Archive for the ‘Information Architecture’ Category

If you’re considering a website redesign in 2010 you may want to check out these 35+ Usability Resources for Web Designers. Steven Snell at DesignMag compiles a handy list of both premium and free usability resources to test out your new site. He also lists related websites and blogs, checklists, and articles.

Cameron Chapman at Noupe has put together a Usability Testing Toolkit including Resources, Articles, and Techniques. This quick guide provides links and screenshots to nearly 50 resources in the following categories:

• Sites Dedicated to Usability Testing
• Usability Testing Articles and Guides
• Usability Testing Tools and Methods
• Screencasting Software
• Additional Roundups and Resources

I was just at the North Suburban Library System in Chicago where I gave a workshop on card sorting which is a type of usability test to discover how your users think about your website content so that your can organize it in a way that’s findable. I have made the content of the workshop available in a wiki if anyone is interested in learning about how to conduct card sorts. Here’s a description of the workshop:

“Web users spend an average of 8–10 seconds and three clicks on your Web site looking for what they need before they get frustrated and click away. Whether you are developing a new Web site or redesigning an existing one, it is imperative to determine an intuitive and usable navigational structure and taxonomy for your user community. Card sorting is a technique used in the information architecture field to determine a classification scheme that speaks to your user population. Discover how to use this quick and inexpensive technique to understand how your users think about your Web site and its content. Learn how to run both an open and a closed card sort, analyze the results, and make recommendations based on your data. This workshop explores both online and offline card-sorting techniques as well as analysis software. Make sure your information is findable and increase usability by involving your users in the process of designing your Web site — they will thank you for it!”

Boxes and Arrows has made podcasts available from Day 1 of the IA (Information Architecture) Summit 2009 which was held in Memphis, TN from March 20-22. More podcasts are to be published over the next two weeks. Here are a few that look interesting:

• Portable Research: Observing Users on the Go – Nate Bolt
• The Semantic Web: What IAs Need to Know About Web 3.0 – Chiara Fox
• Motivating Teams: Inspiring People To Do Great Work – Dorelle Rabinowitz
• Designing Rules: The Engine of User Experience – Dan Brown
• Site Redesign: When Hell Freezes Over Use A Blowtorch – Melissa Matross

Andrew Maier at UX Booth has written an excellent primer on IA titled Complete Beginner’s Guide to Information Architecture. If you have any interest in the field of info architecture, you will want to check out this guide. Here is the Table of Contents:

• Who is an Information Architect?
• What does an Information Architect do?
• Notable Information Architects
• Tools of the Trade
• Related Resources
• IA Books
• Miscellaneous Resources