Information Architecture with MindCanvas
- What concepts and categories do people use to think about my site?
- What words do they use to represent those concepts?
- How good is my new Information Architecture? Does it help people find content better than the previous IA?
Key Benefits
Sorting is a key method for designing Information Architecture. MindCanvas recreates the fluidity and richness of paper sorts in an online format. Sorting is an inherently fun task, but most software versions of it are dull and awkward to use. With MindCanvas, users enjoy sorting!
Take advantage of the remote, moderated service to watch and listen to users while they sort! This gives you the qualitative feedback you get from face-to-face exercises, without leaving your office. And with the remote, unmoderated service you can have the sample sizes and geographic reach you always wanted...
Information Architecture requires understanding of user vocabulary. Several of our methods/visualizations capture and reveal patterns in the words people use.
Methods: FreeList, OpenSort, TreeSort
Deliverables: Dendogram, VocabularyBrowzer, SimilarityBrowzer
Examples
Explore domain concepts & vocabulary for Information Architecture design for a boutique clothing etailer: MindCanvas OpenSort system can be used to understand how women & men think about clothes - what their concepts, categories and associations are with different articles of clothing. The interactive visualizations of the data will let you explore the words people use, and identify terms to use as labels or in a controlled vocabulary. Deliverables include Dendogram, VocabularyBrowzer, SimilarityBrowzer.
Verify if a proposed cell phone menu will help people find content/functionality easily: Use MindCanvas TreeSort system to understand menu structure fits user mental models. Do people put items in the category envisioned by the designers? You can even compare two IAs using an A/B study design. The visualizations will help you identify problem areas and make changes. Visualizations include CategoryMatrix, SimilarityBrowzer, Dendogram ...
Explore a new market your company is considering: A printer company is considering expanding into digital cameras - a domain it does not have any experience with. Use FreeList with to understand how people think about digital cameras. What are the associated concepts / emotions? What are the words used? Compare domain perceptions between users groups to decide on a target market. Our ListMap visualization will let you explore the data for the important trends, and the Long Tail of idiosyncratic word usage. Data from this exercise could also be used as input to an OpenSort exercise!
Two Stanford students creating a Web2.0 portal want to define Web 2.0 (for once and for all). MindCanvas Freelist is used to generate all possible buzzwords associated with Web 2.0. A huge number of responses is collected by linking the study to TechCrunch (the most common item is del.icio.us, but no one can spell it right). For a second study, users are asked to sort the top 100 buzzwords into groups and subgroups. An even larger number of responses is collected by seeding the study on del.icio.us, DIGG and every other social bookmarking site. Results show that people are very confused about Web2.0. Tim O'Reilly decides in order to carry users along, you really need Web 3.0. Relevant questions FreeList, OpenSort. Relevant deliverables Dendogram, ListMap. (We are kidding, though the idea is tempting!)
Go back to top, or check out how to explore User Needs & Values using MindCanvas.
Have questions? Call 1-650-564-0000 or email support@themindcanvas.com for answers, to find out about purchasing MindCanvas or to get access to live demo!
