BenZipkin.com » Information Architecture

Copy as Interface

admin — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:10:26 +0000

There’s an interesting presentation from Mule Design on how a designer’s approach and strategy for copy can make or break a digital interface.

For a lot of projects, copy and wording are considered “icing” or an element of the design process that gets fitted in later—often with little or no involvement from designers. While many user interface experts believe that digital interfaces cannot support copious amounts of copy (the concept that users scan rather than read), the trend in UI design is more copy, not less. Wikipedia and Facebook are both great examples of how text can be used as the core of the user experience.

The presentation also discusses new communication and expression trends that are evolving as aspects of Web 2.0 – the concept that “We aren’t writing, we are speaking in text.”

The presentation, Copy as Interface, is embedded below.

10 User Experience Principles from Google

admin — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:06:15 +0000

There’s a nice article on the Google Blog that lists the company’s user experience design principles. The principles are broad, but do a great job summarizing how Google addresses the fundamental usability and experience inherent in their products. I love this approach!

Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
Every millisecond counts.
Simplicity is powerful.
Engage beginners and attract experts.
Dare to innovate.
Design for the world.
Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
Be worthy of people’s trust.
Add a human touch.

These principles are defined in depth here.

The Elements of Interaction Design Strategy – 30 Minute Version

admin — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:49:52 +0000

I was recently asked to give a brief presentation on the elements of interaction design and web strategy. Distilling all the aspects into a thirty minute presentation was a daunting task! After some deliberation, I decided that the most sensible way was to break interactive design strategy into three elements:

Concepts: Basic components of interaction design strategy—key “sound bites” and practices
Process: The five stages of strategy development with their individual artifacts
Deliverables: Examples of primary deliverables (wireframes, task flows, prototypes…)

Here’s presentation via Slideshare.net.

How to Use Information Architecture to Plan your PPC Campaigns

admin — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 02:17:52 +0000

Thinking through your campaigns like an information architect is a useful way to plan and optimize your search marketing campaigns.

Like websites and applications, campaigns are more effective when they follow a logical flow. Solid IA is not only helpful when planning and classifying campaigns, it’s also useful in structuring the reporting framework. Logically ordered campaigns support more practical reporting and can help search marketers to optimize campaigns.

PPC campaigns follow a strict hierarchy. The top node, Account, contains the billing and administrative information for the account’s owner. Campaign is the next level. Google allows for up to twenty-five campaigns per account. Campaigns are structured around a specific product, concept, or theme. Meta data and setting like geographic targeting, language, and budget are set on the campaigns level.

A campaign may include dozens of specific Ad Groups. Ad Groups contains the components of campaigns, including ad creative (text, Flash, video, etc.) and the keywords and search phrases that will spawn the ads. Ad groups represent the campaigns sales concept. Consideration must go into their structure and organization—properly structure ad groups are the heart and soul of successful PPC campaign.

The lists below illustrate the high-level IA for two campaigns that are focused on the same concept: New England Patriots memorabilia. In the first instance, the ad groups are organized around the players and the memorabilia type constitutes the creative and keywords.

The second campaign structures ad groups around the memorabilia type with player names functioning as creative.

While I can’t say which approach would be more effective, ad group structure clearly plays a major part in campaign approach and, ultimately, the success of the PPC program.

Campaign: Patriots Memorabilia (V1)

Ad Group One: Tom Brady Memorabilia
- Ad Creative: Tom Brady Hats, Tom Brady T-Shirts
- Ad Keywords: Tom Brady Keywords
Ad Group Two: Randy Moss Memorabilia
- Ad Creative: Randy Moss Hats, Randy Moss T-Shirts
- Ad Keywords: Randy Moss Keywords

Campaign: Patriots Memorabilia (V2)

Ad Group One: Hats
- Ad Creative: Tom Brady, Randy Moss
- Ad Keywords: Tom Brady Keywords, Randy Moss Keywords
Ad Group Two: T-Shirts
- Ad Creative: Tom Brady, Randy Moss
- Ad Keywords: Tom Brady Keywords, Randy Moss Keywords

Taking some time to map campaigns using basic information architecture can help advertisers structure their campaigns more effectively. At RDVO, we sketch out our campaigns using a basic hierarchical template that helps us visualize the information relationships in our campaign. By visualizing campaigns using an information architecture approach, we can better structure campaigns and ensure that the campaigns are logical and optimized. This technique also helps us communicate campaign strategy to clients.

Try it for yourself! You can download our PPC information architecture template: