Information Architecture and UX Design The Integration of Information Spaces, 3rd (Wei Ding, Xia Lin, Michael Zarro) (Z-Library)

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Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services Wei Ding · Xia Lin · Michael Zarro Information Architecture and UX Design The Integration of Information Spaces Third Edition

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Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services Series Editor Gary Marchionini, School of Information and Library Science, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

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This series publishes short books on topics pertaining to information science and applica- tions of technology to information discovery, production, distribution, and management. Potential topics include: data models, indexing theory and algorithms, classification, information architecture, information economics, privacy and identity, scholarly com- munication, bibliometrics and webometrics, personal information management, human information behavior, digital libraries, archives and preservation, cultural informatics, information retrieval evaluation, data fusion, relevance feedback, recommendation sys- tems, question answering, natural language processing for retrieval, text summarization, multimedia retrieval, multilingual retrieval, and exploratory search.

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Wei Ding · Xia Lin · Michael Zarro Information Architecture and UX Design The Integration of Information Spaces Third Edition

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Wei Ding Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Washington, DC, USA Michael Zarro Phenom Ambler, PA, USA Xia Lin Drexel University Philadelphia, PA, USA ISSN 1947-945X ISSN 1947-9468 (electronic) Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services ISBN 978-3-031-72137-3 ISBN 978-3-031-72138-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-72138-0 1st edition: © Morgan & Claypool Publishers 2010 2nd edition: © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2017 3rd edition: © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of thematerial is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland If disposing of this product, please recycle the paper.

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Preface The term Information Architecture (IA) was coined by a brick-and-mortar architect Richard Wurman in the early 1970s as a profession of “gathering, organizing, and pre- senting information.” The World Wide Web accelerated the information explosion and created the real needs for the profession to help more people find and manage useful information online. Similarly, User Experience (UX), a term first used by Don Norman at Apple Computer in the 1990s, grew exponentially along with the web. Our revised third edition positions IA and UX design are two sides of the same human- centered design (HCD) coin. IA is associated with taxonomy, metadata, thesaurus, and other “information findability” related tasks that often happen behind the scenes, along with labeling and defining channels for information access. UX design is responsible for the vision and design solutions that people interact with and experience. The authors believe that the continuous evolution of the information spaces supported by the web, cloud, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies makes it possible to deliver ever more sophisticated interactions and user activities. The increasing importance of large language models (LLMs) and Generative AI (GenAI) have had profound impacts on work, play, and society at large. UX and AI converge in human-centered AI (HCAI), with the responsibility to make AI work for people. This requires a team effort including data scientists, machine learning engineers, developers, product owners, graphic designers, user researchers, and many more. Convergence calls for higher level of seamless collaboration among all the disciplines, but it does not eliminate the need for dedicated IA and UX work. Instead, this work spreads from traditional web design to digital devices, apps, medical devices, automo- biles, and many other places. IAs and UX designers are part of the team determining the business and UX strategy, based on user needs and business goals, and making sure the strategy gets carried out. v

