Why Information Architecture is Vital for Office 365 and SharePoint

With so many apps and options in Office 365 and SharePoint, Information Architecture is more important than ever. It's critical to design for simplicity to meet business needs, remain flexible, and promote user adoption. I presented this material first to the Baltimore SharePoint Users Group in November 2018.

1. Why Information
Architecture is Vital
For Office 365 and SharePoint

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J. Kevin Parker, CIP, INFO
▪CEO & Principal Architect, Kwestix
(www.kwestix.com)
▪Certified Information Professional and holder of these certificates: INFO Designation (Information Coalition/ARMA), SharePoint Master (AIIM), ECM Master (AIIM), BPM Master (AIIM), ERM Master
(AIIM), and Capture Practitioner (AIIM)
▪Winner of several industry leadership awards
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What Do We Mean by
“Information Architecture”?
Also known in IA circles as “DTDT” (define the damned thing!).

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Information Architecture (IA)
Defined
IA applies information science to
designing structures and systems
for organizing, labeling,
navigating, and searching
information.
The goal of IA is to make
information findableand
understandable.
UI
Information
Architecture
Information Systems
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Key Points on the Purposes and
Benefits of IA (1 of 3)
▪IA relates to both the front end and back end of information
systems.
▪IA for user interfaces (UI) defines schemes for organizing and
labeling information in websites, applications, mobile
interfaces, and Internet of Things devices for greater clarity
and improved user experiences (UX).
▪IA for information systems defines data structures, content
repositories, information flows, and metadata for describing
properties, categories, and classifications, all of which are
used for searching, displaying, processing, routing, securing,
and managing information assets throughout their lifecycle.
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Key Points on the Purposes and
Benefits of IA (2 of 3)
▪IA design for websites and applications considers the
interdependent aspects of Users, Content, and Context.
▪Enterprise IA, which is closely related to Enterprise
Architecture, considers the interdependent aspects of
people, process, technology, and information for designing
enterprise information systems.
▪IA design must follow strategic goals and requirements
defined by Information Governance when designing
information architectures for individual systems, system
interfaces, and the entire enterprise information
environment.
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Key Points on the Purposes and
Benefits of IA (3 of 3)
▪IA defines the work artifacts necessary for well-designed
and usable information environments that follow the
strategic goals and requirements defined by Information
Governance and Cybersecurity.
▪IA produces artifacts that include taxonomies, ontologies,
sitemaps, wireframes, search strategies, navigation
strategies, records schedules, master data and metadata
plans, data models, and data maps.
▪IA informs architectures for applications and infrastructure.
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Questions that IA Should Answer
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What can I
find here?
Where
am I?
What can I
do here?
Where can I
go from
here?

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Context
Content Users
IA
Corporate goals,
culture, resources,
technology, constraints
User personas, use cases,
needs, tasks, experience,
information-seeking
behaviors
Content and data types,
content assets, metadata,
repositories, structures
IA Connects Context,
Content, and Users
Information Architecture
(4
th
ed.) is a must read for
knowing the foundation of
IA. These 3 circles come
from Rosenfeld and
Morville originally.
See it at Amazon:
http://a.co/d/6tjn8c8

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IA Creates a Bridge
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UA & User
Experience
Content & Data
Repositories
Search
Improvements
Navigation
Improvements
Tagging
Improvements
Organization
Improvements

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Conceptual IA Systems
Organizing, Labeling, Navigating, and Searching

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IA Systems in Context
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Information Architecture
User Interface
Organization
Systems
Labeling
Systems
Navigation
Systems
Search
Systems
Information Management Systems
UI
Information
Architecture
Information Systems

