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Information Architecture Exam > IA Exam study questions > Flashcards

IA Exam study questions Flashcards

1
Q

what are the most important factors for Context?

A

Business goals, fundings, politics, culture, technology, resources, constraints

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2
Q

Challenges when organising can be:

A

Ambiguity
Classification systems are made of language, words can be understood in more than one way

Heterogeneity
Refers to an object/collection of objects composed of unrelated or unlike parts

Perspectives
Labeling and organization systems are affected by the creator’s perspective

Internal politics
When designing IA it can involve politics, which can make it complex when creating usable IA

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3
Q

Which are the Four common information needs:

A

Known-item-seeking - What is the population of Jönköping?
Exhaustive research - i.e., Learning about a medical condition
Exploratory seeking - i.e., Learn how to coach juniors in tennis
Re-finding - information that you’d prefer to never lose track off

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4
Q

what are contextual links?

A

A way to provide interconnection between content. ( Pinpoint link to related articles)

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5
Q

Which are the Six S’s:

A

Site / Structure / Skin / Services

/ Space plan / Stuff

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6
Q

What are the three types of navigation systems?

A

global, local and contextual

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7
Q

Give example on supplementary navigation systems and describe them

A

Sitemaps → provide a bird’s eye view of the information environment

A-z indexes → allow direct access to content

Guides → often feature as line navigation customized to a specific audience, task, or topic.

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8
Q

name the three circles of information architectures and describe them

A

(context) Refers to the context of a business
(content) Refers to the content related to the digital artifact (such as a website) in question.

(Users) Refers to the end or target users of the website.

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9
Q

What are Typologies?

A

The study or systematic classification of types that have characteristics or traits in common.

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10
Q

Which are the five Cynefin domains?

A

Simple, Complex, complicated, Chaotic, Disorder

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11
Q

what are the 4 Information Environments:

A

Organization systems, Navigation systems, Search systems, Labeling systems

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12
Q

What are Exact Organization schemes?

A

Divides information into well-defined mutually exclusive sections. This is called known-item searching. You know what you are looking for and it is obvious how to find it.
(Known-item-seeking)

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13
Q

Give examples of different Exact Organization schemes and describe them

A

Alphabetical schemes –> organize content after the alphabet (Dictionary, libraries,

Chronological schemes –> organize content by date.

Geographical schemes –> organize content based on place

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14
Q

What are Ambiguous organizational schemes?

A

Divide information into categories that defy exact definition. Groups items in intellectually meaningful ways. Because users don’t always know what they are looking for, therefor this is called Browsing/Associated learning.

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15
Q

What are the five Ambiguous organization schemes and describe them

A

Topical organization schemes –> Organizing information by subject or topic

Task-oriented schemes –> Organize content and applications into a collection of processes, functions, or tasks.

Audience-specific schemes –> Audience-oriented schemes break a site into smaller, audience-specific mini-sites

Metaphor driving schemes –> organize content by relating content to familiar concepts.

Hybrid schemes –> organize information by combining elements of multiple schemes.

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16
Q

What are the basic concepts of IA?

A

Structuring, organizing and labeling

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17
Q

A database model is an approach for:

A

Bottom-up information architecture

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18
Q

Describe strategy in information architecture

A

It’s a framework and plan for the implementation and administration of the system

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19
Q

What does dynamism mean in IA?

A

The rate of turnover or growth of the content

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20
Q

Ownership, metadata and dynanism are examples of

A

distinguishing factors of content

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21
Q

Name the three organization structures

A

The Hierarchy model
The database-oriented model
Hypertext

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22
Q

Which organization structure would be ideal when there is a need to enable powerful searching, browsing, and filtering

A

The database model

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23
Q

Search log analysis, heuristic evaluation, and benchmarking are the ideal methods for researching about:

A

content and users

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24
Q

when writing a report on inflation - which technique do you use to gain information?

A

Exhaustive research

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25
Q

what does DIKW stand for?

A

Data, Information, knowledge, wisdom

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26
Q

syntax, presentation and audience are examples of

A

consistent aspects of labeling

27
Q

what is a sitemap? What does a detailed sitemap do?

A

Show the relationship between information elements such as pages and other content components, and can be used to portray organization, navigation, and labeling systems.

describe one small complex part of a system

28
Q

What are Controlled vocabularies?

A

a controlled vocabulary is a list of equivalent terms. They are a subset of natural language, they include synonym rings, authority files, classification schemes, and thesauri.

Synonym rings
connect a set of words that are defined as equivalent for the purposes of retrieval.

Authority files
List of preferred terms or acceptable values

Classification schemes
Categorization and labeling of information

Thesauri
Model associative relationships between concept

29
Q

Describe different Varieties of Labels

A

Contextual links
Hyperlinks to chunks of information on other pages or to other locations on the same page

Headings
Labels that simply describe the content that follows them

Navigation system choices
Labels representing the options in navigation systems

Index terms & icons labels
Keywords, tags, and subject headings that represent content for searching or browsing

30
Q

what are the two organization systems composed of and what do they do?

A

Schemes → Define the shared characteristics of content items and influence the logical grouping of those items

Structures → Define the types of relationships between the content items and groups.

31
Q

What is the Too simple model? And why don’t we like it?

A

user asks a question - black magic - user receives an answer.

This is a very mechanistic and ultimately dehumanizing model for how users find and use the information on websites.

