Concept models, a way of visualizing abstract concepts, was the subject of Dan Brown’s Session 4 of An Event Apart Chicago 2009 with Dan Brown.
Types of navigation
- traditional
- emerging
- anticipatory
The site map is no longer an effective way of describing content.
Start Modeling with
- a theme; the central “story”
- what is of most interest
- from there, build out based on familiarity
- combat obscurity, i.e. define buzzwords
Structures you can use
- hub & spoke – define a central idea
- diad, triad… – a few main ideas
- value prop – a sentence broken out into sections
Going from concept model -> site model
- take main points/hubs become templates.
- seems that the purpose of these concept models is to make a website match the subject (relationships on the website would mimic real-life relationships, etc.)
- experiment with including different elements from the concept models in different wireframes
Why models? 8 tips
- determine context
- that is, they help you determine the context
- do research
- make a list
- of nouns
- concept models are nouns connected by verbs
- find good starting points
- start with more
- to move stuff around and experiment
- label everything
- the more active the verbs the better
- use plural nouns
- balance familiar and unfamiliar
- use familiar to describe unfamiliar
- need a mix of both
- involve others
- collaborative, whiteboard approach
start with less
Q&A
- How early in the modeling process do you get user feedback?
- hard for users to understand underlying structures
- at prototyping stage
- Does this process mostly focus on UI? or is it also useful for a DB admin?
- tends to be object-oriented, but usually focused on user
- Does size of circle/distance matter?
- can be used to enhance, don’t need to be
- you define your own relationships, cues
- go digital sooner rather than later; screen share
- Is this something you could share with content owners to ask, “do I have this right”?
- yeah, that’s a great application
- How do you know when you’re done? Could go on forever
- when your deadline’s passed
- What are the disadvantages to using concept models?
- thinking about abstract ideas; if you’re presenting to people who don’t like thinking abstract, it’s not going to work
- it’s a planning tool, nothing more
- If you’ve already got a website that’s poorly organized, can it help you fix it?
- I have no idea what he said here
How do you engage clients?