Information

Architecture The
Business Value
With a look at Intranet best practices

Nick Drogo
3/27/2011
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................2
Information Architecture: Background........................................................................3
Information Architecture: Business value...................................................................6
Information Architecture: Intranets..........................................................................10
Intranet Design Best Practices.................................................................................13
Dielectric Laboratories Intranet Site critique............................................................15
Conclusion................................................................................................................23
Works Cited..............................................................................................................24
Introduction
As the amount of information continues to grow in organizations the value of Information

Architecture becomes more important than ever. This paper is going to investigate methods and

advantages Information Architecture can bring to organizations epically when it relates to

Intranet design.
Information Architecture:
Background
Information Architecture (IA) is defined in Information Architecture for the World Wide

Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville by three definitions. The first is “The structural

design of shared information environments.” The second “The combination of organization,

labeling, search and navigation systems within web sites and Intranets”. “The art and science of

shaping information products and experiences to support usability and findability” is the third

definition.() To simplify Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville’s definitions I define Information

Architecture as the processes used to organize and structure information so others can effectively

and efficiently use it.

In 1976 at the AIA National Convention Richard Wurman coined the term Information

Architecture. Before that conference in 1976 many were using the word Information design

which confused people and led them to believe that the concept was about making the

information look good. However, Wurman thought Information Architecture was better

terminology to describe how people should be thinking of information. As data exploded

Wurman thought that people should be looking at information and how it worked and performed

not if it looked good. He thought that it needed to be measurable by performance and have a

series of systems and design techniques to make it efficient. ()

Information Architecture is based on the structure of an information environment. The

main categories of Information Architecture are organization systems, labeling systems,

navigation systems and search systems. There are different types of organization schemes,
including exact and ambiguous schemes. Exact schemes are alphabetical, chronological and

geographical. Ambiguous schemes include topic, task, audience, metaphor, and hybrids. Exact

schemes are useful when users will be performing known item searches because they make it

clear where to find information. Ambiguous organization schemes help people who don’t know

exactly what they are looking for to find information. Rosenfeld and Morville recommend using

a combination of the two schemes.()

Along with the exact and ambiguous schemes a hierarchal, database and hypertext

approach for organization exist. Database models take a bottom-up approach while the

hierarchical model is a top down approach similar to an organizational chart. The Hypertext

model chunks information and links these information chunks together.() The majority of sites

need to use all three methods to create an effective organization structure. Doing so will

improve ability to find information, reduce duplication while improving the quality of

information.() Having navigation and labeling on a site that is clear and is able to show the

organization systems easily is key. Navigation systems include global, local and contextual

systems. Global navigation is intended to be present on every page in a site; local navigation

appears on pages in a particular area; and contextual navigations are specific to a particular page,

document, or object. The final Information Architecture system is search. It is helpful to have a

search feature when there is too much information in a site to browse. Search features usually

involve indexing the site’s contents in one or a variety of ways. It is also important to provide

results in a meaningful way, explaining where the results came from and offering suggestions for

improving the search when possible.()

An effective Information Architect must understand how context, content and users

overlap to help produce an information strategy. Context is unique to each organization and
encompasses the organizational goals, culture, technology and budget. Organizational context

can be identified by a numerous methods but the most popular is interviews with organizational

leaders. The content is the information that exists in the environment. Analyzing of the content

is important to produce maps and visual aids to better grasp the data and organization structure.

Users are unique people that will use the information and is essential to understand the user

population to produce effective Information Architecture. To help understand users need an

information audit helps identify how the information is being used and will allow for analysis

and recommendations to improve. A clear understanding and definition of each concepts and

how it effects each other is important to provide the most effective information strategy.()
Information Architecture: Business
value
Information Architecture value can be difficult to quantify. According to the 2009 Global

Annual State of Enterprise Architecture Online Survey only 22% of the architects that had a

formal process in place have seen value by increased revenue. () This difficulty often leads to

organizations lacking a formal Information Architecture strategy and realigning resources to

other disciplines. Peter Morville says, “We don't have a formula for computing return on

Information Architecture. We think it's important. We believe it's important. But we don't have

scientific proof. This places us in the role of quasi-religious missionaries, desperately striving to

convince the masses of the righteousness of our vision”.() The lack of a formula should not

discourage organizations to invest in Information Architecture. I intend to show the value an

organization can receive from the proper use of Information Architecture strategies.

