Nowadays, Intranet is an inseparable part of every company, notwithstanding of their size or field of activity. Both, in my work and personal life, I often come across different intranets that usually do not get a positive response. But they usually have the same source of the problem, which is based on their wrong structure. This is why is chose this topic for my thesis. The goal of my thesis is to perform an analysis of an existing intranet of a particular company and subsequently create a design of the intranet new structure using the card-sorting method. This thesis primarily represents a generalized method of how to proceed during such realization and which areas to look into. Theoretical part of this thesis covers the topics of information architecture and also the term intranet itself, where the most frequent issues I came across in the intranets are pointed out. Practical part covers the analysis itself, where I focus on the structure of the existing intranet, categorization of its content, connections with other systems, customization, permission management, surveys of contentment, and intranet usage. The analysis is performed manually by scanning through the existing intranet of the company, since other methods or approaches could not be applied due to technical limitations or insufficient permis-sions. Based on the outputs of the analysis, web categorizations and the card-sorting method, a design of a structure of the new intranet has been proposed. The design itself is a demonstration of the method how to approach the new intranet design.

<p>Problem</p><p>Funktioner i tunga fordon går allt mer från att vara mekaniska till att styras med hjälp av elektroniska signaler. För att förstå hur komponenter och system fungerar och ska repareras har mekanikerna Verkstadshandboken till sin hjälp. Från tryckt media har Verkstadshandboken övergått till digital publicering i visningsprodukten Scania Multi.</p><p> </p><p>Scania Multi var inledningsvis ett program för reservdelsinformation och har en navigeringsstruktur som är anpassad efter komponenternas placering på fordonet. Det är inte logiskt att hitta information om hur system och komponenter fungerar och ska lagas när man följer en navigeringsstruktur som från början är avsedd för reservdelar, det märks. Mekanikerna som använder Verkstadshandboken i Scania Multi har klagat över att information för reparationer och funktionsbeskrivningar inte finns. Ofta visar det sig att informationen faktiskt finns där men har varit svår att hitta.</p><p>Metod</p><p>Vilka risker och hinder finns det som påverkar om man vill eller orkar ta del av information? Olika signaler från vår omgivning påverkar våra val och beteenden och avgör om ett budskap når fram eller inte. Signalerna inverkar alltså på de val vi gör när vi ställs inför en ny situation.</p><p> </p><p>För att budskapet ska nå ända fram måste signalen vara rätt, ren och stark. Inom området informationsarkitektur pratar man om hur olika sorters design påverkar våra val och handlingar när vi ska interagera med ett digitalt informationsmaterial. Här pratar man om grafisk, informations- och interaktionsdesign. Jag har kopplat de olika typerna av design med de tre olika signalerna.</p><p> </p><p>Utifrån resonemanget om att rätt, ren och stark signal kan jämställas med informationsarkitekturens olika sorters design, gjorde jag en prototyp. Prototypens informationsdesign bygger på att jag har använt och strukturerat informationen med hjälp av den del i ISO standarden STEP som kallas Product Life Cycle Support. När jag sorterade informationen inom de olika avdelningarna använde jag mig av Information Mapping metoden.</p><p> </p><p>Prototypen har en fysisk och en funktionell vy som ska stödja mekanikernas behov när de använder Verkstadshandboken. För att ta reda på hur signalerna i prototypen fungerade testade jag den på sju yrkesverksamma mekaniker. Användningstestet byggde på två scenarion med tillhörande uppgifter där syftet var att få återkoppling på prototypens design och hitta förbättringspunkter.</p><p>Slutsats</p><p>Användningstesterna fokuserade framförallt på prototypens informationsdesign men berörde även prototypens grafiska design och gav vägledning om interaktionsdesignen var på rätt väg. Med hjälp av användningstesterna kunde jag analysera resultatet för att se vad som borde förbättras.</p><p> </p><p>Eftersom mekaniker inte har fått vara med och kravställa designen fick de interagera med en produkt som inte var optimal för deras behov. Mekanikerna är vana vid strukturen i nuvarande Verkstadshandboken i Scania Multi. Den nya strukturen tar hänsyn till fordonets funktionalitet på ett sätt som inte presenteras i dagens system.</p><p> </p><p>Det var fyra avsnitt där mekanikernas återkoppling på prototypens design var extra tydlig:</p><p>-       Det var svårt att se knappar och klickbara länkar.</p><p>-       Designen uppfattades som rörig.</p><p>-       När man väl hade förstått informationsdesignen var det lätt att se att den skulle kunna vara till stor hjälp vid exempelvis felsökning.</p><p>-       Uppdelningen av informationen upplevdes positivt när man hade vant sig vid de olika vyerna.</p>