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vi Preface Drawing on the authors’ extensive experience as practitioners, HCI researchers, and IA instructors, this book outlines a balanced view of the UX discipline by connecting prac- titioner’s real-world experience and IA/UX practices to human information behavioral theories, design principles, and guidelines. In addition to demonstrating conventional IA deliverables, techniques, and tools, this book emphasizes that IA is about the design and integration of information spaces (both digital and physical) beyond the Web. This expan- sion requires new skillsets like Design Thinking and Systems Thinking, to analyze and design highly interconnected systems that exponentially increase the benefits to the people in them. Uses of the Book This book is a result of our teaching of a graduate-level course on Information Archi- tecture at Drexel University for many years. The content has been constantly updated to incorporate the latest developments in the field—including GenAI and Systems Thinking for this third edition. The objective of the course was to introduce fundamental IA/UX concepts, theories, processes, and techniques in the context of human-centered design, to graduate students majored in Information Sciences and Information Systems. As the book was originally written as lecture notes, we believe it is most suitable to be used as textbook for similar courses in other schools. The key features of the book include concise discussions structured around each topic and the balanced coverage of theoretical and practical issues. As Drexel’s courses are quarter courses typically include 10 lecture weeks, we have conveniently structured the book into ten chapters, one for each week. The content for each week can be easily expanded when used for a semester course. User experience practitioners should also find this book useful and inspiring as a start- ing point in their exploration of this exciting field. We hope this book can help bridge the gap between the community of practice and academia. Structure of the Book The book covers the following topics: • Information Architecture and UX Design: Definition and Evolution: Chapter 1 dis- cusses the definition of Information Architecture and UX in the context of integrated information spaces, its impact on the way people interact with information, and rela- tionships to other disciplines. Chapter 2 takes a historical perspective to examine the evolution of the web and beyond, and identifies new challenges and opportunities for UX in the context of a generative generation marked by rapid development of GenAI.

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Preface vii • Human-Centered Design methods and principles: Chapter 3 introduces the Human- Centered Design methodology, which is the prerequisite for conducting any IA/UX practices. As the core of the book, Chaps. 4–7 are dedicated to the IA key concepts and foundations including information organization and navigation, human informa- tion behavior, and the corresponding design implications, as well as interaction design patterns, principles, and best practices. These chapters incorporate the latest develop- ments in the field like AI for user research, and reflect the current state of knowledge for usability researchers and user experience design professionals. • DesignThinking andSystemsThinking: This new Chap. 8 compares Design Thinking and Systems Thinking, two important approaches for integrating information spaces. We share the zoom-in/zoom-out approach, examining systems from a high level in Systems Thinking to find leverage points where and intervention may have a substantial impact, and the more detailed approach in Design Thinking to craft human-centered solutions that are also viable for the business. • IA in Practice: In Chap. 9, the design and development team is discussed. Frameworks like Agile development and Lean UX are related to the ideas presented in previous chapters. The growing importance of team culture is also shared. • The Future of Information Architecture: Chapter 10 identifies IA trends and future directions, including global and increasing AI considerations. We urge practitioners to work together to continue to promote and grow the discipline to help improve peo- ple’s lives through design. The chapter ends with a revisit of the IA definition used throughout the book. Washington, DC, USA Philadelphia, PA, USA Ambler, PA, USA Wei Ding Xia Lin Michael Zarro

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Contents 1 Information Architecture and UX Design: Definitions and Scope . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 Definitions of Information Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1.1 Our Definition of IA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.2 Definitions of User Experience and UX Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.2.1 Our Definition of UX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.3 From Web Design to Designing Information Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.3.1 Related Disciplines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.3.2 Information Architects and UX Designers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1.3.3 AI Advancements in IA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.3.4 Timeless Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2 Information Architecture and Evolving Information Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2.1 From the Web to Generative Information Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2.1.1 From Foundation to Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2.1.2 Generations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.1.3 Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.1.4 Web1.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.1.5 Web2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.1.6 Mashups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.1.7 Personalization and Aggregation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.1.8 Rich Internet Apps and Web Office Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2.1.9 Tagging and Hashtags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.1.10 Wikis, Blogs, and Social Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.2 Integrated Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.2.1 Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2.2.2 Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2.2.3 Sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 ix

