WHAT INFORMATION ARCHITECTS
CAN LEARN FROM DESIGNERS
by Mick Kahan & Teresa Di Cairano
So what does
ethnography have to
do with information
technology
professionals?
In the last decade or so, IT professionals have borrowed from the
discipline of architecture with the goal of creating more responsive
IS services. However, there may be something else to learn from
the field of design.
Leading practices in product and services design are undergoing
a shift from designer-led approaches to more client/user-centric
ones.1 To get there, design researchers often use ethnographic
techniques. Ethno…what? Ethnography is a branch of
anthropology that studies the social behavior of people within a
culture.2
Well, it turns out several notable IT firms from Microsoft to Intel
and IBM, employ these techniques with the notion that a better
understanding of user needs means a more innovative and
successful product.3
“
Intel, for
example, is
studying how
transnationals
use technology to
stay in touch with
their community
back home and
then applying
this knowledge to
guide technology
strategy.”
8
The idea is that better information technology design comes from
a deeper understanding of client/user needs. Intel, for example, is
studying how transnationals use technology to stay in touch with
their community back home and then applying this knowledge
to guide technology strategy.4 And how can we apply this to
Information Architecture? We know that the ubiquitous nature of
the World Wide Web and Business Intelligence software has made
users far more conscious of their own specific information needs.
One way to synthesize these varying needs is the use of personas
that express the information needs within a business culture.
Kent Bimson, PhD (Intervista faculty and leading enterprise
semantics consultant), has identified the following personas within
an enterprise’s information culture. Using the metaphor of a First
Nations village, Dr. Bimson has mapped typical cultural roles to
information usage patterns in the enterprise, and to the information
architectures and services that would support them.
The Chief:
Business intelligence for strategic advantage
The Chief leads the business, plans business strategy, and makes
critical decisions. Supporting information architectures for this type
of client/user would typically include business intelligence, data
warehousing and decision-support applications.
The Elders:
Information to run daily operations
The elders advise the enterprise leaders, implement policies and
advise management. Here, information architectures tend to be
structured to support mission-critical business transactions and
ERPs and often provide real-time data and reports.