Designing and applying information architecture for SharePoint

After some years developing projects with Microsoft Sharepoint, a part that many consultants and IT managers leave behind when building Sharepoint solution and web in general, is the way content are organized and the formulas used to build the information architecture of the solution.

 

Information Architecture can be described as “the science of organizing and labeling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability.”

In detail and having Sharepoint as a starting point when we talk about Information Architecture we include:

• site taxonomy/structure
• metadata
• search schema
• navigation
• content tree

I Navigation i.e. is automatically driven by the site’s structure, your site taxonomy will impact the usability of your navigation.

As better designed and adapted to the organization is an Information architecture more close you are to achieve the following goals:

1. Usability – Sites that lack a well-thought out IA tend to be less usable.  It’s more difficult to find information and site navigation tends to be substandard or confusing.
2. Compliance – Policies that allow us to adhere to compliance regulations are quite often driven by metadata.  If the metadata design is lacking, it may be difficult or impossible to stay in compliance, which can have tremendous legal and financial repercussions.
3. Site Management/Administration – A strong IA will help prevent site sprawl and may help address storage requirements or goals.

Besides my opinion i would like in this post to share with you some off the resources i pass to my colleagues and trainees:

• Channel 9 video about the topic
• Technet base article https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262900.aspx
• Critical steps for a good Sharepoint architecture
• Sharegate best pratices about governace and information architecture
• A good article explain the best pratices : http://highmonkey.com/HighMonkeySite/media/slides/How-Information-Architecture-can-improve-in-SharePoint-2013.pdf
• A fantastic presentation with a description of some best practices associated with this topic http://www.slideshare.net/slemieux/sharepoint-information-architecture-best-practices

 

 

 

 

Sharepoint 2010 Best Pratices

one off the most important things when building software is to learn from the past, in two ways:
– To be a and produce better
– To have time to create new and improve

The same is valid when working over a platform, In Sharepoint development i see so many times the same mistakes, in this post i will let you to powerful resources that you really should read.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc850682.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/gg620632

If you accomplish this best practices i am sure that you will improve as developer also your products will improve and the better of all works you will understand better your framework.

So if you are working with Sharepoint 2010 don’t miss this chance to be better.