Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Architecture and Usability

I found IA to be very interesting. Just to know that I could officially print "Information Architect" on a business card after learning and doing more of this Web work is pretty appealing!

I was suprised to see the similarities between the information structure on the Web and the numerous organizational systems we are all already using to cope in society, e.g., books cataloged in libraries and food items arranged in grocery stores. Once again, my initial reaction to Web creation is altered. Just as we discussed that "Writing for the Web and Writing for print" are not so different after all, this week I declare that well-founded principles of good organization with tangible objects can carry over to organizing text, graphics, and images in cyberspace.

On a different but related note, I had a usability testing project this semester and my partner and I chose to test NIU's Web site. In every case, users searched for the same two tasks in different ways. Seems like some social influences can even affect Web searches!

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