Andrea Richeson

1. Rosenfeld, Information Architecture: Chapter 9. Thesauri, Controlled Vocabularies, and Metadata

• Metadata: data about data and documents/assets. Hooks used by software and vocabulary systems to deliver meta data-driven websites
• Controlled Vocabularies: a defined subset of natural language
• Synonym ring: a list of equivalent terms (may not be true synonyms): dramaticlly improve recall – but decrease precision.
• Authority file: a list of preferred terms. Useful for authors and indexers.Good for ‘teaching’ a common language, good for facilitating switch between search and browse.
  •  – Term rotation example: aspirin, see Bayer
• Classification scheme (Taxonomies): hierarchical relationships (broader/narrower) defined, like Dewey/LC. Can be use front-end (yahoo-like browse function) or backend (tool for IAs to organize and tag documents)
• Thesaurus: a model of equivalence, hierarchicl, associative relationships between concepts used to facilitate information retrieval.
  • –Prefered term/Variant term, Broad/Narrow term, Related term, Use (U), Use For (UF), Scope Note (SN – definition of preferred term)
  • Example site using thesaurus: PubMed from NLM

• Semantic relationships: Equivalence, Hierarchical, Associative.
• Preferred Terms:
  • Term form (standardization having to do with grammar, spelling, singular/plural, abbreviation/acronyms)
  • Term selection
  • Term definition
  • Term specificity
• Polyhierarchy
• Faceted Classification. S.R. Ranganathan.
  • Five universal facets (dimensions) proposed by SRR: personality, matter, energy, space, time
  • Common facets in busines world: topic, product, document type, audience, geography, price
  • see Wine.com for faceted classification.

2. Morrison, J. B., Pirolli, P., & Card, S. K. (2001). A Taxonomic Analysis of What World Wide Web Activities Significantly Impact People’s Decisions and Actions. Proceedings of CHI 2001, Seattle, WA.

• Defining and building a set of tasks that represent the real user behaviors so that those behaviors can be modelled and studied.
• Purpose Taxonomy (Compare/choose, Find, Understand), Method taxonpmy (collect, find, monitor, explore),
• Content Taxonomy (Product Info & Purchase, Medical, People, Travel, Education, Job search).

3. Wilson, T. D. (2000). Human Information Behavior. Informing Science: Special Issue on Information Science Research, 3(2).

• I appreciate the definition of “knowledge” as something that is unknowable except to the knower. Therefoer, there is no such thing as a “Knowledge Management System”.  Only informaiton about knowledge cna be transmitted. Knowledge management systems are really just information management systems.
• The idea that researchers in a well-defined and researched field like organic chemistry might have less need for a “skilled intermediary” and are more prone to be effective independent users of internet search engines and online search systems is curious.
• It seems that the premise is that these researchers would be beter at assigning appropriate metadata to the descreet documents — allowing for easier retrieval. That may or may not be true, as researchers  may or may not think like IA’s or catalogers.
• I also am curious to see what Palmer reported from interviews (1991) about male/female diferences in information behavior.
• It’s interesting that in the 1980’s the author noted a shift from system-centered to person-centered and quantitative to qualitative approaches to the study of information seeking behavior.

4. Millen, D. (2000). Rapid Ethnography: Time Deepening Strategies for HCI Field Research. Paper presented at the DIS ‘00, Brooklyn, NY.

• Understanding users and their activities quickly. Focus on context of use, interrelationships between users in work groups.
• Ethnographer is a cultural broker — a translator. Use key informants, and a field guide (person in the study group who can help focus researchers).

5. Krug, Steve. “How do we really use the web?” from Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. 2000. QUE.

• Web use compared to looking at t billboard going by at 60mph.
• We often scan web pages.
• We satisfice (choose the first reasonable option).
• We muddle through without understanding how things work. (using sites effectively in ways never intended)

6. Smart, K. L., Rice, J. C., & Wood, L. E. (2000). Meeting the Needs of Users: Towards a Semiotic of the Web. IEEE Technology and Teamwork, 593-605.

• 6 elements often used to describe/evaluate web designs:
  • Typography (use of typeface, layout, color to convey meaning of text)
  • Site structure/cognitive design (how information is organizeed on a site)
  • Medium use (the appropriate/optimal use of Web features)
  • Message content (narrative style)
  • Appeal
  • Accessibility
• See table for a list of questions used to guide effective web design. (page 603)