This submission reports on a cross-disciplinary inquiry into topicality and relevance, involving an in-depth literature analysis and an inductive development of a faceted typology (containing 227 fine-grained topical relevance relationships arrayed in three facets and 33 types of presentation relationships). This inquiry reveals a large variety of topical connections beyond topic matching (the common assumption of topical relevance in the field), renders a closer look into the structure of a topic, and induces a generic topic-oriented information architecture that is meaningful across topics and domain boundaries. The findings from the analysis contribute to the foundation work of information organization, metadata development, intellectual access / information retrieval, and knowledge discovery. The typology of topical relevance relationships is structured with three major facets: * Functional role of a piece of information plays in the overall structure of a topic or an argument; * Mode of reasoning: How information contributes to the userâ s reasoning about a topic; * Semantic relationship: How information connects to a topic semantically. This inquiry demonstrated that topical relevance with its close linkage to thinking and reasoning is central to many disciplines. The multidisciplinary approach allows synthesis and examination from new angles, leading to an integrated scheme of relevance relationships or a system of thinking that informs each individual discipline. The scheme resolving from the synthesis can be used to improve text and image understanding, knowledge organization and retrieval, reasoning, argumentation, and thinking in general, by people and machines.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1992 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / Within the Aerospace industry, the operational community is facing staff reductions, reduced skill levels, and greater complexity of space assets and space missions. This combination requires that techniques be developed that more efficiently interface a human operator with a complex computer system. Operational support of complex space systems will be greatly facilitated by better presentation of information. The presentation and distribution of complex data must evolve towards formats that are easily and naturally embraced by our sensory systems. Some of the information technologies/techniques that facilitate the presentation of complex dynamic graphical data fall into a category called integrated media. The cost of implementing integrated media (IM) architectures has decreased substantially within in the past five years. While implementation costs continue to recede, the quality and value of information that can be presented using IM technologies continues to improve. Today's IM architect can select a variety of components including digital interactive video, 3D Navigable Worlds, Multimedia Authoring Systems, standardized compressors for IM data, low cost high volume storage systems, and operating system extensions for temporal data management. Together, these components form a solid foundation for the development of a variety of compelling IM architectures. Existing satellite support and mission data processing architectures typically present tabular data for assessment. Some "advanced" systems include 2D graphical projections of the data. System experts are generally trained to correlate relationships between tabular data items. The training required to "learn" these complex relationships is tedious and time consuming. This complexity impedes productivity and as space systems increase in sophistication, these techniques for data assessment are quickly becoming antiquated. The development of a prototype decision support system explores the utility of an integrated media documentation system as part of a full-featured decision support architecture for satellite operations.

Orientador: Silvana Aparecida Borsetti Gregorio Vidotti / Banca: Plácida Leopoldina Ventura Amorim da Costa Santos / Banca: Edberto Ferneda / Banca: Marcos Luiz Mucheroni / Banca: Guilherme de Ataíde Dias. / Resumo: A Arquitetura da Informação é uma área do conhecimento que fornece uma base teórica para estruturação e organização informacional dos ambientes digitais. Baseada nos princípios dessa área, esta pesquisa propõe uma metodologia de desenvolvimento de ambientes informacionais digitais, os quais podem contribuir de forma significativa para a produção e comunicação da informação e do conhecimento. A metodologia proposta consiste em um conjunto de passos que envolvem o tratamento funcional, estrutural, informacional, navegacional e visual dos ambientes. Esses passos estão estruturados hieraquicamente em fases, etapas, atividades e práticas. Essa estruturação possui uma ordem pré-estabelecida que guia os desenvolvedores e/ou arquitetos da informação por meio de uma sequência lógica e sistemática, fazendo com que eles possam se concentrar em pontos importantes e específicos e ao mesmo tempo terem consciência do andamento do processo como um todo. A pesquisa aborda ainda serviços de personalização e customização, fornecendo um conjunto de recursos interativos a fim de possibilitar maior flexibilidade aos usuários para adaptar a estrutura informacional e visual do ambiente de acordo com perfis e necessidades. Esta pesquisa foi elaborada por meio de levantamento bibliográfico e documental, análise descritiva e exploratória e observação direta nãoparticipativa. Também considerou várias metodologias já existentes de diversas áreas do conhecimento, em especial as apresentadas por Pressman (2006) e Sommerville (2007) oriundas da área da Ciência da Computação, as quais já são consolidadas e bem utilizadas pela comunidade de Engenharia de Software. A principal contribuição desta pesquisa é o oferecimento de um suporte metodológico aos desenvolvedores de sistemas na construção de ambientes informacionais digitais levando em conta princípios da Arquitetura da Informação. / Abstract: Information Architecture is an area of knowledge that provides a theoretical basis for structuring and organizing information inside digital environments.Based on the principles of this area, this research proposes a methodology for the development of digital informational environments, which can contributes significantly to the production and communication of information and knowledge. The proposed methodology consists of a set of steps, involving functional, structural, informational, navigational and visual treatment of environments and that are structured in phases, stages, activities and practices. This structure has a predetermined order to guide the developers and information architects by means of a logical and systematic sequence, so they can focus on important and specific points while being aware of the progress as a whole. This research also addresses service personalization and customization, providing a set of interactive features to allow more flexibility for users to adapt the structure of the visual and informational environment in accordance with profiles and needs. This research was developed through a literature and documentary review, descriptive and exploratory analysis and non-participant direct observation. The research also considered various existing methodologies from different fields of knowledge, especially those made by Pressman (2006) and Sommerville (2007) coming from the area of Computer Science, which are already consolidated and well used by the community of Software Engineering. The main contribution of this research is the offering of a methodological support to be used for developers in the construction of digital information environments taking into account the principles of Information Architecture. / Doutor

