Workshop | Examining Information Architectures
This workshop requires you to examine 2 information designs with the purpose of understanding how users experience them. Whether subtly or directly, all design speaks to users through text, iconography, color, lighting, and other means. This workshop is designed to be completed in collaboration with 1 or 2 partners.
Learning Objectives
- Demonstrate your understanding of information design through your examination of 2 objects of study.
- Build awareness of how architectural elements of information designs serve audience members in their encounters with those designs.
- Reflect upon your attempts to reproduce that object of study.
Workshop Deliverables
Your team will submit 1 collaborative Summary Report with a functioning link to a research document.
For the complete details about how to submit your work, see Submission Requirements.
Workshop Pathways & Knowledge Building
This workshop highlights 4 core elements of information design research.
- Observation. We learn over time to observe as complete & comprehensive a set of details about objects of study as possible.
- Data gathering, note taking. The driving mechanism for observation is data gathering. We record every detail we can during observation so we do not miss or forget the ones that may prove essential for analysis.
- Analysis. Details observed & data gathered lack meaning until we examine them in context. Through analysis we transform data into information, and thus begin the process of understanding the object of study, whether that is a problem, a workplace, a stakeholder, a design, or other component of a project.
- Interpretation. The act of interpretation is the application of a knowledge framework, a way of understanding and engaging with the world, to an information set. In the case of this workshop, we interpret the world we encounter through the filter of Information Architecture.
Among the many challenges of evolving as design bricoleurs (that is, as adaptable design researchers & information designers) is the necessity that we continuously refine our ability to examine and engage with the world within which we learn, and think, and do. Because we are all as individuals tuned to focus first on our own circumstances, and thus we sometimes struggle to remain consistently focused on the needs of others, collaboration becomes a mechanism through which we might understand the world more completely. That is, we must also learn to help each other understand this work more completely.
Workshop Details
During this workshop, you will complete the following tasks.
- Create a shared research document on Google Docs.
- Select 2 objects of study (OoS).
- Examine the ways people experience those OoS.
- Craft a summary report.
Create a Shared Research Document on Google Docs
Open a new Google Doc to gather your observations. Organize your document in advance to include 2 sections, one for each of the OoS. For each OoS, use the categories of details listed below as headings for document sections.
- Identify the Object of Study. Begin by recording the details about the thing itself. What is it? What is it called? What are the key details about it that would help me or anyone else reading your report understand what it is you are examining?
- Purpose. What purpose does the OoS serve by design? What less-obvious purposes does it serve, and what less-obvious problems does it attempt to solve? What evidence leads you to these conclusions?
- Architectural elements. What are the key architectural elements of the designs? Draw on the document "Framing Information Architecture & Experience Architecture" from our Week 1 class discussions.
Catalog and describe each content or design element that might somehow be considered architectural. Begin with the most important elements. Do not document more than 10 per OoS. Note that these elements might include details such as content organization, structure, formatting, iconography, images, and tables, for starters. It might also include elements that are symbolic of use concepts (e.g., color, lighting, styles, motifs). Linger over the details to conduct a thorough study of the OoS for elements that might be interpreted as architectural.
For each such architectural element, record the following details. (Duplicate the list of headings as many times as you need to as you examine the OoS.)
- Identify the design element. Give the the design element an appropriate name.
- Describe the design element. Explain what the design element is and describe it.
- Explain its architectural function. In what way(s) is the design element architectural in function?
- Explain any design assumptions evident. Did the designers of this design element make any assumptions about how users might interpret it? If so, what assumptions are evident?
- Audience(s) and stakeholder(s) served. Is there a specific audience or stakeholder group that the design element is intended to serve more than others? If not, in what way(s) does it serve multiple stakeholders?
- Explain its architectural effectiveness. Assess the degree of effectiveness of the design element in terms of serving users' architectural needs & expectations.
- Comparison to similar objects of study. How would you evaluate the architectural elements of the OoS in comparison to similar designs that you have encountered? Does it meet general standards for the kind of thing it represents? If so, how so? If not, why not?
During the Analysis phase of the workshop, you'll curate details into these sections. Title your document IA Analyses. List the members of your workshop team by name at the top of the the doc.
Select 2 Objects of Study (OoS)
Select 2 information products to examine. More specifically, select 1 print document (e.g., book, poster, brochure) and 1 digital document (e.g., web site, app). Select objects of study with which some or all of your team members have familiarity. Doing so makes the process easier. Be sure to select OoS that you can access during the workshop.
Examine the Ways People Experience Those OoS
Conduct a systematic analysis of each OoS, filling in the details about each as you go. Do not separate into subteams to examine the 2 OoS separately. Consider each OoS as a team, one at a time.
Remember that your overarching purpose here is to examine how information products are designed to be experienced. Although this specific study strategy focuses on how the architectural features of each OoS frames experiences for users, we begin with an overall sense of the objects' design and purpose(s). Keep that in mind as you note the essential details of the OoS.
As you work, take as many photos/scans/screen shots of each OoS as is necessary to show them in detail. Photograph each from multiple perspectives, paying specific attention to any use of text, iconography, color, lighting, or other rhetorically relevant design elements that speak to users.
Craft a Summary Report
Once you complete the workshop, craft a Summary Report as a team. From your notes, compile a 250-300 word report that describes and assesses the Objects of Study (OoS) your team examined. Assemble your report directly in the dedicated Canvas Discussion forum. Organize your report into 4 roughly equal sections.
- Descriptions. Describe the 2 OoS. Include relevant details, and whatever explanation is necessary to make clear what you are describing. Draw on your notes.
- Architectural elements. Catalog and describe the 3-5 most architecturally significant design elements of each OoS. Draw on your notes.
- Assessments. Share your assessment of the OoS' architectural elements. Include relevant details, and whatever explanation is necessary to support your conclusions. Draw on your notes.
- Lessons Learned. What can you learn as an information designer from these objects of study about how users experience design?
- Link to Google Doc. Provide a functional link that allows any readers with that link access to your notes page.
Construct a report that feels professional in detail and design, and that implements architectural elements to organize content for readers.
Submission Requirements
Build your Summary Report in the dedicated discussion forum in SVSU Canvas for the workshop. Respond to my post with your report. Use headings to identify major sections of your discussion and sections within them.
Evaluation Standards
There are 50 possible points for this workshop. You will earn points according to this standard.
- 50 points (full credit) for a complete document set (summary report and linked research document) that meets the specifications defined in this description.
- 40 points (partial credit) for work submitted that does not fulfill all of the posted workshop requirements, or that is submitted late but within 72 hours of the deadline.
- 0 points (no credit) for work that is submitted more than 1 week late or not at all.
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