Information Architecture (IA): - The role of IA for designing user interface communication and enriching user experience.
- Introduction
Information Architecture (IA) in the digital environment whether web or mobile needs to correspond to the real users’ needs. Online web engineers and web (mobile) architects consider efficient planning and organization of content very useful for enriching user experience. The main step in IA is to identify the primary audience, their needs and build relationships with them. By building relationships with primary audience IAs learn to prioritize audience needs and are able to focus their resources on making it easier for the users to accomplish the said task by using the system. Thus, in this online world the main task of an IA is to design a path, so that the user can easily traverse from one point to another without compromising quality of content and get maximum information. However, the contexts and the goals of the users vary as per the media. Moreover across the section of population web/mobile hardware devices are not standardized. So, there are technical concerns as well. Furthermore at present there are no standard guidelines existing for Information Architects in online (web/mobile) world to develop user interface (UI) and enrich user experience (UX). The above mentioned concerns negatively impact the role of IA to design UI and guarantee rich UX.
The research goal would be to determine the aspects of IA, study its roles in achieving a positive user interaction, and how it fits in the online design environment. The research aims to know what type of tools IAs use to do their tasks and how usability relates to IA. It also aims to know, whether designing for online environment stems from any traditional design method and what are the difficulties faced by the IAs in online world.
The questionnaire that is designed will serve the following objectives:
- Determine the basic role from the list of roles identified through studies and literature reviews of IA.
- Examine the importance of IA in online environment.
- Provide focus to management, when adopting IA to enrich UX.
- Compare and contrast the importance of IA process vis-Ã -vis any traditional process to enrich UX.
2. Survey format and data collection (Survey method): -
The survey shall use a web based method (web analytics) to collect data. A web survey method is optimal for this kind of research as it is fast, less expensive. Also the target populations for this survey are professionals dealing in marketing, IA, web/mobile site designing and building web/mobile applications within organizations. These are people engaging in user experience design. As participants are busy, so, through this web based survey they can answer the queries as per their convenience as well as be sensitive towards the answers. Moreover a web based survey is considered optimum, when capturing data is from specific section of population.
There are three sections in the survey. In the first section basic information is entered along with the project profile and the participant’s information. The second section is specific to the role of IA and its aspects for generating rich UX. The final section consists of feedback and additional comments, where the participant can have his say and forward that to the surveyor. To collect the data via this method close ended questions are asked to gauge the participant’s level of perception.
3. Data Analysis:
Since the participants need to answer close ended questions so I am using a lie chard scale to gauge the responses and analyze and then collate and convert it into information. So that relevant information can be codified and certain assumptions verified.
The survey follows a stratified sampling technique because the participants are divided into different sections based on the type of profession they are engaged in the organization. For the purpose of coherent analysis the population is divided into people, who are professionals in IA, and web/mobile site designers and web/mobile application engineers. The data collected shall be classified as categorical data based on ordinal and shall be interpreted using pie graphs. Other statistical techniques to analyze the data shall also be used. The techniques are measures of central tendency and measures of dispersions
4. Survey on Information Architecture for designing online (web/mobile) user interface and enriching user experience (survey): -
This survey is designed to find the significance of IA in designing UI for generating rich UX. Your help in filling out this small questionnaire would be greatly appreciated. Your response is significant, as at present a lot of ambiguities surround the activities of information architecture (IA) for designing user interface (UI) and generating rich user experience (UX). So, it would be appreciated if you can spend 15-20 minutes to answer this questionnaire. We acknowledge that you might have other pressing concerns and appreciate your time to respond to this online survey and thank you in advance.
5. Instructions
The questionnaire is divided into three sections and will take about 10-15 minutes. In the first section, Section A, the participants are to enter the basic information. For each question in Section B, participants are to select all options as the case may be. There is no right or wrong answers. For feedback, the participant can use Section C. Once the questionnaire is filled, you need to click on the submit button at the lower right corner of the last page.
Your responses to the questionnaire will be confidential and only aggregate results will be reported. If you prefer to not reply to any of the questions, feel free to omit them. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this research project please contact Shubhojit Roy at 0433487519 or at Shubhojit.Roy@student.uts.edu.au. For your information for data to be analyzed in time, online questionnaires will only be available in UTS until May 25, 2009.
6. Survey Questions.
Section A
Participant’s information
- What is your name? _____________________________________
- What is your age?
