The Handyman's Guide to SharePoint 2010 Information Architecture

© 2012 J. Kevin Parker (www.JKevinParker.com). All rights reserved. 1
The Handyman’s Guide to
SharePoint Information Architecture
J. Kevin Parker

@JKevinParker
• Principal Consultant and Practice Lead for
Information Management at T. White Parker
• More than a decade in Web design, application
development, and enterprise information
architecture
www.JKevinParker.com

Information Architecture Defined
The Handyman’s Guide to SharePoint Information Architecture

Information Architecture is…
the art and science of
systematizing, structuring, and labeling
information to promote
putability, findability, usability, accessibility,
manageability, reliability, and securability.

IA Elevator Pitch
Information Architecture is all about relevance. It’s about finding
the things that matter—the things you and your team need to
make connections, make decisions, and make a difference. It’s
about the right person getting to the right thing at the right time.
But it’s more than simple efficiency—information architecture
transforms facts into insights by organizing content so it fits the
way you and your team think. Finding relevant material becomes
intuitive. That pays off with people spending more time acting on
information, instead of searching for it. The result: less frustration
and greater productivity, because people are working with
relevant information more often.
Source: The Information Architecture Institute

Tailoring Your IA Elevator Pitch
Sometimes you must tailor your message to your audience. Below are short phrases that
can help particular people understand the benefit of IA.
• Emphasize value: Information Architecture is what keeps you from paying for a site
redesign next year when you've outgrown this design, and keeps your customers
from calling with the same questions even though the answers are on your website.
• IA is not just user interface design: You can have a terrific user interface and still
have a failed site [product, application, etc.] if the information contained there hasn’t
been structured and managed to meet user expectations.
• Appeal to information technologists (IT): IA is what happens between the
database and the user interface. Before someone can create the data model, you
must know how your users want to use the data, or risk creating a system the users
won't accept.
• The simple approach: It's about the right person finding the right information at the
right time. You can’t use it if you can’t find it.
Source: The Information Architecture Institute

IA Systems have…
Context
UsersContent
IA
Records
Documents
Web Pages
Wikis
Lists
Libraries
Images
Video
Audio
Business Goals
Funding
Organizational Culture
Technology
Resources
Constraints
Audience
Tasks
Needs
Information Uses
Experience
Three circles of IA, adapted from Peter Morville & Louis Rosenfeld

IA is necessary for…
• Data
Management
• Information
Management
• Content
Management
• Knowledge
Management
• Customer Relationship
Management
• Document Management
• Records Management
• Digital Asset
Management
• Project Management
• Business Intelligence

SharePoint 2010
Information Architecture Toolbox

SharePoint is modular platform.

Organize the parts you need…

…and build!

SharePoint IA Activities
Activities Artifacts Applied to SharePoint
Assess business information
strategy
• Business case for information
architecture & management
• Business case for SharePoint
Research business
processes & identify pain
points
• Business processes map
• Business problem & solutions
catalog
• Workflows & event receivers
• SharePoint solutions catalog
Assess information
architecture & management
• IA assessment
• IA blueprints
• IA roadmap
• Site collections blueprints
• Site types & templates
• SharePoint implementation plan
Define metadata & metadata
management strategy
• Taxonomies
• Naming conventions
• Term Store
• Term sets & term set groups
• Naming conventions
Define information types &
relationships
• Information models
• Information maps
• Content Type Hub
• Content types
• Information management policies
Design structures &
navigation
• Site features
• Site maps
• Wireframes
• Lists & libraries
• List views
• Site maps
• Master pages
Define information roles &
security
• Security roles
• Security groups
• Active Directory & SharePoint groups
• Site organization based on security

SharePoint IA Toolbox
Tool Set Description
Containers Containers provide organizing layers and boundaries
to information and processes.
Structures Structures provide shape and order for information
types.
Navigation Navigation provides users a way to browse the
information.
Views Views provide different ways to look at information.
Features &
Services
Some features and services are particularly important
for information architecture in SharePoint.
Master Pages Master pages provide the Web page template for each
page rendered for users, and there are best practices
for improving these.

Containers
Web Applications
↳ Managed Paths
↳ Site Collections
↳ Sites
↳ Lists
Web Applications
Managed Paths
Site Collections
Root Site Sub Sites
ListsLists

Structures
• Site Types
• Content Types
• Term Sets

Navigation
• Top Link Bar Navigation
• Quick Launch Navigation
• Breadcrumb Navigation
• Tree View Navigation
• Metadata Navigation
• Summary Links
• Table of Contents
• Content Query
• Tag Cloud

Views
• List Views
• Content Query Web Part
• Page Layouts (Publishing pages)
• Text Layouts (Team wiki pages)

Features & Services
• Document ID Service
• SharePoint Server Publishing
Infrastructure
• Managed Metadata Service
• Content Type Hub
• Records Center
• Search Service

Master Pages
• Add CSS file that overrides SP2010 default styles
• Add JavaScript libraries like jQuery
• Add images
• Reference these in a copy of v4.master
(one way of doing it)
• Do not use tables—use CSS!
• Follow Web standards for accessibility & usability

SharePoint 2010 Site Types

Plan and Organize Site Types
Sites that are of similar business goals, organizational
culture, audience, tasks, needs, and types of content can
be grouped into Site Collections. This greatly simplifies
things by:
• Limiting allowed site templates in each site collection;
• Limiting variations in security, information management
policies, content types, list and library types, and
enabled features; and
• Simplifying site collection administration.

Site Types by Use (example)
Business Use Description Site Templates
Organizational Unit
Team Site
Sites for teams within the organization
structure
Team Site Template
Document Workspace Template
Meeting Workspace Template
Project Workspace Template
Cross-
Organizational
Team Site
Sites for teams that include people from
across the organization
Team Site Template
Document Workspace Template
Meeting Workspace Template
Project Workspace Template
Intranet Publishing
Site
An area of the Intranet below the top-
level pages, like department pages
explaining services offered
Publishing Site with Workflow
Shared Services
Site
Sites for services across the agency Configured “Shared Services” Site
Template
Community Site Sites for common interests Configured “Community” Site
Template

Additional Resources

Additional Resources
AIIM: www.aiim.org
MIKE2.0: mike2.openmethodology.org
IA Institute: www.iainstitute.org
SharePoint CSS & Design: sharepointexperience.com
TechNet: SP2010 ECM Implementers’ Course
Books:

SharePoint IA Planning:
Microsoft TechNet Resources
• Enterprise Content Management
• Managed Metadata & Taxonomy
• Records Management
• Web Content Management
• Digital Asset Management
• Published Intranets
• Enterprise Collaboration & Social Computing
• Enterprise Search
• Business Intelligence
• Business Connectivity Services
• Workflows
• Capacity Management
• Site & Solution Planning

For expert help in Information Management…
We help our clients do business better. Period.
www.twhiteparker.com

Special Thanks
My twin sons helped me with the LEGO
props for this presentation. Thanks, boys!

The Handyman's Guide to SharePoint 2010 Information Architecture

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The Handyman's Guide to SharePoint 2010 Information Architecture