Summary of Chapter 5: Organization Systems
Generally, this chapter provides description of ways in which to structure and organize sites so as to meet the business goals and user needs. Organization systems are made up of organization schemes and organization structures. Organization borrows navigation, labelling, and indexing elements. The Web is a wonderful flexible platform to which information architects organize. In this respect, hierarchical organization structures of Web sites serve as primary navigation system, label categories define category contents, and manual indexing organizes content items into clusters at highly detailed level (Morville & Rosenfeld, 2006). Through the Web, it is possible to apply several organization systems to the same given content and avoid the physical limitations characteristic of the print world.
Summary: Chapter 6 – Labelling Systems
Chapter 6 provides approaches of how to create consistent, effective, and descriptive labels for a Web site. Labels are used to represent great amounts of information on web sites. Labelling is significant because web site is a non-mediated medium having few visual cues rendering communication relatively harder compared to interactive real-time communications such as face-to-face. In this respect, information architects have the obligation to design web site labels that express the same language as the user of the site while reflecting its content. In addition, labels ought to educate site users about new concepts besides helping them to quickly identify familiar ones (Morville & Rosenfeld, 2006). The choice of labelling systems influences how site users perceive the company, its products as well as its products. It is wise to first determine your organization and navigation systems prior to designing labelling system for your website. Labels on a website can be used in a number of ways i.e. as indexing terms, link labels, and headings.
Summary: Chapter 7 – Navigation Systems
Chapter 7 discusses the design of browsing systems which help users understand their current position together with where they can reach within a site i.e. navigation systems that enable browsing. Effective navigation in a site is enable by a multiplicity of systems namely structure, labelling, organization, and searching systems (Morville & Rosenfeld, 2006).
It is paramount to consider the environment of the system in the course of designing a navigation system. This means that it must be compatible with the web browsers used to move around and view web sites. Context is the greatest element in the design of navigation systems.
Furthermore, the navigation system must present the true structure of the information hierarchy in a manner that is duly clear and consistent, and indicate the precise current location of the user on the site. There are several types of navigation systems: hierarchical navigation systems, global navigation systems, local navigation systems, and ad hoc navigation.
Role of an information architect
Role of an information architect in development of a web site is crucial. This is the person tasked with responsibilities of clarifying the mission and vision for the site, striking a balance between the demands of its sponsoring organization and those of its audiences. Secondly, the information architect determines the nature of the content and the functionality that the web sit will carry (Morville & Rosenfeld, 2006). It is also up to the information architect to specify how users will access information in the site by defining elements relating to its organization, labelling, navigation, and searching systems. Finally, the information architect determines how the site will handle change and growth with time.
Alphabetical order:
XVII me siècle
#!%&: Creating Comic Books
$35 a Day Through Europe
.38 Special
1001 Arabian Nights
The 1-2-3 of Magic
Albany, New York
El Paso, Texas
H20: The Beauty of Water
The Hague, Netherlands
The Lord of the Rings
Newark, New Jersey
New York, New York
Plzen, Czech Republic
St. Louis, Missouri
Saint Nicholas, Belgium
a) The Hague falls under H and not T.
b) El Paso falls under E, not P
c) New York comes after Newark
d) Saint Louis comes before St. Nicholas
e) Numbers come before any letters. Punctuation marks are treated the way as spaces i.e. they precede all other characters in alphanumeric arrangement. However, the exception is for the following: full stop (period), colon, semi-colon, comma, square brackets, parentheses, exclamation marks, question marks, and apostrophe.
f) Italics do not have an effect on the arrangement of letters
g) Chronologically, cities will be arranged in the order in which they were visited and the books in the order they were read.
h) The alphabetical organization of this information by some of the students is different from mine. For instance, numerals have been arranged after letters and titles with The have been put under T. In my opinion, this is wrong ordering which shows lack of understanding of rules in English language.
Figure 1: Kenya Airways main page
Table: Navigation system labels for Kenya Airways main page
Label Destination’s heading label Destination’s <TITLE>label
Top-of-page navigation system labels
Plan and Book
Travel Info
Flying Blue
Customer Care
My Bookings –
–
Buy & Gift Miles
–
Make/Manage a Booking Plan and Book – Kenya Airways
Travel info – Kenya Airways
Flying blue – Kenya Airways
Customer care – Kenya Airways
My bookings – Kenya Airways
Body navigation system labels
Destination guide
Flight Timetable
Payment Methods
Special Offers
Visa and Health Information
Quick Link View our destinations through our route map and destination guide
Check out our current flight timetable
Find out about our different payment options
Hot deals from your collection
Access Visa and health information to your destination
– Destination guide – Kenya Airways
Flight timetable – Kenya Airways
Payment methods – Kenya Airways
Kenya Airways
Visa and health information-Kenya Airways
Quick link – Kenya Airways
Bottom-of-page navigation system labels
Baggage Allowance
Online Refunds
Payment Methods
On Board Entertainment
Fleet
Partners and Alliances
About Us
Flying Blue
Conditions of Carriage
Disclaimer
Privacy Policy
Sky Team
Staff Login
KQ World Connect
I-Supply
I-Receivables
I-Pride Employee
Service Learn about our baggage allowance, excess baggage charges…
Baggage Allowance – Kenya Airways
Online Refunds – Kenya Airways
Payment Methods – Kenya Airways
On Board Entertainment – Kenya Airways
Fleet – Kenya Airways
Partners and Alliances – Kenya Airways
About Us – Kenya Airways
Flying Blue – Kenya Airways
Conditions of Carriage – Kenya Airways
Disclaimer – Kenya Airways
Privacy Policy – Kenya Airways
Sky Team – Kenya Airways
Staff Login – Kenya Airways
KQ World Connect – Kenya Airways
I-Supply – Kenya Airways
I-Receivables – Kenya Airways
I-Pride Employee – Kenya Airways
Service – Kenya Airways
Commentary
I do not find the bottom-of-page navigation labels because they are mostly repetition of those found in middle-of-page labels. Improvements can be done to reduce the labels so as emphasis the most significant content on the airline website. However, I do not find any inconsistencies in labelling system between the pages.
The labelling system of Kenya Airways is almost similar to those of British Airlines Kenya and China Southern Airlines. The three sites have navigation labels carrying similar information on Booking and Services, Special offers, Travel Information, Baggage, Contact Us and About Us. However, China Southern Airlines is the best in my opinion. This is because the site has incorporated the necessary content in a rather creative, appealing presentation as compared to British Airways and Kenya Airways.
Reference:
Morville, P., & Rosenfeld, L. (2006). Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites. California: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
