SIGIA-L Mail Archives: Re: SIGIA-L: Document Analysis
Re: SIGIA-L: Document Analysis
From: Karyn Young (shredbetty_at_ibm.net)
Date: Fri Aug 11 2000 - 08:27:14 EDT
Susan Robinson wrote:
<snip>
I'm very interested in the document analysis work that you are doing as I'm
going through a similar effort and haven't been able to find much guidance.
> Additional info: this page information will be used to augment more
> straightforward information captured about the pages such as: links in,
> links out, visual continuity (template used? partially used? not used?),
> etc. in creating an inventory of pages for redesign.
> To give you a sense of the schema, here are some of the descriptors so
> far(we have a large, rather diverse site that in some ways resembles the
web
> at large):
The site I'm working with is focused on Information Technology software for
a large divison of a large company -- www.ibm.com/software.
I'm working with these concepts/descriptors:
Page elements:
Common elements used across the site (items used on every page) - whether
visual, navigational or info
Common elements used across a section of the site
Unique elements
Page purpose
User tasks supported by the page
Page ownership
I learned a lot from your structure here because it is different from mine:
> Page Type/Function
>
> Forum/chat
> ecommerce/ordering
> portal
> search
> terminal/end page
> FAQ's, journal article, etc.*
> form: email, survey
> database/GIS access
> continuing education
> games/entertainment
> publication
> announcement/bulletin board
> on-line event
I currently thinking roughly only of these page types and this is probably
just at a higher level than your page types--I also need to get to your
level of detail:
Navigational pages
Information pages
Transaction pages
> *Information Type
>
> Conference information
> Organizational info
> Health information
> Guidelines/recommendations
> Scientific article
> Research data/stats
> FAQ
> Press release
> Factsheets
> Data
> Job announcement
> Useful links
Our information types tend to fall into there categories:
Pre-purchase - such as evaluating products
Purchase - such as online purchase
Post-purchase - such as installation assistance
I'm struggling somewhat with how to deal with pages vs. documents. A page in
my mind seems to be something that is an integral part of the IA and
contains links to documents. I think the key point here is to get the
definition straight for the teams I work with. I have seen lots of great IA
work that seems to focus on organizing the many documents (print based, but
in soft copy) we have with the idea that the user is coming to the site to
get documents. However, I don't think all users want documents, many want
"just the facts" organized efficiently in a way to meet an immediate need.
And it seems the documents are there for when deep information is required.
But, I stress that I haven't thought through this nearly as much as I need
to. I just know that my co-workers and I struggle when we get to the pages
vs. documents discussions.
Thanks for the great post,
Karyn Young
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