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x Contents 2.2.4 Wearables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 2.2.5 Ubiquity and Human-Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 2.2.6 Artificial Intelligence, Automated Assistants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 2.3 Generative Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 2.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 3 Human-Centered Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3.1 Human-Centered Design Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3.2 Include Users in Research and Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3.3 Increasing the Reach of HCD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 3.3.1 Combines User Needs and Business Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 3.3.2 HCD Helps New Technology Adoption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3.3.3 Guides Design Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 3.3.4 Human-Centered AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 3.4 ISO 9241 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.5 HCD Design Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3.5.1 Front End UI Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 3.5.2 Behind the Scenes: Metadata and Controlled Vocabulary Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 3.5.3 Design Deliverables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 3.6 Iterative Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 3.7 HCD Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 3.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 4 Research and Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 4.1 Research Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 4.2 Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 4.2.1 The Need for Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 4.3 Research and Evaluation Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 4.3.1 Qualitative and Quantitative Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 4.3.2 e-Commerce Shopping Cart Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 4.3.3 Research Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 4.3.4 Heuristic Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 4.3.5 Card Sorting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 4.3.6 Usability Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 4.3.7 Surveys and System Usability Scale (SUS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 4.3.8 Observation and Contextual Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 4.3.9 Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 4.3.10 Usage Statistics and Log Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

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Contents xi 4.4 Research Deliverables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 4.4.1 User Personas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 4.4.2 Use of Personas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 4.4.3 Benefits of Personas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 4.4.4 Personas Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 4.4.5 User Journeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 4.4.6 Benefits of User Journeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 4.4.7 User Journey Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 4.5 Research for AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 4.6 AI for Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 4.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 5 Information Organization and Navigation Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 5.1 Logical Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 5.2 Semantic Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 5.2.1 Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 5.2.2 Standardization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 5.2.3 Indexing Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 5.3 Controlled Vocabularies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 5.3.1 Descriptor: Shirts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 5.3.2 Advantages of Controlled Vocabularies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 5.3.3 Taxonomies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 5.3.4 Faceted Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 5.3.5 Tagging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 5.4 Navigation Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 5.4.1 Navigation Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 5.5 Search Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 5.5.1 AI Agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 5.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 6 Human Information Behavior and Design Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 6.1 Understanding User Needs and Information Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 6.2 Human Information Behavior Theories and Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 6.2.1 Basic Level Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 6.2.2 Berry Picking Information Behavior Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 6.2.3 Bounded Rationality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 6.2.4 Dual Process Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 6.2.5 Exploratory Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 6.2.6 Fitts’ Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 6.2.7 Hick’s Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

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xii Contents 6.2.8 Information Scent Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 6.2.9 Miller’s Magic Number Seven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 6.2.10 Paradox of Choice: Less Is More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 6.2.11 How to Cope with Too Many Choices? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 6.2.12 Time Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 6.2.13 Powers of 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 6.2.14 Zipf’s Law, the Principle of Least Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 6.2.15 Theories Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 6.3 Design Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 6.3.1 Web Use Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 6.3.2 Web Users Don’t Read Pages. They Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 6.3.3 Web Users Don’t Make Optimal Choices. They Satisfice . . . 92 6.3.4 How Do People Search the Web? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 6.3.5 Design for Search Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 6.4 AI for Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 6.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 7 Interaction Design and Design Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 7.1 Interaction Design Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 7.1.1 Fitts’ Law: Design for Fitts’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 7.1.2 Design for Affordance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 7.1.3 Design for Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 7.1.4 Design for Forgiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 7.1.5 Easy Reversal of Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 7.1.6 Error Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 7.1.7 Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 7.1.8 Design for User Perceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 7.1.9 Design for Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 7.1.10 Design for Inclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 7.1.11 Design for Personalization and Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 7.1.12 Interaction Design Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 7.1.13 Views, Forms, and Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 7.1.14 Filters and Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 7.2 Design Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 7.2.1 Responsive Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 7.2.2 Industry Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 7.3 Mobile Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 7.3.1 Smartphone Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 7.3.2 Minimizing the Need for Text Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 7.3.3 Prioritize Essential Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 7.3.4 Other Mobile Usability Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

