Information Architect

I am doing what I was meant to be doing. I am an Information Architect.

A Victory for Metrics

How do you persuade resistant business stakeholders to consider UX redesign? Show 'em the numbers!

Stakeholders might think they are Web designers, but, of course, we know otherwise. Inelegant page designs, strange navigation schemes, meaningless displays of data—they are all the product of stakeholder design. I see it with my own eyes. I am working with it all now. For phase one of a current project, I lost the UX battle. We are relaunching with poor design.

But I have won the war! I showed the stakeholders the fallout numbers, page by page, for the website they designed. There's a terrible enrollment rate. Users don't even click the Enroll button. And I convinced them that, with proper information architecture and usability, we could improve the numbers. They agreed, for phase two of the project, we would redesign and do two rounds of usability testing.

I look forward to a victory for UX and metrics!

For the Bookshelf: Prototyping

Prototyping, by Todd Zaki Warfel
Five out of five stars on Amazon.com. "With this book, Warfel shows how prototypes are more than just a design tool by demonstrating how they can help you market a product, gain internal buy-in, and test feasibility with your development team."

For the Bookshelf: User Research

Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research, by Mike Kuniavsky

Four and one-half stars out of five on Amazon.com. "You'll like Mike Kuniavsky's broad selection of practical user research methods—presented clearly and usably. And you'll like his timing too: while recent books focus on the whys of user experience, many are now ready for the hows. Observing the User Experience does just that: It demonstrates how to discover what is in users' heads, and suggests how we might balance those considerations with business objectives."

The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design, by John Pruitt

Four and one-half stars out of five on Amazon.com. "Personas are powerful design tools, which are that much more dangerous if they are grounded in weak methodology. Pruitt and Adlin show you how to do personas right and how to base them on real user data. Follow their advice or risk disaster."

Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior, by Indi Young

Four stars out of five on Amazon.com. "There is no single methodology for creating the perfect product—buy you can increase your odds. One of the best ways is to understand users' reasons for doing things. Mental Models gives you the tools to help you grasp, and design for, those reasons. Adaptive Path co-founder Indi Young has written a roll-up-your-sleeves book for designers, managers, and anyone else interested in making design strategic, and successful."

So Far, My Hero

In Content Strategy for the Web, Kristina Halvorson puts into writing many of my own long-held beliefs and methods. Here's another passage that makes her a girl after my own heart:

"Information architecture and content strategy are really two sides of the same coin. To design successful content-driven user experiences, one role simply cannot succeed without the other.

"Responsibilities do overlap. In fact, on small Web projects, one person can play both roles. However, regardless of project size, it's usually most effective if a separate IA and content strategist work side-by-side.

"Web professionals love to argue about which role owns what, where and when different roles should have decision-making authority, and so on. This kind of discussion makes me crazy. Arguing over who owns what is a waste of time. Decide what's necessary, agree who will drive the effort, and get the work done.

"No matter what, just make sure someone owns the content. While structure, taxonomy (content categorization), and nomenclature (menu labels) are critical to designing a successful website, without clear direction around the 'meat' of the site—the content that will exist in every nook and cranny—these solutions will fall short, every time."

Where Were You When I Needed You?

I started reading Kristina Halvorson's Content Strategy for the Web. It's new this year, copyright 2010.

Professionally, I spent my youth in the world of print publishing. I recognized right away that the Web was another way of publishing. I learned how to create websites so I could self-publish. I assumed, wrongly, that the publishing process for the Web would be pretty much the way it was for print.

Halvorson's cry that Web content should be treated like print content—with a respected process and an editor-in-chief—is the one voice I've ever heard that supports my own instincts—instincts that kicked in as soon as I saw Web pages with words on them all those years ago.

A few years back, I was a content developer building a practice within a user-centered design team. The team served as an in-house consulting and creative group for the ecommerce portion of a very large business. I've witnessed the disrespect content has suffered in Web era. And, for the first time, someone feels the same pain.

I read the second chapter, "Problem: Why Does Web Content Mostly Suck?," thinking, "Where was this book when I really needed it?" Everything from poor understanding about content on the part of user experience coworkers to having to rewrite four-dollar Web content that managers thought would save time and money. It's all there in Halvorson's second chapter.

For the Bookshelf: Web Analytics

Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity, by Avinash Kaushik
Five out of five stars on Amazon.com. "Adeptly address today’s business challenges with this powerful new book from web analytics thought leader Avinash Kaushik. Web Analytics 2.0 presents a new framework that will permanently change how you think about analytics. It provides specific recommendations for creating an actionable strategy, applying analytical techniques correctly, solving challenges such as measuring social media and multichannel campaigns, achieving optimal success by leveraging experimentation, and employing tactics for truly listening to your customers. The book will help your organization become more data driven while you become a super analysis ninja!"

Web Analytics Demystified: A Marketer's Guide to Understanding How Your Web Site Affects Your Business, by Eric Peterson
Four and one-half stars out of five on Amazon.com. "What I especially like is the way each approach to analytics is thoroughly examined, and the strengths and weaknesses objectively discussed. Some books are dogmatic in their approach, locking the reader into the author's view of analytics. This one differs by giving readers enough information with examples, clearly articulated factors, and other identified best practices to accept compromise solutions based on budget, level of in-house expertise and other considerations."