The amount of data organizations depended on continues to grow and several

different systems such as Customer Relation Management systems (CRM), Enterprise Resource

Planning (ERP), and Supply Chain systems, Document Management and Intranets are used to

collect and present data. For an organization to stay competitive in today's rapidly changing

business environment it is essential to understanding and makes decisions on all the data

collected by these different systems. Business Intelligence (BI) systems and methods were

created to help make these business decisions faster and smarter. “A BI system can be defined as

a process of turning data into information and then into knowledge”. (). Information Architecture

is the foundation in an organization to effectively taken advantage of such technologies. Forester

research has identified that 5 of the top 15 technologies that stimulate innovation, growth and

efficiency rely on Information Architecture. ()

 Information Architecture focuses on the structured BI data and unstructured data to help

determining information requirements, how it relates to other information and how it relates to

business processes and business functions. Research completed in 2010 by the Gartner group

identified Information Architecture roles in Information Technology departments need to be

established and a recruiting and training strategy should be created to behave contained success

and delivery best in call systems and information. ()

Business leaders need to establish a positive investment on new technologies and

resources. This necessity has drove Peter Morville and other Information Architectures to build

metrics to better show the value of Information Architecture. A study by the Association for
Information and Image Management found that half of the respondents found it difficult to find

information at work and only that only 50% of the information is searchable.() This wasted time

decreased productivity for companies and is costly. Having well-designed Information

Architecture with indexes, labeling and effortless navigation will reduce the amount of time

spent looking for information. Having well designed Intranet can give organizations a monetary

benefit that Information Architecture can bring to the table. Jakob Nielsen of Sun Microsystems

devised the following equation to show the cost that Sun was incurring because there Intranet

site lacked effective Information Architecture.

(# of Sun Staff)(Average Sun Employee Salary)(Average # of pages and sites visited per day per

person)(# of confusion each visit due to differing navigation options) = The cost no Information

Architecture

The cost for Sun was $1 million per year at the page level and $10 million per year at the

site level. ()

Investing in an Information Architecture strategy will make information and software be more

usable and increase productivity. This is accomplished by the aligning of context, content and

users with the goals of the system and organization this understanding will allow for a better

organization of the information based on user and organization needs which will lead to less time

to find information.

The case study on Amtrack.com’s website on the cost of frustration identifies the value of

Information Architecture. The study showed that only 25% of people who started an online

reservation completed it. This calculates to potential loss revenue of $6,600,000 a month since

the site was averaging around 10,000 registrations a month on an average ticket cost of $220.

However, not everyone that visits the site is going to purchase a therefore the case study
conservatively estimate that only 20% of people who are not currently registering today would

do so with an easier-to-use interface. This 20% increase could have a potential increase in

revenues by $1.3 million a month. ()

Similar to other projects management techniques. The majority of the time should be

spent in the planning and analyzes phases then the implementation phase. This can help drive

down redesign cost by allowing the addition of content without having to recreate the entire site

because it was planned for these changes. This could save thousands of dollars depending on the

size and life of the site. Development time can be drastically be reduced by 10-25% and

eliminate waste of building things that people won't use. ()

The value Information Architecture for an organization can best be captured by aligning

it with the business strategies and having communication between IT and business leaders. A

vision must be established and proper planning and analyzes must be performed.
Information Architecture: Intranets
Traditionally, documents have been stored in folders which were stored on file servers.

People searched for those documents based upon the knowledge of how the documents were

categorized. The issue with this is that others are not likely to know how someone categorized

the folders and documents and what exists within it. The majority of originaizations files are

stored on file shares which have little or no metadata associated with it. The lack of metadata

and logic makes it extremely difficult for employees to find information quickly and as I outlined

above can cost millions. The use of corporate Intranet sites similar to Microsoft SharePoint

helps organizations move away from file servers to a more efficient web interface that allows

metadata data and tagging. However, Intranets can quickly grow out of control and are initially

created unplanned and with no Information Architecture strategy. The use of Information

Architecture techniques such as content analysis, user interviews, card sorts, wireframes and

blueprints before the creation or recreation of a corporate Intranet site can dramatically increase

user’s experience. ()

A content inventory gathers all the sites content to allow analysis and is useful in leaning

about the sites content. Document types, subject, owners and current architecture are often

gathered. This data is key to development of Information Architecture and useful to show how

people have been using the site and where they have had difficulties. One of the most effective

ways to gather information and requirements is by interviews, surveys and testing. This allows

gathering of the user’s priorities and expectations.() Card sorting is useful into seeing how users

group, use and think about the information. Card sorting involves labeling index cards with

headings from categories and content from the site, and getting users to group them in a way that
makes sense to them. Card sorting is a good method to help create the site hierarchy and

navigation path. Once information is gathered, blueprints and wireframes can used to organize

the site. Blueprints show the relationships among pages, and wireframes show the layout of

individual pages. Prototypes should be created with the information gathered to allow for

usability testing. The testing process should be continuous throughout the entire process to

ensure issues are captured and changes are made as soon as possible. Usability testing can be as

simple as having users review pencil sketches or actual web prototypes. Using pencil sketches is

easier to create and uses fewer resources which are important in the earlier stages when design

often change. When performing usability testing Nielsen suggest you only need 5 users to test to

uncover 80% of the major problems and to perform the testing with real users. It is important to

look for repeated behavior during the usability testing and to look for ‘underlying issues and

what has caused the problem. ()

The design of an Intranet site should be looked at different then an Internet site because

of unique factors that must be kept in mind:

• Intranet users know much more about the organization then external users.