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Contents xiii 7.3.5 Mobile as the Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 7.3.6 User’s Wallet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 7.3.7 Mobile and Personalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 7.4 Design for AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 7.5 Research to Design Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 7.5.1 Five Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 7.5.2 Thinking and Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 7.5.3 Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 7.5.4 Patterns and Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 7.5.5 Secondary Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 7.5.6 Primary Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 7.5.7 Using the Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 7.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 8 Design Thinking to Systems Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 8.1 Human Centered Mindset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 8.2 Zoom In and Zoom Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 8.3 Design Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 8.3.1 Definitions of Design Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 8.3.2 Design Thinking Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 8.3.3 Design Thinking in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 8.3.4 Systems Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 8.3.5 Mapping Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 8.3.6 Benefits of System Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 8.3.7 System Mapping Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 8.3.8 Mapping Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 8.3.9 Outcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 8.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 9 IA in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 9.1 Design and Development Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 9.1.1 Makeup of a User Experience Design Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 9.1.2 Specialists, Generalists, and “T-Shaped” Professionals . . . . . . 137 9.1.3 Centralized Versus Distributed Organizational Models . . . . . . 137 9.1.4 Maximizing the IA Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 9.1.5 Desired Competencies and Skill Sets for IAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 9.1.6 Being Strategic with Attention to Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 9.1.7 Independent Thinker with Open Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 9.1.8 Leader and Team Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 9.1.9 Problem Solver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

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xiv Contents 9.1.10 Lifelong Learner with Passion for User Experience Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 9.1.11 Design Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 9.2 Design Culture and DEI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 9.2.1 Building a Strong Design Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 9.2.2 Integrating DEI into Design Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 9.3 Agile, Lean UX and DesignOps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 9.3.1 Agile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 9.3.2 Lean UX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 9.3.3 Rocket Surgery Made Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 9.3.4 DesignOps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 9.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 10 The Future of IA/UX Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 10.1 Global Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 10.1.1 Makeup of the World’s Internet Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 10.1.2 Languages Used on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 10.1.3 Mobile Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 10.1.4 The Need for Internationalization and Localization . . . . . . . . 152 10.1.5 Cross-Culture Theories and Localization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 10.1.6 High Context Versus Low-Context Culture Types . . . . . . . . . . 153 10.2 Hofstede’s Five Cultural Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 10.2.1 Overview of the Five Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 10.2.2 Implications of Cultural Dimensions on Design . . . . . . . . . . . 154 10.2.3 Guidelines for Global IA and UX Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 10.3 The Future of IA and UX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 10.3.1 Key Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 10.3.2 UX Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 10.3.3 Findability and Cross-Channel/Ubiquitous Access . . . . . . . . . 158 10.3.4 Content Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 10.3.5 Digital Preservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 10.3.6 Voice and Gesture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 10.3.7 Inclusive Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 10.3.8 Customer Experience and Business Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 10.3.9 Integrating Systems and Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 10.3.10 Human Centered AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 10.3.11 Higher Stakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 10.4 IA, UX Design and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

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About the Authors Dr.Wei Ding is a digital product strategist and program manager with more than 20 years of experience in user experience design, marketing, and consumer behavior. She is cur- rently leading the digital product team at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), overseeing the ideation, design, and development of all consumer-facing digital products. Previously she held various design leadership positions at other federal govern- ment agencies and private sectors, including the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Marriott International, and Vanguard. She helped institu- tions establish user experience design disciplines, and led the successful design/redesign of large-scaled ecommerce or government websites, such as uspto.gov, Marriott.com, and vanguard.com. Dr. Ding has been an adjunct professor at Drexel University teaching Information Architecture and other graduate level courses since 2006. She has a Ph.D. degree in Information Science from the University of Maryland, and a B.S. and M.S. from Peking (Beijing) University. She has published a number of research papers and articles and is a frequent speaker at professional conferences and industry forums. Dr. Xia Lin is a Professor in the College of Computing and Informatics at Drexel University. His major research areas include digital libraries, information visualiza- tion, information retrieval, and knowledge organization. He initiated the Information Architecture course at Drexel in 2003 and has taught the course for many years. Dr. Lin has published more than 100 research papers and received significant research grants from federal agencies and industries. His visualization prototypes have been pre- sented and demonstrated in many national and international conferences. Dr. Lin has a Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Master of Librarianship from Emory University at Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to join Drexel, Dr. Lin was an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky. xv

