Information Architecture - Blog 2

Information Architect definition:

The best definition of an Information Architect I can put together is someone who deals with how to present information, considering all factors, such as client requirements and target audience to deliver a solution that benefits and works for all stakeholders.  They design the environment and methods for information organisation.

A bit slow...but the point is well made!

Ordering System:

1. #!%&: Creating Comic Books
2. $35 a Day Through Europe
3. .38 Special
4. The 1-2-3 of Magic
5. 1001 Arabian Nights
6. Albany, New York
7. El Paso, Texas
8. H20: The Beauty of Water
9. The Hague, Netherlands
10. The Lord of the Rings
11. New York, New York
12. Newark, New Jersey
13. Plzen, Czech Republic
14. Saint Nicholas, Belgium
15. St. Louis, Missouri
16. XVIIme siècle

a) Did you put The Hague under T or H?

Under 'H' as 'Hague' is the focus here, the 'The' is merely a definite article.

b) Did you put El Paso under E or P?

Under 'E', although it is a similar situation to the previous question, 'el' meaning 'the', it is also the name of a city, therefore we can sort it by it's full name which starts with 'E'.

c) Which came first in your list, Newark or New York?

New York came first as alphabetical order determines that words that end are ordered above words with additional letters.

d) Does St. Louis come before or after Saint Nicholas?

St Louis comes after Saint Nicholas, standard alphabetical ordering here, 'sa' comes before 'st', regardless of the fact it is an abbreviation.  we must take each word on face value.

e) How did you handle numbers, punctuation, and special characters?

These characters general come first before letters so I went with that.  From an IT point of view you can refer to the ASCII table, this also orders these characters before individual letters.

f) Assuming the italicised terms are book titles, what might be a more useful way to organise this list?

Books are often published alphabetically by author rather than title, this is one method, another would be chronological order, either by publish date, or if it is a personal list, by date in which you first read them.

g) If the cities represent places you've visited and the book titles are ones you've read, how could chronology be used to order the list in a more meaningful way?

As mentioned above, the date in which you first read the book could be used as an ordering marker, so too with cities, the first time you visited them.

Website Labels

Label	Desination’s heading label	Destination’s <TITLE> label
Top-of-page naviagation system labels
Coca-Cola Symbol (Home)	Coca-Cola	Enjoy a Coke and Enjoy the rewards
Home	Coca-Cola	Enjoy a Coke and Enjoy the rewards
Our Products	Our Drinks	Live Positively
Coca-Cola global	The Coca-Cola Company	Coca-Cola Unbottled
Sustainability	Our Platform for sustainability	Live Positively
Careers	Careers	Shape your future, your way
Contact Us	-	Contact Us
Body navigation system labels
Coke Unleashed	Find out More	Enjoy a coke and enjoy the rewards
Share a Coke with…	Share a coke with…	Do You have someone special you would love to share a coke with?
Pump	How to enter	Win round the world flights + $5000 to spend
Live Positively	Our Platform for sustainability	Live Positiviely
Powerade Zero	Zero Sugar Enhance Hydration	New Powerade Zero
Bottom-of-page navigation system labels
Privacy Policy	Privacy Policy	Privacy Policy
Terms of Use	Terms of Use	Terms of Use
Promotion Terms & Conditions and Winners	-	Promotion Terms & Conditions and Winners

Like many areas of web design, there are a good amount of areas that follow a formula to some degree (or should).  People have come to expect a certain amount of things when it comes to websites, a navigation section either across the top or down the left hand side for example.  without these the usability of a website instantly drops as users don't know what to do initially as what they are used to doing is not available.

Labelling is part of this area, a user should be able to find what they want within three clicks they say.  while this is an unreasonable figure to put on websites in reality, the moral behind it is sound, most users aren't interested in exploring your page, they want to get in and get out as soon as possible!  Labelling is key to all this.

The coca-cola site follows the method of top horizontal navigation links, these are obvious and legible to the user and the buttons are a solid size.  The only negative I would say about this site is that some pages (including links and labels) follow a different template to others, making for an inconsistent experience, I feel like I'm jumping websites at times.  

Comparison with competitor sites such as Pepsi and Schweppes finds Schweppes to be a similar site to Coke, with top horizontal navigation and the bonus of page template consistency and drop-down menus for extended navigation.  Pepsi is going at it from a whole different angle, with some sort of social media mash-up looking home page.  While I'm sure its very trendy and hip with the kids, anyone looking for simple information about the drink is really going to struggle!  To summarise I would have to give first place in terms of consistent labelling, and all round better website usability, to Schweppes.

Winner!