(a) Below 25
(b) 25-40
(c) 41-50
(d) 51-60
(e) Above 60
- What is you gender?
(a) Male
(b) Female
- What is your profession?
(a) Information Architect
(b) Web/mobile site designer
(c) Web/mobile application developer/engineer
(d) Producer/Coordinator (Web/Mobile)
(e) Marketing professional
(f) Project (website/msite) Managers
(g) Audience Research Analyst
5. What mobile/web project are you involved in?
(a) ___________________________________________
(b) Confidential
(c) Not Applicable
6. List your favorite web or mobile page and include a brief statement as to why?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Section B
- Information Architecture (IA) is like the architecture of buildings, which is a blueprint illustrating the framework.
(a) Strongly Agree 
(b) Agree
(c) Neutral
(d) Disagree
(e) Strongly Disagree
- Tasks similar to those of an IA are
(a) Information management (IM)
(b) Information Design (ID)
(c) Interaction Design (IxD)
(d) Human Computer Interaction(HCI)
(e) User Experience Design (UXD/UX) or Usability engineering (UE)
(Select all that is applicable)
- The deliverables of IA for developing UI for enriching UX are
(a) Content Organization or Specification
(b) User Research
(c) Site Map and Wire Frames
(d) Page Templates and Mock ups
(e) Technical Analysis
(Select all that is applicable)
- Effective IA requires blending of business goals and technical constraints with user needs
(a) Strongly Agree
(b) Agree
(c) Neutral
(d) Disagree
(e) Strongly Disagree
- IA is an iterative process, which is structured up-front but can evolve organically.
(a) Strongly Agree
(b) Agree
(c) Neutral
(d) Disagree
(e) Strongly Disagree
- IAs work collaboratively with the tech team, database engineers and HTML coders.
(a) Strongly Agree
(b) Agree
(c) Neutral
(d) Disagree
(e) Strongly Disagree
- IA employs a range of tools for successful formulation, implementation and evaluation of strategy.
(a) Strongly Agree
(b) Agree
(c) Neutral
(d) Disagree
(e) Strongly Disagree
- IAs relate to Usability like conducting usability testing, while planning site structure.
(a) Strongly Agree
(b) Agree
(c) Neutral
(d) Disagree
(e) Strongly Disagree
- Improved usability is a successful measure of IA or design effectiveness.
(a) Strongly Agree
(b) Agree
(c) Neutral
(d) Disagree
(e) Strongly Disagree
- Copying organizational structure without any adherence to user needs is the most common problem of IA.
(a) Strongly Agree
(b) Agree
(c) Neutral
(d) Disagree
(e) Strongly Disagree
- One of the major challenges facing IA in future is modeling human needs for interaction design so that people can easily access information is due to change in
(a) Context
(b) Goal
(c) Format
(d) Media
(e) Technology
(Select all that is applicable)
- Management can measure the success of IA by:
(a) Higher search engine ranking
(b) Less page loading time
(c) Increase in number of visitors
(d) More revenue/sales
(e) Lowers call to service/call centers (Select all that is applicable)
Section C
Have your say (feedback/additional comment): -
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Feel free to supply any other information that might be of importance or interest to you. Once again thank you for your contribution and time.
Shubhojit Roy
Email: Shubhojit.Roy@student.uts.edu.au
Phone: 0433487519
References: -
Anonymous, 2007, 10 questions about information architecture, on bnet.au: Social Networking for Old Farts, TechRepublic, viewed on 30 April 2009, <http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-22_11-5074224.html>
Baker, L. 2005, What is information architecture?, Step two Designs Pty Ltd, Sydney, viewed 11 April 2009,< http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_whatisinfoarch/index.html>
Baty, S. 2009, User Research Personas and Other Audience Models, on UXmatters, viewed on 2 May 2009, <http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2009/04/user-research-for-personas-and-other-audience-models.php >
Kennedy, P. 2007, The many faces of information architecture, Step two Designs Pty Ltd, Sydney, viewed 12 March 2009, < http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_iafaces/index.html>
Psomas, S. 2007, The Five Competencies of User Experience Design, on UXmatters, viewed on 30 April 2009, <https://elanso.com/ArticleModule/SourceFrame.aspx?Idx=NiHvGJSOTDUfMlUKVcRbVwIi>
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