on personal computers) may not become obsolete because the “human mind loves part-whole organization.” I agree.

I cannot imagine a world without folders. Folders make my world a bit smaller and more manageable – a starting point, if you will. If I had to rely solely on a search mechanism I might very well be in trouble because sometimes I just cannot think of the correct meta-information to locate what I’m looking for. Since I am a visual person, I often need a visual cue to get me started on my quest. I can often define my specific search strategy only after I have seen the top one of two tiers of folders on my computer’s file system. Unfortunately, while search tools are doing a better job locating information based on meta-information, there is still a gap. Let me explain…

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Rob Fay is a user experience architect making sense of an information age. He is passionate about the “I” in IT and strives to evangelize that information is a resource on equal footing with an organization’s human, financial, and physical resources.