• Intranet task are don’t daily while Internet sites aren’t. Therefore familiarity is

more common on an Intranet site.

• Intranet site’s information is different which could include policies and

procedures that need be secured where most intent sites are setup for public

sharing of documents.

• The amount of information and features on an Intranet site is often greater to less

bandwidth restrictions.

• Intranets should be broad with very accurate information that improve efficiency

where Internet sites are used to increase support and marketing.

• Intranet sites can be created to use corporate approved browsers and technology

while Internet sites must comply with a larger mix of products.

• Content on Intranet sites is updated daily with heavy integration with other

systems.
Intranet Design Best Practices
Home Page- Don’t clutters the home page and needs to have a balance between business and

user needs. It is important to have guidelines on what can be posted to the main site and how

long it should remain. The home page should be used to deliver the most important information

and updated often. The home page should use graphics to convoy important messages and links

off it to the Intranets main sites.

Make it easy for users to access the Intranet- The Intranet site and URL should be easy to find

and remember how to get back to it.

Log-in and password- It is best to not have a log-in or password and to use a single sign on

technology for ease of use.

Forms- Online forms should be placed in a central area listed by topic with a search function.

Forms should be prepopulated with data to show users what information is needed.

Video- The use of video is a good way to show emotion and visual learning.

Post Internal Jobs- Providing a list of job vacancies encourages internal movements within the

organization. The job section should have search capability and be organized by division and

location.

News and Events- Should be posted on the home page and news categories should be made to

distinguish news articles. News should be placed in a central area with clear headings, date it was

posted and links to show more details.

Employee directory- Should include name, title, email, phone number, manager, division, direct

reports and the ability to show if they are on or out of the office. ()

Developing the Information Architecture plan upon which to build an Intranet is a

process that takes careful thought and consideration Following an Information Architecture

using content analysis, user interviews, card sorts, wireframes and blueprints along with

following the best practices will allow origination’s gain the most value from their Intranet by

increasing information retrieval efficiency and lowering employee wasted time.

Dielectric Laboratories Intranet
Site critique
Jakob Nielsen’s has found that “most Intranets are chaotic collections of documents that

cannot be navigated” (Nielsen “Intranet Portals”). The Dielectric Laboratories (DLI) Intranet

site shows chaotic tendencies and can be related to the lack of an Information Architecture plan

when it was created. This section will critique the Dielectric Laboratories Intranet site and offer

suggestions to improve upon based on the research I have done on Intranet Information

Architecture best practices.

The screen shots below are of the Dielectric Laboratories Intranet site that is built on

Microsoft SharePoint Server. The site was started three years ago by the IT department with the

primary intent to allow the sharing of news and events. However, over the past three years the

site as grown to be portal with features added such as document management, online forms,

workflow and a platform to present data from different systems. I spoke to many users of the

site to get a better feel of what they liked and disliked about the site. The majority of users like

the central location of information and the ability to search. Another key feature was the ease of

use and ability to get to the site from any computer in the company. Some of the dislikes I heard

was that there was too much information that they often didn’t know where to go to find what

they were looking for. I felt this was contradicting since they said they liked the search. I dig a

little deeper and they mostly used the search when they knew what they were looking for. For

example if the new the document was called ITForm.doc the search worked great. However, if

they just knew keywords then the results of the search would return many records that didn’t
pertain to the subject. Another example they gave me that showed it was hard to find

information was when a user was looking for information on benefits. They were not sure if they

needed to go the Human Resources link or the benefits site. They felt that there was too many

options on the site that were similar. When doing my observations I found that many users

would have difficult time finding information the first time and would be forced to go back to the

main site to try again until they found what they were looking for. To help increase the usability

of the DLI Intranet site I recommend the below changes.

