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By Davina Gifford
 As part of a
recent role, I was involved in a major project that took me beyond my
usual skill set as a librarian. I was not only helping organise
information, but was also working on structuring the information;
laying out web pages, determining user information needs, and
reworking taxonomies.
This might not
sound so far away from everyday librarian tasks, but in the process
of researching all these things I was doing, I discovered there is a
whole discipline of information architecture
(IA) and user experience design
which, I personally believe,
fits neatly into what we do already as librarians.
There's
no easy way to define information architecture. The
Information Architecture Institute defines it as:
- The structural design of shared
information environments
- The art and science of organizing
and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software
to support usability and findability
- An emerging community of practice
focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the
digital landscape.
In addition the book 'Information
Architecture for the World Wide Web' by
Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville (both librarians) says
information architecture is:
'The
combination of organization, labeling, navigation schemes and
retrieval mechanisms within an information space. '
It's similar to what the IA Institute
says but with a little more focus on the organizational side of
things. As librarians we are trained in the effective management of
information, but there are always new tips and methods to be learnt.
This article
will cover a few of the basic concepts
of IA that can be easily transferred to the library space to
save you some time, or even help you provide even better service to
your patrons.
Determining
User Information Needs
As
librarians, we should be carrying out user needs analysis when
designing training programs, when deciding which
databases and books to purchase, and when creating current awareness
programs for our fee earners. Each time you are doing this, are you
going back to your patrons to determine what their needs are? And are
you doing this as part of a formal process or in a more informal way?
There are a number of ways of going
about conducting in-depth user needs analysis. Most of these will not
be relevant to us as librarians, but there are still lessons we can
learn.
Of course, the most basic way to get
information about what users need is to ask, whether through polls,
feedback forms, meetings or even by looking at search logs on the
intranet or organisational website. Using feedback forms and
polls enables you to gather targeted feedback on specific topics.
Ask for information from the intranet
or Web manager on the most searched for
terms. This will help you identify the information that users want.
This will often be information such as canteen menus, and HR
information, but there may be other information needs that you can
satisfy. For example, are there a lot of searches for a particular
topic? If content doesn't already exist this is a good opportunity to
create new content covering that topic. Make a page that covers the
basics and links to journals and websites of use. This way you can
show initiative and provide something useful. Search logs can also
help point out where content is insufficient or not easily found.
You can also use other statistics from
the intranet or Web site to determine under
utilised pages. If possible ask for regular (ideally monthly)
statistics of library controlled pages. Monitor how much usage each
page gets each month, and use that to inform further development or
reorganisation.
Information
Design
Are you redeveloping your intranet, or
perhaps developing a new knowledge management system? How much time
and effort have you put into querying what users need? Are you
structuring this information to provide access to information in the
best possible way? Are you providing the user with a positive
experience that makes the user want to use that system again
willingly?
Good information design in intranets,
Web sites and knowledge systems creates
systems that users are happy to go visit
again without prompting. How many times do you hear ' oh I don't'
use x system, I can never find anything I need'?
Your users will be much more satisfied with an efficiently designed
system.
Things to keep in mind when designing
or redesigning systems: keep it clear, concise and consistent, make
sure you are meeting the requirements of your users, and provide
multiple ways of accessing information.
Consistency is important. If you have
structured your information in a certain way in one section, make
sure you carry this structure throughout the site. Changing the way
something is structured mid-site is
confusing for users, and likely to make them frustrated.
Ultimately they may choose not to use the site or system.
It's also important for labels and content headers to be consistent
so that users don't get lost and also have a good idea of what
content is available where.
Users seek information in many ways, so
it is important to provide multiple ways of accessing information.
Generally, this would be through the navigation, through searching,
and possibly also through a site map or content index.
What
can you do?
If you know there are projects going on
in which you're not involved, try and get
an understanding of the project and its goals from the team
working on it. For example if your intranet is being
redeveloped by an IT centric team, find out who is working on the
project. If it's someone you already know, great! Set up a meeting
with them to go over how you think the library could help. Point out
the fact that you are all trained in information design. If not, try
and get to know them. Seek them out at the coffee point, or set up a
meeting with them to introduce yourself. It could be that they are
unaware of the library and what you can do to help.
Always remember, there is more to
librarianship than books, databases and research. If you can
demonstrate knowledge of important IT project concepts, e.g. user
needs analysis, you will be able to demonstrate this, and in the
process you can help raise the profile of your library not only in
the eyes of your IT department, but hopefully within the rest of the
organisation as well.
A few simple things can help make a
difference between a good project and a great project. And this
doesn't apply only to big projects, but small projects can benefit
from the same techniques.
Where
can you get help and inspiration?
One of the best books to start with is
the one I mentioned in my introduction, 'Information
Architecture for the World Wide Web' by
Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville. Rosenfeld and Morville both come
from a Library Science background and this book gives a good solid
grounding in the basics of IA.
There
is a wide range of other books on the topic of varying degrees of
depth and interest. There is a good list available at the IA
Institute website.
As
with any field, there are numerous blogs and websites available as
well. Sites that I have found particularly useful are UXBooth
(http://uxbooth.com),
Boxes and Arrows (http://www.boxesandarrows.com/),
and ReadWriteWeb (http://www.readwriteweb.com/).
There is a list of blogs here
which
is another good place to start.
Remember, inspiration can come from
many places, and it is important to be open to suggestions from as
many places as possible. Even articles that appear to have nothing
applicable to libraries may have a hint or suggestion that can be
modified to fit libraries.
By Davina Gifford
Davina
Gifford is currently a freelance information architect.
Previously
she was a information professional at SJ Berwin and LG and holds a
Masters
of Information Management from Queensland University of
Technology
in Brisbane, Australia. Davina blogs at
http://www.enquiring-minds.net
and tweets at
http://twitter.com/davinagifford.
FUMSI articles by Davina Gifford »
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