This document summarizes a presentation on content strategy and city information architecture. It discusses challenges citizens face in understanding what information the city has about them and who is responsible for different government services. It also addresses design implications like categories, time, geography, maps, transparency and engagement. The goal is to design city information architecture that clearly communicates responsibilities to citizens and helps them find what they need.

1. The City is not a Site Map*
"Content Strategy Summer Session
July 11, 2013"
"
Gordon Ross"
Vice President, OpenRoad"
email / gordonr@openroad.ca"
twitter / @gordonr "
*with apologies to Christopher Alexander"

2. @gordonr
#CSWVancouver
"

5. Why is this a problem?"

9. Richard Nisbett"

11. CUTE OVERLOAD

14. LATCH"
Location"
Alphabet"
Time"
Category"
Hierarchy"
Richard Saul Wurman"

15. LATCH"
Location"
Alphabet"
Time"
Category"
Hierarchy"
Ambiguous classification schemes"
Richard Saul Wurman"

16. LATCH"
Location"
Alphabet"
Time"
Category"
Hierarchy"
Ambiguous classification schemes"
Richard Saul Wurman"

20. Resident" Business" Visitor"

22. Who am I?
"

23. Who am I?
Who does the City think I am?
"

24. Who am I?
Who does the City think I am?
What am I looking for again?
"

25. Who am I?
Who does the City think I am?
What am I looking for again?
Based on who the City thinks I
am, where would they put what
I’m looking for?
"

26. Who am I?
Who does the City think I am?
What am I looking for again?
Based on who the City thinks I
am, where would they put what
I’m looking for?
Uh… what am I doing again?
"

27. 1. What are you trying to accomplish today?"
2. Why? Can you explain that further?"

31. Man, there’s no pleasing this Gord guy…
#civicIAsucks #CSWVancouver

36. city of Vancouver" City of Vancouver"

37. What is a city?"

38. Lewis Mumford"

39. • Geographic plexus"
• Economic organization"
• Institutional process"
• Theatre of social action"
• Aesthetic symbol of collective unity"

40. Big C City of Vancouver = that
which they come into contact with,
but might not even realize it"
Small c city of Vancouver = that
which is in focus for most of the
citizens, most of the time"

41. Our City IA Manifesto"

43. Everybody's
last
stop,
refuge,
terminus,
lotus
land,
Shangri-­‐la,
Canaan,
utopia.
Paradise
colonized.
Babylon
unbound.
Wayde
Compton
Performance
Bond
map
of
Vancouver:
Charles
Demers,
Vancouver
Special

47. Design Implications"

51. From City A to Z, Pile & Thrift, 2000"

52. • Categories"
• Time"
• Geography (Space)"
• Personal Geography (Place)"
• Maps"
• Conflict"
• Demand"
"
• Transparency/Translucency"
• Visibility / Invisibility"
• Jurisdictional Boundaries"
• Seasons"
• Voluntary/Mandatory"
• Language"
• Channel Preference"
• Engagement"

53. Jurisdictional Boundaries"
Different levels of government are responsible for
different aspects of our everyday lives. It is often
not clear who is responsible for what. "
"
"
"
"
Citizens are interested in who is responsible in
order to seek action and resolution to a particular
issue. They have a problem that needs resolution
and want to find out who to contact. "
"
"
The seemingly arbitrary by-products of the design
of government need to be clearly communicated to
the citizen user, even if the responsibility for the
service is not entirely that of the City’s. Examples
of jurisdictional boundaries that affect citizens
include transportation (City owns streets,
TransLink runs the buses); animal control (stray
dogs are City, stray cats are BCSPCA); and water
(pipes are City, water itself is Metro Vancouver). "
"
observation"
conclusion"
design"
implication"

54. The Process of Design Squiggle
by Damien Newman, Central Office of Design"
(Creative Commons - CC BY-ND 3.0 )"

55. The Process of Design Squiggle
by Damien Newman, Central Office of Design"
(Creative Commons - CC BY-ND 3.0 )"

57. We’re OpenRoad
We’re always looking for interesting
new projects
We’re hiring IA / CS / UX / IXD talent
We’d like to meet you
I’m Gordon Ross, Vice President &
Partner at OpenRoad. "
Email me at gordonr@openroad.ca
or follow me on twitter at @gordonr"
Find out more about OpenRoad at
http://www.openroad.ca
"