Tag Archives: information architecture

Read: Everything is Miscellaneous by Weinberger

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I just finished “Everything is Miscellaneous” by David Weinberger.

Fantastic read for information architects! I found it thought-provoking, educational, and humorous. I find myself thinking more creatively about designing information in my work.

To honor the miscellany, I actually read through the Notes (references to sources used in each chapter), Acknowledgments, and the Index at the end of the book.

The link to the site for the book is http://www.everythingismiscellaneous.com/.

However, it appears that as of right now, there is a problem with WordPress’s database connection. (Come on, people.)

And, as a matter of tapping at the Web, I tried the https connection to the site, and found this slip showing:

This web site is in the process of being moved. Please check back later today. Please contact billo if you have questions about it. You know his phone number.

Global nav is phooey?

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I guess I’m a little behind, but I just read this October 19th, 2005 post by Jared Spool: Global Site Navigation: Not Worthwhile?

Jared makes the quick claim that global navigation is unnecessary and rarely helpful. Naturally, a discussion ensues. Some in favor of global navigation argue that it is needed for people to form a mental model of the website. Others argue that it is only a last-ditch effort to find what they are looking for. Read the article for the details.

Global navigation
Links that appear on every page of a website, usually indicating the major categories that the website is organized into.

I typically build global navigation into sites that I design, but this posting has caused me to think a little more deeply on that.

Elements, such as global navigation links, on a web page should benefit the site visitor. So, what need does a site visitor have that global navigation addresses?

Off the top of my head, I can think of two major benefits:
1. It communicates to the site visitor what is in the site and where to look.
2. It should indicate which section of the site the visitor is in.

Following links from comments on Jared’s posting, here are a couple sites that have tried to different approaches to global navigation.

1. University of Wisconsin-Madison has topical, top-level nav on the home page, but if you click into the Admissions section, you won’t see any real global nav links. There are breadcrumb links and utility navigation links at the top. In addition, there are plenty of other local navigation and in-text options.

2. Amazon.com shows me three tabs at the top: Amazon.com, DAVIN’S Store, and See All 34 Product Categories. That looks like global nav to me. The product categories flies out to a sheet of links (incidentally, you see this technique in the New York Times site too). If I click on the “Camera and Photo” link in the product categories list, then the next page inserts a new “Camera and Photo” tab between the DAVIN’s Store and product categories tabs. And, there are sub-nav options clearly tied to the Camera and Photo tab. Is this global or local navigation? It looks hybrid to me.

So, it may be time to release the thoughts of global, local, utility, footer nav just for a bit. The point again is to communicate to the people visiting the site how to find what they are looking for, quickly. Search, of course, is an answer, but not the only one. Some still prefer browsing a site, but perhaps browsing can be improved by focusing more on local navigation.

All that said, I think I disagree with the bluntness of Jared Spool’s claim, though it is worth challenging what is becoming convential conceptions of how to organize navigation systems for a website.

ANGEL at MSU–Who tossed out the IA?

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I’m listening to the second edition of the podcast, “the digital paper chase—education, technology, and life in the academy,” in which the intrepid hosts, Steve & Troy, talk about being tech-newbies all over again. The discussion revolves somewhat around the concepts of blogging as a Web site and podcasting.

Anyway, at some point Steve made an observation that because the blog becomes the Web site, the design shifted from designing a Web site to designing the information. He didn’t use those words, but that’s what I heard.

Which then made me think about how putting ANGEL, the online course management system, into the works at Michigan State University has enabled course authors (generally faculty at MSU) to not have to worry about designing a Web site. Within the confines of the ANGEL system, they are put into the position of having to then design the information that they deliver.

This is information design and information architecture.

It happens in every course by sheer fact that the course exists. However, I’ve had this nagging suspicion that not many course designers are actually thinking seriously enough about the information architecture of their courses.

They, generally, do have experience in designing courses. This is great. However, what happens when designing course content intersects with designing information for Web sites?

This phenomenon distributed content authoring has left people with little formal experience in designing and structuring information for the Web in the position of having to design information for the Web.

How unfortunate. What shall we do?