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The Human Communication and Interaction Research Group www.hci-rg.com

You are in the section: Education (Course 200708-IA - Information Architecture).

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Information Architecture

Contents

Information Architecture

• Intuitive Interaction.
• Economic Cost of Bad Design.
• Bad design could cost lives too.
• Case of study.
• The Origin of the Human Factors Engineering.
• Standars in Commercial Aviation.
• Standards in Interactive Design for Web Engineering.
• History and definition of Information Architecture.
• Basis of Information Architecture.
• Products of Information Architecture.
• Interactive design lifecycle.
• Mental Models.

The User Model

• User Interaction Requirements.
• Genetic-based versus Cultural-based User Interaction Requirements.
• Personas.
• The Human Information System Model.
• The Human Processor Model.
• The Human Memory.
• Fitt's Law.
• Accuracy of Hand Motions.
• Hick's Law.
• The Power Law of Practice.
• The GOMS Model.
• Usability Evaluation.
• Inquiry: Focus Group.
• Inquiry: Interview.
• Inspection: Cognitive Walktrough.
• Inspection: Pluralistic Walktrough.
• Inspection: Heuristic Evaluation.
• Inspection: Heuristic Walktrough.
• Test: Think Aloud.
• Evaluation Carried on by Usability Experts.
• Evaluation Carried on by Intended Users.
• Remote Testing.
• The four layer architecture for the design of interactive systems.

The Lexical Level

• Universal Access.
• Motivations for Designing Accesible Content.
• Designing POUR (Percetible, Operable, Understable and Robust) interfaces.
• Key Design issues for Blind Users.
• Key Design issues for Low Vision Users.
• Key Design issues forColor Blind Users.
• Key Design issues for Users with Auditory Disabilities.
• Key Design issues for Users with Motor Disabilities.
• Key Design issues for Portable Devices.
• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
• Color Contrast.
• Designing for Color Blind and Eldery Users.
• The TTC (Translate-Translate and Compare) Heuristic.
• A WCAG Validation Tool.
• When WCAG fail: Conformance is not Accessibility.
• Beyond WCAG: Accessibility content for Mobile Devices.
• W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0.
• Mobile Web Validators.

The Syntactical Level

• From Sensation to Representation.
• Theoretical Approaches to Perception.
• Perception: Case of Study.
• Gestalt Principles.
• Breaking the Perception Rules!
• Brightness Perception.
• Text Perception.
• Human Attention.

The Semantic Level

The Conceptual Level

Laboratory Tools

• Basic Layout design to Macromedia's Freehand.
• Generating web images with Adobe Phothoshop.
• Basic user behaviour recording with CamStudio and Web cams.
• Video footage edition Pinnacle Studio.
• Postproduction video editing with Virtual dub.

Profiles, Knowledge, Competencies and Skills

Upon successfully completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the importance of information architectures, user cognitive models, navigation strategies, user interface adaptation and special interaction requirements.
• Apply basic issues, techniques, methods and concepts of disciplines intertwingled with Information Architecture, such as Interaction Design or User Experience.
• Author adaptive web pages, and design complex corporative web sites, verbalizing their mission within the context of the organization it serves.
• Create reports describing the best Information Architecture strategies and recommendations for Web site design.
• Apply core principles of Information Architecture to redesigns of Web site features and functionality.
• Perform information audits for an organisation applying Information Architecture skills to improve their online information systems.
• Design and conduct research experiments to complete scientific knowledge on special user interaction requirements and cognitive models.
• Apply research methods to better understand the environment within which a website will be designed or revised.

Approaches & Methods

• We put the student into teams requiring as many software prototype development, research experimental work, written reports and presentations as possible. The graduate gains experience and therefore preparation for the research job they will be doing from their class projects.
• Its objective, beyond the obvious purpose of covering advance research on Information Architecture, is to help the student make the transition from research papers understanding to actual real world experience.
• This approach involves the skills of working in a team, research experiment design, writing, and presentation.

Calendar and Evaluation

This course demands a high degree of continuous evaluation and cooperative learning, accommodated through regular discussions meetings and reports, a final report and oral presentation.

It is imperative that students work in close co-operation with the lecturers allowing students the only opportunity to discuss their progress with lecturers, whereas it will give lecturers the very necessary opportunity to control the quality and direction of the work done by the students.