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xvi About the Authors Dr. Michael Zarro is a User Experience executive and strategist with over 20 years of experience in eCommerce, SaaS, and human-centered artificial intelligence applications. Currently he manages a user research and systems thinking practice for Phenom, a global technology company. Dr. Zarro has established several user research teams, designed one of the first product subscription services in eCommerce, and conducted some of the earliest research on social curation. Dr. Zarro has taught Information Architecture, Information Systems and other graduate courses since 2013. He has published several research articles and presented his work at leading international conferences.

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1Information Architecture and UX Design: Definitions and Scope Information architecture (IA) and User Experience Design (UX) is an exciting area of study that is growing in importance in academics, industry, as well as in everyday life. As we all interact with technology—websites, search engines, mobile apps, or smart home devices, why do we have good experience with some of them but not others? Who creates and designs these things that make our life pleasant (or miserable)? How to structure information in a usable way so that we can all find it when we need it? Clearly, it is valuable to study the “space” between human cognitive abilities, information content, and the context of use. Enter Information Architecture and User Experience Design, an interdisciplinary field that is rooted in psychology, ergonomics, user interface design, system design, information organization, information access, and information use. IA and UX design are critical in many aspects of our world today. While our primary focus will be on web and mobile applications, the principles we discuss are applicable to any digital information space, including medical devices, home automation systems, and more. We consider the terms IA and UX designer mostly interchangeable and will use them throughout the book. IA is typically used when working with the information content and structure, while UX designer is used when discussing the user interface and interaction. In the following chapters, we will explore the growing demand for exceptional design in our society. Our goal is to provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to become capable of creating user-friendly and useful digital experiences. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025 W. Ding et al., Information Architecture and UX Design, Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-72138-0_1 1

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2 1 Information Architecture and UX Design: Definitions and Scope 1.1 Definitions of Information Architecture Information architecture is a field of study, a field of practice, and a discipline that changes as the use of technologies evolves. Like many other evolving disciplines, there exist many definitions of information architecture. Let’s start with a look at a few examples of the definitions first. One cannot talk about information architecture without mentioning Richard Saul Wur- man, who coined the term “Information Architecture” or, at least, brought it to wide attention in the 1970s. Wurman was trained as an architect and skilled at graphical design, but “making information understandable” has been “the singular passion of his life.” He sees the problems of gathering, organizing, and presenting information as closely analo- gous to the problems an architect faces in designing a building that will serve the needs of its occupants. His definition of information architects emphasizes the organization and presentation of information (Wurman, 1996): (1) the individual who organizes the patterns inherent in data, making the complex clear. (2) a person who creates the structure or map of information which allows others to find their personal paths to knowledge. (3) the emerging 21st century professional occupation address- ing the needs of the age focused upon clarity, human understanding, and the science of the organization of information. While Wurman insightfully bridged information with architecture, Morville et al. (2015) brought information architecture to the mainstream with their popular “polar bear” book on information architecture. In the fourth edition (with Jorge Arango as an additional author), the authors took a multi-perspective approach to define information architecture: 1. The structural design of shared information environments 2. The synthesis of organization, labeling, search, and navigation systems within digital, physical, and cross-channel ecosystems 3. The art and science of shaping information products and experience to support usability and findability, and understanding 4. An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape (p. 24). This definition provides a focus on structure, cross-channel systems, findability and usability, and finally the spirit of IA—bringing principles of design (art) and architec- ture (science) to the digital landscape. Resmini and Rosati (2011) similarly emphasize in their definition that, as the pervasive information environment evolves, “information architecture was moving into uncharted territories becoming a boundary practice whose contributions were crucial where complexity, unfamiliarity, and information overload