Home Page -The DLI Intranet site is very cluttered with outdated announcements that follow no

color or text consistency. I would instate a standard text, color and retention time for all

announcements. The home page does show important messages but also shows non important

messages. The use of labels and categorizing the news will be more effective. I would also be

brief with the news and allow links to get more detail. This will allow more items to be shown

on the site. The site does use graphics to represent items but it could benefit if alternate text

boxes were used to show what the graphic links to. To help remove clutter from the site I would

remove some of the text that is located on right side near the stock ticker and try to move those to

separate pages. I also noticed duplicate links and information that was takeing space on the main

site. For example the Tech Tips section is located all the way at the bottom of this page and has a

link on the left side. I would make the main graphic on the site smaller to allow for more space

as well as try to eliminate some of the items on the left navigation. Consolidation of some of the

items would be helpful for example DLI Shared Documents and DLI Equipment Manuals. By

eliminating duplicate information, using consistent colors and sizes will drastically help the main

site. See Figure 1 & 2 that shows the current site.

Figure 1
Figure 2

Make it easy for users to access the Intranet- The Intranet site and URL are very easy to find.

User need to do is open a web browser and they are automatically taken to the home page. Users

can also type in http://dlinet and they will navigate to the site. No change is needed.
Log-in and password- Log in automatically done for the users and makes it very easy. No

change needed

See Figure 3 that shows how it carries the computer user login to the Intranet site.

Figure 3

Forms- Online forms are present but are not in a standard location. Some forms are located

under documents while others are located under lists. A standard location needs to be created and

the forms need to be clearly identified. For example the one form tells users it is a form while

another one does not have form in the title. Forms are somewhat prepopulated with data and

offer information to the users to inform them what they need to enter. I would also recommend

standard form templates. The forms I looked are different which can cause confusion for users.

By using a consistent form template users will become familiar with the design. A great example

of this can be seen with Figure 4 and 4.1. When a user clicks the link for form 4 they are brought

right to the form. However, when the user clicks the link to 4.1 they need to take a extra step and

choose new to get the form. This is very confusing and will lead to lose productivity
See Figure 3 & 4
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 4.1

Video- The site does not use any video. DLI should look into adding video to the site to enhance

the user experience. My first recommendation would be to add the quarterly meetings to the site.

This will enhance the site and hopefully bring more users to the site to view the new content.

Post Internal Jobs- The site does not have a place for internal job postings. It has a HR site but

no job postings. I spoke with HR and asked them why they didn’t use the Intranet site for this

function and they said because they didn’t know how to post information. HR was also

concerned the people would not look on the Intranet for these listing since they have always been

done on a paper and hung on a bulletin board. My suggestion was to dual post for a few months

to get users use to having them on the Intranet and then do only post them on the Intranet for a

few months and see of there is a negative effect,

Employee directory-The site does have a place for employee names and phone numbers but is

lacking information and is not updated. I would recommend implementing a way of telling if

someone is in the office or not to attract more functionality to this section of the Intranet. See

Figure 5
Figure 5

Search Issues: Talking with the SharePoint expert at DLI I determined that the search issues

users were experience were caused by a limitation with the version of SharePoint DLI is using.

The version of the software does not handle wildcards or partial keyword searching. My

recommendation would be to update to the new version of the software to enhance user’s

experience. The cost of the software should be paid for by the increased efficiency of the users

when looking for information.

The DLI Intranet need to go through a full Information Architecture redesign to enhance

is usability and efficiencies. I looked at just the main home page and found many issues with

organization, labeling and consistent. The benefits of having a central location to store
information and a portal that allows DLI employees eliminates the need to jump around to

different systems from one place has been beneficial over the last three years. However, as

more and more content and pages are added to the site the harder it is to find information and the

more money it is costing the organization. It is time for DLI to invest the resources and redesign

the site with Information Architecture in mind to get the fill value of the SharePoint technology.

The ability to use metadata and search functions more effective is going to be very important to

DLI they should invest in the new search techniques. The major benefit DLI has for them is the

culture has already been changed and storing files and access files from a web browser is now

the norm. This will allow DLI to focus on the organization, labeling and context of the site to

improve upon the infrastructure they have created. From what I have seen I’m confident that DLI

will have a positive return if they redesign the site with focus on Information Architecture. I

would also predicate that the focus on Information Architecture on the redesign of the Intranet

will most likely lead to other initiatives focused on Information Architecture after they

experience the value.

Conclusion
Warren Buffet, said “Price is what you pay value is what you get”. If organizations don’t

utilize an Information Architecture strategy they will pay the price and not receive any of the

value. Proper Information Architecture organize, label and make information more usable which

help drive down the cost’s associated with finding information, not finding information, building

and managing information systems. As the use of Intranets continue to grow in popularity among

organizations this value Information Architecture because essential for organizations looking to

provide information efficiently to its employees. To stay competitive in today’s lean fast passed

business environment organizations need to provide real time information to their employees so

they can immediately react to changes and address any problems that arise. Getting the right

information, to the right person, at the right time is what Information Architecture directly

affects. Therefore, ignoring the need for Information Architecture is not an. If an organization

wants to be best in class they need to embrace the concepts now.

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