Exact Schemes

Divides information into mutually

exclusive groups
Category
Time
Location
Alphabet
Continuum
Category

Pertains to organization of good or services

Retail site often used this scheme
Different models, types, or questions
Enforced by color
Time

Organize events which happened over fixed

duration
Calendar
Timeline
Location

Categorize and compare information which

comes from different locales or sources
Multinational sites
Medical sites
Alphabet

Dictionaries
Phone books
yahoo.com
When all else fails
Continuum

Organizes items by magnitude from small to

large
Least expensive to most expensive
Ranking of preference
Order of importants
Ambiguous Schemes

Divide information into categories which

defy exact definition
Difficult to design and maintain
Difficult to use
Ambiguous Schemes

Mired in language ambiguity

Example: hit
To strike
To touch
Reach ones goals
A success (top 40s)
Baseball
Ambiguous Schemes

More useful
More powerful
Allows for concept of fuzzy
Ambiguous Schemes

Topical
Task-oriented
Audience specific
Metaphor driven
Hybrid schemes
Topical

Organizational method orders items by

subject
Library of Congress
Table of Contents
Academic course listings
Task-oriented

Organizational scheme into collection of:

Functions
Services
Tasks
Audience specific

Useful when there are two or more

audience types
Bank has links for:
Individuals
Small Business
Corporations
Metaphor driven

Use a metaphor to organize content

Inherents advantages/problems of
metaphors
Hybrid schemes

Combine multiple organizational schemes

Need clear separations or usability will
suffer
Organizational Structures

Defines relationships among groups

created by organizational scheme
Crucial to design
Important in web site design
Organizational Structures

Hierarchy
Database oriented
Hypertext
Form basis for web site navigation
Organizational Structures
Hierarchy

Structure according to rank or level

Examples:
Family tree
Corporate structure
Books
Organizational Structures
Hierarchy

Advantages:
Familiar
Successively refined detail
Disadvantages:
True hierarchy requires backtracking
Organizational Structures
Hierarchy
Organizational Structures
Database

Relational Database
Bottom-up approach
Searchable
Data-modeling can be time consuming
Organizational Structures
Database
Organizational Structures
Hypertext

Non-linear way of structuring information

Connected hierarchically, non-
hierarchically or both.
Flexible
Can be very confusing
Where am I
Controlled Vocabulary

Web sites are collections of

interconnected systems with complex
dependencies
Meta-Data: data about data
Describes an organization across multiple
terms
Controlled Vocabulary

Controlled Vocabulary: predetermined

vocabulary of preferred terms that
describes a particular domain
Simplest: list of equivalent terms
Complex: Thesaurus
Controlled Vocabulary
Synonym Ring

Connected set of words which are defined

as equivalent for purposes of retrieval
Authority File

List of preferred terms

Acceptable values

Example:
Postal codes
Common misspellings
Classification Schemes

Hierarchical arrangements of preferred

terms
Also called a taxonomy
Thesaurus

Book of:
Synonyms
Variant terms
Related terms
Opposite terms
Controlled Vocabulary
Thesaurus Terms
Controlled Vocabulary
Thesaurus Example
Card Sorting

Method of created a controlled vocabulary

Creates sets of objects and verbs
Quick and cheap
Draws out users organize topics
Card Sorting

Differing types:
Open/Closes
Phrasing
Granularity
Heterogeneity
Cross-listing
Visual Organization

Proximity
Alignment
Contrast
Consistency
Visual Organization

Appearance Matters
Enforces content organization
Aids navigation
Influenced by human perception
Related to Page Design
Proximity

Items close together are perceived as

related
Group related items together
Separate unrelated items
Alignment

Takes advantage of continuity to make

objects appeared grouped
Virtual lines
Text alignment
Contrast

Draws attention to items on page

Page with little contrast if hard to read
Consistency

High degree of uniformity in layout

Consistency directly related to usability
Consistent site are much easier to
navigate
Consistency
Page Layout
Page Design

Related to visual organization

Provides balance between content
organization and visual layout
Increases usability
Page Scanning
Page Size
Page Size
Top Of Page
Wireframe

Blueprint for site page

Describes content and information
architecture
Created for sites most important pages
Not replacement for real visual design
Wireframe
Wireframe (LowFi)
Wireframe (Med. Fi)
Wireframe (Hi Fi)
Page Layout
Page Layout