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Organization Systems
▪Are the sites and tools we use easy to understand navigate?
▪Is it clear to users where they are at any given place?
▪Are the site organizing structures simple to use and easy to
maintain (are they flexible and scalable)?
▪What kinds of sites should we use, and how do they relate to
each other?
▪What other information apps do we use, and how do they
relate to our content sites?
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Labeling Systems
▪Do we have approved sets of terms with clear definitions to
use in labeling and tagging content, libraries, and sites?
▪Do we have naming schemes to use across collaboration
spaces and sites? Do they work?
▪Do we allow folders in our information environments, and
are there guidelines on how these are named and used?
▪Do we know how to label the inputs and outputs of each
type of business process?
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Navigation Systems
▪Are websites and apps easy to browse and navigate?
▪Are navigation labels and structures clear?
▪Are navigation elements automatically generated?
Curated? Up to date and accurate?
▪Is navigation consistent and useful?
▪Do we adequately cater to different information-seeking
behaviors?
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Search Systems
▪Does search work well within sites or groups of sites?
▪Do we have search that is scoped appropriately in different
contexts?
▪Are we able to search across all related content systems
and provide relevant, consistent results?
▪Are search analytics actively monitored and is search
continuously tuned to improve the user experience?
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Linking Business Needs,
User Needs & Technology
Capabilities
Bridging the Gap Between Business, Functional,
and System Requirements and Design

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Thinking Through Architecture
Business
Needs
•Get work
done
•Make money
•Avoid risk
User Needs
•Find info when needed
•Get work done
•Go home
Tech
Capabilities
•Feature A
•Feature B
•Feature C
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Tips for Architecture & Design
▪Know the tech capabilities available to you.
▪Creatively link business and user needs to tech capabilities.
▪Create the simplest possible architecture:
▪Content needs to be able to migrate some day.
▪Business will change its structure and labels.
▪Consider what feature will be around in 5 years.
▪Make it super easy to use and useful—so that it gets used.
▪Avoid customization and custom add-ons.
▪Do what you can out of the box, and use trusted partner vendors
to provide the rest.
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Office 365 & SharePoint
Considerations
Highlights and Best Practices

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So Many Apps!
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(Apps available for E3 License, November 2018)

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This infographic and its source site is the copyrighted work of Matt Wade at icansharepoint.com | Link: http://icsh.pt/O365Table
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SharePoint Site Types
▪Hub Site
▪Communication Site
▪Team Site
▪Lots of legacy site types
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New: SharePoint Hub Sites
▪Consistent top-level navigation
▪Consistent branding/theme
▪Roll-up of content and search
▪Can be configured to show content from sites not in that
hub
▪Links between hubs can be added to their navigation
▪Sites web part (preview of each of the sites, like at
SharePoint home)
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Evolving SharePoint Organization
Site
Collection
Subsite 1
Subsite 1A
Subsite 1B
Subsite 2Subsite 3
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Hub Site
Site
Collection 1
Site
Collection 2
Site
Collection 3
Site
Collection 4
Site
Collection 5
Before Hub Sites: With Hub Sites:
New flatter structure, overcoming many of the
limitations in the past.

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Components for IA
▪Hub sites, site collections, subsites
▪Site navigation (global, quick launch, etc.)
▪Search
▪Library and list columns (use lookups, managed terms, etc.)
▪Content types
▪Folders!
▪Links within content
▪Lots more
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Adding Teams to the Mix
▪Confusing Bits:
▪Teams each have their own site collection, and they are hidden from
the SharePoint admin center (unless you’ve moved to the new admin
preview already).
▪Libraries within Team Channels have an option to open in SharePoint,
and this can confuse users going back and forth.
▪Tips:
▪Teams need to be planned along with SharePoint sites so there is no
confusion or duplication of functionality.
▪Provide links between Team Channels and related (but separate)
SharePoint sites or hubs—and vice versa.
▪Keep team work in Teams, and use SharePoint for enterprise document
libraries, communications, etc.
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Some Great Resources
▪Official Office docs: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/
▪Official SharePoint docs: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/
▪Rob Bogue: thorprojects.com
▪Matt Wade: icansharepoint.com
▪Joanne Klein: joannecklein.com
▪CMSWire: www.CMSwire.com/sharepoint -office-365/
▪My blog: jkevinparker.com
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Conclusion: Keep It
Simple, Make It EASY!
www.kwestix.com

30. Thank you!