Problem Funktioner i tunga fordon går allt mer från att vara mekaniska till att styras med hjälp av elektroniska signaler. För att förstå hur komponenter och system fungerar och ska repareras har mekanikerna Verkstadshandboken till sin hjälp. Från tryckt media har Verkstadshandboken övergått till digital publicering i visningsprodukten Scania Multi.   Scania Multi var inledningsvis ett program för reservdelsinformation och har en navigeringsstruktur som är anpassad efter komponenternas placering på fordonet. Det är inte logiskt att hitta information om hur system och komponenter fungerar och ska lagas när man följer en navigeringsstruktur som från början är avsedd för reservdelar, det märks. Mekanikerna som använder Verkstadshandboken i Scania Multi har klagat över att information för reparationer och funktionsbeskrivningar inte finns. Ofta visar det sig att informationen faktiskt finns där men har varit svår att hitta. Metod Vilka risker och hinder finns det som påverkar om man vill eller orkar ta del av information? Olika signaler från vår omgivning påverkar våra val och beteenden och avgör om ett budskap når fram eller inte. Signalerna inverkar alltså på de val vi gör när vi ställs inför en ny situation.   För att budskapet ska nå ända fram måste signalen vara rätt, ren och stark. Inom området informationsarkitektur pratar man om hur olika sorters design påverkar våra val och handlingar när vi ska interagera med ett digitalt informationsmaterial. Här pratar man om grafisk, informations- och interaktionsdesign. Jag har kopplat de olika typerna av design med de tre olika signalerna.   Utifrån resonemanget om att rätt, ren och stark signal kan jämställas med informationsarkitekturens olika sorters design, gjorde jag en prototyp. Prototypens informationsdesign bygger på att jag har använt och strukturerat informationen med hjälp av den del i ISO standarden STEP som kallas Product Life Cycle Support. När jag sorterade informationen inom de olika avdelningarna använde jag mig av Information Mapping metoden.   Prototypen har en fysisk och en funktionell vy som ska stödja mekanikernas behov när de använder Verkstadshandboken. För att ta reda på hur signalerna i prototypen fungerade testade jag den på sju yrkesverksamma mekaniker. Användningstestet byggde på två scenarion med tillhörande uppgifter där syftet var att få återkoppling på prototypens design och hitta förbättringspunkter. Slutsats Användningstesterna fokuserade framförallt på prototypens informationsdesign men berörde även prototypens grafiska design och gav vägledning om interaktionsdesignen var på rätt väg. Med hjälp av användningstesterna kunde jag analysera resultatet för att se vad som borde förbättras.   Eftersom mekaniker inte har fått vara med och kravställa designen fick de interagera med en produkt som inte var optimal för deras behov. Mekanikerna är vana vid strukturen i nuvarande Verkstadshandboken i Scania Multi. Den nya strukturen tar hänsyn till fordonets funktionalitet på ett sätt som inte presenteras i dagens system.   Det var fyra avsnitt där mekanikernas återkoppling på prototypens design var extra tydlig: -       Det var svårt att se knappar och klickbara länkar. -       Designen uppfattades som rörig. -       När man väl hade förstått informationsdesignen var det lätt att se att den skulle kunna vara till stor hjälp vid exempelvis felsökning. -       Uppdelningen av informationen upplevdes positivt när man hade vant sig vid de olika vyerna.

In this practitioner-oriented overview of a pilot project at a medium-sized software company, we outline the early phases of an effort to implement a Social Bookmarking System (SBS) within an enterprise. In particular, we discuss some of the unexpected challenges encountered with regards to potential user adoption, and the design strategy we used to address those challenges. 1. Introduction: Findability in the enterprise intranet has become an increasing critical issue with the growth in size and complexity of corporate information environments. To date, much of the solution space has focused on approaches such as the construction of rich, domain specific taxonomies and the development of sophisticated full-text search algorithms [1]. These methods can be extremely expensive and require careful ongoing maintenance to succeed. While they have proved valuable, some organizations, are beginning to seek out new innovations [2]. Social Bookmarking Systems (SBS) are a class of collaborative applications that allow users to save, access, share and describe shortcuts to web resources. Initially conceived as personal information management tools, they were designed to function as centralized storage repositories to simplify the collection of bookmarks for users who browse the Internet with more than one machine in different locations. Later, systems such as the now archetypical del.icio.us [3] added two key features: 1) description of bookmarks with arbitrary free keywords (â taggingâ ), and 2) sharing of bookmarks and tags across users. We decided to undertake a small pilot project within our own enterprise to determine whether an SBS might aid in refindability, term extraction, and identification of communities of practice. Recent technology experiments such as IBMâ s Dogear [4] have suggested some promise for del.icio.us-style systems inside the corporate firewall. 2. Assessing User Readiness: One of the attractive features of social software is that they tend to be inexpensive to implement from a technical standpoint. However, because their success relies entirely on user participation, the organizational cost can be quite high. Therefore, instead of moving directly into implementation, we first conducted a user survey and series of interviews to both validate the deficiency in existing information retrieval mechanisms and gauge the receptivity to bookmarking as a possible solution. Rather than definitive data about user attitudes towards tagging, we found it difficult to elicit constructive feedback because most users â even those familiar with existing systems such as del.icio.us â did not fundamentally understand core social bookmarking concepts. 3. Communicating Concepts to Users: Based on our initial findings, we modified our project plan to focus efforts on user education. We employed a non-traditional design approach in which we identified the central features of an SBS, mapped those features to user activities, and then translated the activity scenarios into graphical comics. In architecting complex systems, comics can more effectively communicate concepts by abstracting away technical details such as the user interface. [5] 4. Future Work and Implications: This education strategy is incorporated into the roadmap for the future phases of the project that also includes milestones related to technical extensibility, data collection, and internal marketing to drive usage. We believe that the most critical aspect of implementing social classification within an enterprise context may be preparing users to both understand and embrace tagging as a conceptual framework.

This item is not the definitive copy. Please use the following citation when referencing this material: Morris, M. and Dillon, A. (1996) The role of usability in the organizational standards setting process. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 45(2), 243-258. ABSTRACT: The rapid introduction of microcomputers into organizations throughout the last decade gave new importance to the analysis of how technology impacts organizations. In particular, research on usability has sought to become central to the design and selection of technology for large organizations. However, definitions and methods are not yet standardized. Data gathered from semi-structured interviews of three MIS managers and 125 end-users in three organizations suggest that differences in emphasis on, and definition of usability can exist between these two groups. Usability was not a central concern to managers when evaluating end-user software packages considered for adoption as the organizational standard, though it appeared to be so for end-users. Moreover, managers tended to consider and evaluate usability based only on features contained in the user interface, whereas end-users often cited contextual factors such as task and environmental considerations. Implications for technology assessment and future research into organizational impact of I.T. are presented.

A major component of the internet are websites which each have their information architecture, but more importantly, findability. This thesis focusses on the topic of findability, which is defined by Morville as “The quality of being locatable or navigable” (Morville, 2005, p. 4). Findability has become more crucial due to an increasing amount of information and time people spent on searching and gathering information. This motivation has led to the aim of investigating findability through insights into, and a delineation of, two complementary perspectives: information architecture and social informatics. Empirical evidence was collected through semi-structured interviews with design practitioners, and a literature review was conducted to provide an integrated view of findability. The STIN-model and berry-picking model provide a frame of reference which designers can use to improve the findability of their digital platforms. The most predominant suggestions based on the empirical evidence are as follows. Firstly, designers should remember that they are problem solvers and should always use methods appropriate to the problem that needs to be resolved. Secondly, designers should start with problem analysis, which should combine qualitative and quantitative methods to reach the optimal results with regards to user research. Finally, do not reinvent the wheel, make use of already existing tools that incorporate upgradeability and reusability.

Wearable technologies are creating new ways for people to discover and record personal data. While these devices are raising awareness about biometric information, there is a larger quantified self movement encompassing any type of personal data collected by any means and recorded and shared in a variety of ways. Participants in this movement are experimenting with new ways to view and interact with their generated digital information. On a societal level, as we collect more data (personal or otherwise) we are questioning who should have access to different types of data and how collected data should be used. Visual Imprints documents an exploration into how location data is collected, visualized, and understood by people with varying degrees of data literacy. Through the design and development of the Android application Data Atlas, this exploration utilizes aspects of information architecture to illustrate how we as a society might come to better understand what technologies and applications record personal data and how collected information can be seen and used. The exploration also illustrates how creative technologists can contribute to societal questions on data literacy and user privacy as well as create work as a part of the quantified self movement. / Master of Fine Arts