  • People don’t always know exactly what they want
  • Because it rarely happens this way
  • Misleading information
  • The model is too narrow
32
Q

What is berry picking information seeking?

A

A model of searching online and other information systems called “berry-picking,”

Users start with an information need, formulate an information request. move through an information system along paths, picking bits of information (“berries”) along the way.

33
Q

what are the most important factors for users?

A

Audience, task, needs, information-seeking behavior, experience

34
Q

what are the most important factors for content?

A

Document, data-types, content objects, volume, existing structure

35
Q

Organization systems is about

A

Organization systems – how we categorize information, for example by subject or date.

36
Q

Labeling Systems is about

A

Labeling systems – how we represent information, for example scientific or folk terminology.

37
Q

Navigation Systems is about

A

Navigation Systems – how users browse or move through information, for example clicking through a hierarchy.

38
Q

Search Systems is about

A

Searching systems – how user search/look for information, for example executing a search query against an index.

39
Q

What is the bottom-up approach?

A

This approach involves creating architecture directly from an analysis of the content and functional requirements. We group items together into low-level categories and then group those into higher-level categories, building toward a structure that reflects our product objectives and user needs.

40
Q

What is the top-down approach?

A

This approach involves creating architecture directly from understanding product objectives and user needs. We started with the broadest categories and then broke these into subcategories. This hierarchy of categories and subcategories serves as the empty shell into which the content and functionality will be slotted.

41
Q

what is search zones and give examples of search zones

A

Subsets of site content that have been separately indexed to support narrower searching

content-type, audience, role, subject/topic, geography, chronology, author, department/business unit.

42
Q

What does Taxonomy (classification schemes) do?

A

Categorise and label information

43
Q

Define the database model

A

Is a collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval.

In a database-oriented model we structure the data using metadata. Metadata links the information architecture to the design of database schemes. By tagging information with metadata, we enable searching and browsing.

44
Q

Hierarchies: Provide a simple and familiar way to organize information. What kind of approach does it follow?

A

Top-down approach

45
Q

Hypertext involves two primary types of components, what are the components?

A
  1. The items/chunks of information that will be linked

2. the link between those chunks

46
Q

What is a Thesauri?

A

A book that lists words in groups of synonyms and related concepts.

47
Q

Local navigation helps users to:

A

explore what is nearby. local navigation is used to provide greater context to the users. It is also known as sub-navigation or page navigation

48
Q

Global navigation is presented on:

A

every page throughout an interface

49
Q

what does contextual navigation do?

A

point users to related pages, supporting associative learning

50
Q

Metadata is defined as:

A

the data providing information about one or more aspects of the data.

51
Q

Diagrams are useful for:

A

communicating the basic two aspects of an information system’s structural elements.

52
Q

What is Agile and describe the approach

A

Agile is a set of principles and values

It is an iterative approach to project management and software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster

53
Q

What is scrum and describe the scrum work process:

A

Scrum is an Agile framework that helps teams work together.

In Scrum, products/projects are built in a series of iterations called sprints. They break down big, complex projects into bite-size pieces. This makes projects more manageable and allows teams to ship high-quality work faster and gives them more flexibility to adapt and change.

54
Q

Name the Agile principles:

A
  1. individuals and interactions over processes and tools;
  2. working software over comprehensive documentation;
  3. customer collaboration over contract negotiation; and.
  4. responding to change over following a plan.
55
Q

What is the lean concept and define lean methodology:

A

Lean is the concept of efficient manufacturing/operations.

Lean methodology is a way of optimizing the people, resources, effort, and energy of your organization toward creating value for the customer.

56
Q

Give examples on different organizing principles

A

Rythm, Order & Structure etc

57
Q

Give example on a definition of IA:

A

“The structural design of shared information environments”

“The synthesis of organization, labeling, search and navigation systems within digital, physical and cross-channel ecosystems. “

“The art and science of shaping information products and experiences to support usability, findability, and understanding.”

“An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape. “

58
Q

Describe the different stages of the process of information architecture development:

A

Research –> Strategy –> Design –> Implementation –> Administration

59
Q

What is the cynefin framework?

A

Is a problem-solving tool that helps you put situations into five “domains” defined by cause-and-effect relationships. This helps you assess your situation more accurately and respond appropriately.

60
Q

What are the lean principles?

A
  1. Eliminate Waste
  2. Amplify Learning
  3. Decide as late as possible
  4. Deliver as fast as possible
  5. Empower the team
  6. Build integrity in
  7. See the whole
61
Q

What is Card Sorting?

A

Is a method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site. Card sorting is a simple way to figure out how best to group and organize structure based on user input.

62
Q

What is the difference between open and closed card sorting?

A

Open sorts are used for discovery. Participants are asked to organize topics from content within your website into groups that make sense to them.

Closed sorts are used for validation and provide a great way to observe user reactions to your high-level organization and labeling schemes. Participants sort cards into categories you give them

63
Q

Relating to the hierarchy model, what are breadth and depth?

A

Breadth → refers to the number of options at each level of the hierarchy
Depth → refers to the number of levels in the hierarchy

64
Q

When and why do we need a search system?

A

Search systems are an important mechanism for finding information.
It’s so users can find what they want using their own criteria. Allows users to move back and forth between browsing and searching.

  • Search helps when you have too much information to browse
    • Search helps fragmented sites
    • Search is a learning tool
    • Search should be there because users expect it to be there
    • Search can tame dynamism

Information Architecture Exam (1 decks)

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