Sunday, December 14, 2014

Information Architecture -- Bottom Up!

By Greg Campbell
Mark Baker's presentation in March, Every Page is Page One, introduced the concept of bottom-up information architecture and provided useful design strategies for bringing tech comm to the web.  But one presentation was not enough, so we had him back again on November 26! Baker provided a more detailed analysis on the issues that plague top-down hierarchical structures, and how the user experience of search & hyperlinking should shape the organization of web-based information.

It is no secret that we use the search function and links to find information on the Internet. The search function is the most popular channel we use to reach content we desire and it is exactly what Bakers topic-based approach builds upon. Understanding that people use the search function is his logical first step in shaping how technical communication is experienced on the web.

To show that current methods could be better, Baker used old and new encyclopaedias to illustrate the value of topic-based organization.
The title of the image to the right is translated as figurative system of human knowledge" and is commonly known as the tree of Diderot and dAlembert. It is suppose to represent the structure of knowledge itself. To find information in here is to follow a sequential order through a family tree of information.

The tree of Diderot and d’Alembert is an example of hierarchical structures and illustrates the top-down approach to information architecture. The common denominator of the top-down approach is the linear sequencing of information.

When a Top-down organization is ported to the web, Baker says to reorganize it with a bottom-up structure. If one does not reorganize the hierarchical structure, users will need to read prerequisite information to understand the information that brought them to the page in the first place. There cannot be context if your document has 210 pages and Google drops the user in at page 78. The user will need to start reading previous pages to situate the info on page 78. Becoming aware that top-down hierarchical structures on the web is not compatible with the way we use the web, is one of the takeaways of Baker’s presentation.

To bring technical information to the web, Baker advocates a reorganization of the information into stand-alone topics. He used a typical Wikipedia page. When users look for technical information, they find it embedded in proper context without having to read previous pages. With the bottom up architecture, the context is always there because every page is the first page. At least with a bottom up architecture, the user will always land on a page that provides context and links to get you to the information you want.

The comparison between encyclopaedias organized by hierarchies and encyclopaedias organized like Wikipedia shows the value of bottom up architecture for the web. The information does not stop here - there is more to come on this topic. Baker has another presentation in the New Year that builds on information architecture bottom-up.
Stayed tuned.