Following online document details the evaluation methods for this course as well as the scheduled calendar of discussins and reports.

• Evaluation Road Map.
• Evaluation Calendar.

Software Tools

• Adobe FreeHand MX. Illustration and layout software for print and web.
• Adobe Photoshop CS3. Digital images editing software.
• CamStudio. Free Streaming Video Software.
• JAWS for Windows. Screen Reader.
• Firebug. Firefox's extension allowing to edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML and JavaScript live in any web page.
• Pinnacle Studio Plus. Digital video editing software.
• ScrapBook. Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and manage the collection.
• Screengrab. Firefox's extension that allows to save entire webpages as images.
• Web Developer. Firefox's extension powered by several web developer tools.
• Web Sort. Conduct card-sorting studies online.

Bibliography

• Affectus; (2007) Usability inspections. www.affectus.se/publicerat/usabilityinsp.
• Barker, Ian; (2005). What is information architecture? KM Column. 2 May 2005. www.steptwo.com.au.
• Bauer, Ben; (1997) The Stroop Effect (What does it tell us about attention and memory?) Psychology 207. www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~bgbauer/chapters/stroop.html.
• BOE 166 (12 julio 2002) Ley 34/2002, de 11 de julio, de servicios de la sociedad de la información y de comercio electrónico.
• Bruce-Mitford, Miranda; (2004) The Illustrated Book of Signs and Symbols. DK Publishing. ISBN: 9780760762325.
• Bruner, Jerome; (1987) Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Harvard University Press. ISBN: 978-0674003668.
• Bruner, Jerome; (1992) Acts of Meaning: Four Lectures on Mind and Culture. Harvard University Press. ISBN: 978-0674003613.
• Card, S.; Moran, T; Newell, A; (1983) The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 9780898598599.
• Chapman, C.N; Milham, R; (2006) The personas' new clothes. Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) 2006, San Francisco, CA. October 2006.
• Commission of the European Communities (2002) eEurope 2002: Accessibility of Public Web Sites and their Content.
• European Council. Commission of the European Communities (2002) eEurope 2005: An information society for all. An Action Plan to be presented in view of the Sevilla European Council, 21/22 June 2002. Brussels, 28.5.2002. COM(2002) 263 final.
• Coren, Stanley; Komoda, Melvin K; (1973) The Effect of Cues to Illumination on Apparent Lightness. The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 86, No. 2 (Jun., 1973), pp. 345-349. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9556(197306)86%3A2%3C345%3ATEOCTI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C.
• Dix, A; Finlay, J; Abowd, G; Beale, R; (1998) Human-Computer Interaction; Prentice Hall; Second Edition. ISBN 0130461091.
• Cooper, Alan; (1999). The Inmates are Running the Asylum. SAMS, 1999. ISBN 0-672-31649-8 Ergonomics for Scholl (2007) Noise. www.ergonomics4schools.com/lzone/noise.htm.
• Fitt’s Law; (2007) Fitt’s Law Demostration. fww.few.vu.nl/hci/interactive/fitts/
• Gaffney, Gerry; (1998) Web site evaluation checklist v1.1. Information & Design pty ltd www.infodesign.com.au.
• Genise, P; (2002). Usability Evaluation: Methods and Techniques. Technical Paper. University of Texas.
• Gonzalez-Rodriguez, Martín; (2002) Automatic Data-Gathering Agents for Remote Navigability Testing. Pages 78-85. IEEE Software, November 2002.
• Gonzalez-Rodriguez, Martin; (2007) GADEA: Sistema de Gestión de Interfaces de Usuario Auto-adaptables basado en Componentes, Tecnología de Objetos y Agentes Analizadores de Patrones de Comportamiento. TDR University of Oviedo. ISBN: 978-84-690-7526-5
• Gonzalez-Rodriguez, M; Manrubia, Jorge; Vidau, Agueda; Gonzalez-Gallego, Marcos; (2008 ) Improving Accessibility with User-Tailored Interfaces. Applied Intelligence. The International Journal of Artificial Intelligence, Neural Networks, and Complex Problem-Solving Technologies. ISSN: 0924-669X.
• Hartrumpf, Sven; Helbig, Hermann; Leveling, Johannes; Oswald Reinner; (2006) An Architecture for Controlling Simple Web Language in Web Pages. Pages 93-108. eMinds: International Journal on Human-Computer Interaction; ISSN: 0302-9743. Oviedo, Spain.
• Harris, Marvin; (1990) Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, Where We Are Going. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0060919900.
• Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission; (2002) World Wide Web Access: Disability Discrimination Act Advisory Notes. www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/standards/www_3/www_3.html.
• Kalbach, James; Bosenick, Tim; (2003) Web Page Layout: A Comparison Between Left- and Right-justified Site Navigation Menus. Journal of Digital Information, Volume 4, Issue 1. Article 153 (2003-04-28).
• Krug, Steve; (2005). Don’t make me think!, New Riders Publishing. Second Edition. ISBN: 0321344758.
• Melani, Chiara; Fontanella, Francesca; Cecconi Giovanni A.; (2000) La Lengua y Escritura. Historia Ilustrada de la Antigua Roma: de los Orígenes a la Caída del Imperio Romano. Susaeta Ediciones. ISBN: 84-305-3487-3.
• Microsoft (2007) Understanding SAMI 1.0. msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms971327.aspx.
• Miller, G; (1958) The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information. The Psychological Review, 1956, vol. 63, pp. 81-97. www.musanim.com/miller1956.
• Newell A.; (1991) Unified Theories of Cognition. London Harvard Unified Press. ISBN 0-674-92101-1.
• Nielsen, Jakob; (1993). A Mathematical model for the Finding of Usability Problems. Proceedings of Interchi 1993: Human Factors in Computing Systems. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
• Nielsen, Jakob; (2000). Designing Web Usability, New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis, ISBN 1-56205-810-X.
• Nielsen, Jakob; (2007) Ten Usability Heuristics. www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html.
• Norman, Donald; (2002) The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465067107.
• Pfizer Ophthalmic; (2005) Vision Simulator. www.visionsimulator.com.
• Rosenfeld, Louis; Morville, Peter; (2006) Information Architecture for the World Wide. O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 3 edition (November 27, 2006). ISBN: 978-0596527341.
• Salthouse, T; (1986) Perceptual, Cognitive and Motoric Aspects of Transcription Typing. Psychological Bulletin (1986).
• Schmidt, Richard A.; Wrisberg, Craig A.; (2007) Motor Learning and Performance with Web Study Guide. Human Kinetics Publishers. November 2007. ISBN. 9780736069649. 4Th Edition.
• Schrepp, M; Fischer, P; (2006) GOMS Models to Evaluate the Effciency of Keyboard. Pages 93-108. eMinds: International Journal on Human-Computer Interaction; ISSN: 0302-9743. Oviedo, Spain.
• Seibel, R. (1963) Discrimination Reaction Time for a 1023 Alternative Task. Journal of Experimental Psychology 66. The Information Architecture Institute; (2007) www.iainstitute.com.
• WebAim (2007) The User's Perspective. Web AIM (Web Accessibility in Mind) www.webaim.org/articles/ Wikipedia; (2007). Helios Airways Flight 522. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522.
• World Wide Web Consortium W3C; (1997) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). http://www.w3.org/WAI.
• World Wide Web Consortium W3C; (1999) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG). W3C Recommendation 5-May-1999. www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT.
• World Wide Web Consortium W3C; (1999) Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist.html.
• World Wide Web Consortium W3C; (2006) Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0. Basic Guidelines. W3C Proposed Recommendation 2 November 2006. www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp.
• World Wide Web Consortium W3C; (2005) Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.0). W3C Recommendation 07 January 2005. http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-SMIL2-20050107.
• World Wide Web Consortium W3C; (2007) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG). W3C Working Draft 17-May-2007. www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-WCAG20-20070517
• Usability.net (2007) International standards for HCI and usability. www.usabilitynet.org/tools/r_international.htm#9126-1.
• Yoshikawa, Hidekazu; (2003). Modeling Humans In Human-Computer Interaction. In: J. A. Jacko and A. Sears (Eds) The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-4468-6

Lecturers

• Dr. Martin Gonzalez-Rodriguez.

Course Coordinator

Dr. Martin Gonzalez-Rodriguez.

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