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1.2 Definitions of User Experience and UX Design 3 stood in the way of the user” (p. 33). IA is a boundary practice that brings together many skills and disciplines. Thus, their definition underscores information architecture as a process and service design, involving designing multi-channel and cross-channel user experience. 1.1.1 Our Definition of IA In the above, we provide snapshots of different definitions of information architecture. A common theme of IA evolution is from information-centric to user-centric, thus the definition we use in this book: Information architecture is about organizing and simplifying information for its intended users; designing, integrating and aggregating information spaces to create usable systems or interfaces; creating ways for people to find, understand, exchange and manage information; and, therefore, stay on top of information and make right decisions. Information architects not only design individual human-centered information spaces (e.g., websites, software, applications, intranets) but through design thinking and sys- tems thinking (see Chap. 8) also tackle strategic aggregation and integration of multiple information spaces including all channels, modalities, and platforms. They organize infor- mation but and simplify it for better understanding using principles from the domains of information organization (Chap. 5), human information behavior (Chap. 6), interaction design (Chap. 7). Finally, the goal of IA is not only to support people finding information but also to manage and use information. This definition serves as the common theme for all the chapters/topics in this book. At the end of the book, we will revisit this definition again. 1.2 Definitions of User Experience and UX Design Similar to Information Architecture, there are also many definitions of the ever-evolving User Experience and UX Design. Don Norman is credited with first coining the term user experience in the 1990’s while at Apple computer, although the field of design is much older than that (Nielsen, 2017). Prior to the growth of the field due to the rise of personal computers with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and later the web, UX was practiced (although maybe not with that moniker) in industry settings such as Bell Labs, Xerox Parc, and other organizations. Norman and his colleague Nielsen (1998) offer the following definition: “’User experience’ encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.” They also include in the definition:

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4 1 Information Architecture and UX Design: Definitions and Scope • Meeting the needs of the customer • Simplicity and elegance, products that are a joy to own • UX merges several disciplines, “including engineering, marketing, graphical and industrial design, and interface design.” (Nielsen & Norman, 1998). Hartson and Play in The UX Book (2018) define user experience as “the totality of the effects felt by the user before, during, and after interaction with a product or system in an ecology” and further that the job of UX designers “is to design that interaction to create a user experience that is productive, fulfilling, satisfying, and even joyful.” (p. 6). Here we see similarities to Nielsen and Norman’s definition, that before, during, and after direct interaction matters, and that joy and satisfaction are a component of user experience. ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, gives us a succinct definition of user experience: “user’s perceptions and responses that result from the use and/or anticipated use of a system, product or service.” (2019, p. 4). Again, we see that there is more to user experience than just usability or functionality, user’s perception is a big part of the outcome, bringing to mind the saying perception is reality. The Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) helpfully brings together definitions of UX and UX design from an operational standpoint: The simplest way to think about user experience design is as a verb and a noun. A UX designer designs (verb)—ideates, plans, changes—the things that affect the user experience (noun)— perceptions and responses to a system or service. (IxDF, 2016) 1.2.1 Our Definition of UX In all the definitions we see more than just using a system, going beyond the pointing and clicking in an interface to a wider view of meeting user needs and providing a positive perception and satisfaction. Thus, we offer the following definition of user experience: User Experience (UX) encompasses all facets of a person’s interaction with a system, includ- ing their anticipation, engagement, and emotional response. It includes usability, intuition, and user delight, along with the resulting outcomes and perceptions of the system. 1.3 From Web Design to Designing Information Spaces The rising and rapid evolution of the Web provided many opportunities and challenges for users and designers. These opportunities have expanded even more with mobile, enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS), Generative AI (GenAI) and many more. User needs have expanded from viewing information only to highly interactive actions and contributing to