Strategy, Architecture & Tomorrow’s Web

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Strategy, Architecture Tomorrows Web

• Peter Morville
• President, Semantic Studios
• March 21, 2003

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Information Architecture

• We define information architecture as
• The structural design of shared information
  environments.
• The art and science of organizing and labeling
  web sites, intranets, online communities and
  software to support usability and findability.
• An emerging community of practice focused on
  bringing principles of design and architecture to
  the digital landscape.

Are these definitions definitive? Absolutely
not. Our craft is new and still taking shape.
Were clear on the center but fuzzy at the
boundaries. This inherent ambiguity challenges us
to think deeply and seek diverse perspectives.
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Business Strategy

• Defining how an organization will use its scarce
  resources to achieve sustainable competitive
  advantage.

Strategy is the creation of a unique and
valuable position, involving a different set of
activities. The essence of strategy is in the
activities choosing to perform activities
differently or to perform different activities
than rivals.
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Strategy at Vanguard
The prime responsibility of mutual funds must
always be to their shareholders. John
Bogle, Senior Thesis Princeton, 1949-1951

• Early in its history, Vanguard established a
  mutual structure without precedent in the
  industry a structure in which the funds would
  be operated solely in the best interests of their
  shareholders.
• Since strategy follows structure, it made
  sense to pursue a high level of economy and
  efficiency operating at bare-bones levels of
  costfor the less we spend, the higher the
  returns dollar for dollar for our
  shareholders/owners.
• John C. Bogle, Founder of The Vanguard Group
• http//www.vanguard.com/bogle_site/october192000.
  html

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• Vanguards Activity System Map. Adapted from On
  Competition
• Featured in Information Architecture for the
  World Wide Web
• http//webword.com/download/chapter18.pdf

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90
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Adapted from The Rise and Fall of Strategic
Planning by Henry Mintzberg (1993)
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Strategy Defined as 5 Ps

• Plan. A direction, guide, course of action.
• Pattern. Consistency in behavior over time.
• Position. Locating specific products in
  specific markets.
• Perspective. Way of doing things (The HP Way).
• Ploy. Specific maneuver to outwit.
• From Strategy Safari by Mintzberg, Ahlstrand,
  Lampel (1998)

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Apophenia The spontaneous perception of
connections and meaningfulness in unrelated
things.
Futurism doesnt mean predicting an awesome
wonder rather it means recognizing and
describing a small apparent oddity that is
destined to become a great commonplace.
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Life expectancy for Americans has reached an
all-time high of 77.2 years, mostly due to a
decrease in deaths due to major diseases,
including AIDS.
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Business 2.0
Bionics
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A wealth of information creates a poverty of
attention.Herbert Simon, Nobel Laureate
Economist
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• Among very experienced users, the Internet now
  ranks higher than books, television, radio,
  newspapers, and magazines as an important source
  of information.
• UCLA Internet Report, January 2003.

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• Design Look 46.1
• Information Design/Structure 28.5
• Information Focus 25.1
• Company Motive 15.5
• Information Usefulness 14.8
• Information Accuracy 14.3
• Name Recognition Reputation 14.1
• Advertising 13.8
• Information Bias 11.6
• Writing Tone 9.0
• Identity of Site Operator 8.8
• Site Functionality 8.6
• Customer Service 6.4
• Past Experience with Site 4.6
• Information Clarity 3.7
• Performance on Test by User 3.6
• Readability 3.6
• Affiliations 3.4

While information structure is often
associated with usability, the comments here
show how information structure has implications
for credibility. Sites that were easy to navigate
were seen as being more credible.
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• Executives routinely rely on their intuitions
  to solve complex problems when logical methods
  (such as a cost-benefit analysis) simply wont
  do.
• Your mind continuously processes information
  that you are not consciously aware of, not only
  when youre asleep and dreaming but also when
  youre awake. This helps explain the aha
  sensation you experience when you learn something
  you actually already knew.
• When to Trust Your Gut by Alden M. Hayashi
• Harvard Business Review, February 2001

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David Rose ambientdevices.com
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Convergent Architecture
Swisshouse A new type of consulate for
knowledge exchangea 3,200 sq.ft. wired loft
located in Cambridge, Massachusetts Jeffrey
Huang Harvard University
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The more I watch whats happening with the
evolution of web sites, the more I believe that
search is essentially an experiment that has
failed. Jared Spool recent sigia discussion
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• Please indicate the importance of each factor to
  the practice of information architecture over the
  next five years.

Future of IA Survey, http//aifia.org/calendar/00
0053.php
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• In the next 5 years

Future of IA Survey, http//aifia.org/calendar/00
0053.php
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Future of IA Survey, http//aifia.org/calendar/00
0053.php
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Scenario Planning Exercise

• Scenarios are stories about the way the world
  might turn out tomorrow.
• Scenarios are not predictions. It is simply not
  possible to predict the future with certainty.
• An old Arab proverb says that he who predicts
  the future lies even if he tells the truth.
• Scenario planning is about making choices today
  with an understanding of how they might turn out.

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Scenario Planning Process

• What is the Focal Issue or Decision?
• What are the Key Factors (Local)?
• What are the Driving Forces (Macro)?
• Rank by Importance and Uncertainty.
• Select Scenario Logics.
• Flesh out the Scenarios.
• Consider Implications.
• Identify Leading Indicators and Signposts.

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The Practice of Information Architecture Over
the Next 5 to 10 Years
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Tell A Story How Did We Get Here?
Paint A Picture Whats This Future Like?
Web-Centric IA
City Without Architects Architectures
ISIST
IA Luxury
IA Necessity
IA as Coffee Table Book
IATopia
Name Your Scenario Which Label Works Best?
Consider Implications What Can We Do Today?
Cross-Media IA
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Links

• Peter Morville morville_at_semanticstudios.com
• Presentation http//aifia.org/pg/tomorrow.ppt
• Semantic Studios http//semanticstudios.com/
• Asilomar Institute http//aifia.org/