Information Architecture Flashcards
Who founded IA
It wasn’t until 1976 that the term “Information Architect” came about. Richard Saul Wurman, before he became the founder of TED (Technology Entertainment and Design), coined the term at an American Institute of Architects (AIA) conference. Wurman himself was a graphic designer and architect, and he believed that information should be structured in the same way as a building (i.e., with a solid foundation to build upon).
Two IA methodologies often incorporated in UX design
Library science is the study of how to categorize, catalog, and locate information. It’s all about creating metadata, which can be used to locate a resource later.
example we can look at is Yelp, a website, responsive web app, and mobile app that lets you find nearby businesses and restaurants. While it may be based on location and proximity, it’s really no different than a library. the UX designer’s job to make sure the user can easily weed through the millions of restaurants in order to find the restaurant they seek.
Cognitive psychology is the study of how the mind works and the underlying processes that take place in a person’s mind. A few important aspects of cognitive psychology that directly relate to UX design are cognitive load, mental models, and decision-making.
Cognitive Load
Cognitive load refers to how much information a person can process at any given time. Keeping this load low is important to prevent overloading a user with too much data at once.
Mental Models
a mental model is an assumption that a user may have before using a given system. In the image below, a user fills out a form and expects the brightest button below the form to be the submission button, allowing them to move on to the next step.
Sitemap
sitemap, which is an organizational map that outlines the hierarchy of a website or application
sitemaps display hierarchy from broader to more defined pages/screens but:
they do not specify all actions or elements of an individual page.
they do not specify what the layout or hierarchy of an individual page should look like.
they aren’t meant to be used to plan the content of your individual pages.
Card sorting
card sorting is a participatory design method used to evaluate or generate ideas for the information architecture of a product or service. As the name implies, card sorting is usually done with cards, either physical or digital. A participant is asked to organize content topics into categories that make the most sense.
Open & Closed Card Sorting
open card sorting, participants are asked to group website or product content into their own categories, then name these categories. The names should be short but descriptive. You specifically refrain from giving users the category names.
In closed card sorting, participants are asked to group website or product content into predefined categories. If we were to conduct a closed card sort with the same content cards from above, we might use the following categories to sort the content:
