This unit was a core second year unit in the Information Management major of course 3334 Bachelor of Information Technology and Systems (BITS). The unit provides practical and theoretical tools through which to manage effective systems for information organisation and retrieval in the web environment.

Sunway was added as a location of offering following the noting of a new general BITS at the Sunway campus in 2010.

The unit has strong similarities in purpose and content to the new unit FIT2080, introduced with the Enterprise Information Management major as a result of the 2009/2010 review. It has been kept separate from FIT2080, retaining its name and code because Sunway campus wishes to offer FIT2055 in its present form as part of a minor sequence in multimedia website development. This would mean a narrower focus than would be suitable for FIT2080.

30/11/2017 - Unit disestablished at FEC 5/17 Item 7.3.

In its comments on the BITS during the 2009 faculty review, the review panel recommended that the course should include a stronger emphasis on the importance of information architecture to the management of information in organizations. This unit provides practical and theoretical tools through which to manage effective systems for information organisation and retrieval in the web environment.

All graduates studying information management need to understand the specific requirements for information organisation and retrieval that arise in a web environment.

At the completion of this unit students will have -

A knowledge and understanding of:

• the principles and practice of the emergent field of web content management;
• the relative roles and responsibilities of webmasters and other professionals in a web or intranet development project;
• user information needs and information seeking behaviours within the web environment.
• information retrieval principles (eg precision, recall, relevance, specificity) and their application in the web environment;
• issues and challenges in organising information for effective retrieval on web sites and intranets;
• organisation systems, schemes and structures for web/ intranet content management, and how these organisation systems are represented in the key components of web information architecture;
• the application of information design and usability principles to labelling, navigation and search functions on a web site or intranet;
• commonalities and differences in information architectures in public web, intranet and extranet environments;
• phases and processes in planning and implementing a web content management project or program;
• Tools, techniques, and software that are commonly used for web content management.

Developed attitudes that enable them to appreciate:

• the range of specialist expertise amongst professionals involved in a web site/ intranet development project, and the importance of effective communication and collaboration amongst these groups;
• the centrality of the user in defining an information architecture for a web site or intranet and the difficulties users experience in finding relevant information on the web;
• that business imperatives and user requirements are the key drivers of web content management, but that reconciling the two may be no easy task;
• that findability is a critical factor in determining web usability, and the role effective organisation systems play in this process;
• that effective organisation systems tend to be largely invisible to web or intranet users.
• their own growing confidence in their information retrieval skills.

Developed skills in:

• conducting a business requirements analysis and a user needs analysis, in connection with developing an information architecture for a web site or intranet;
• developing an effective information architecture for a web site or intranet, taking into consideration unique business and user information requirements, and information retrieval, information design and usability principles and guidelines;
• constructing a taxonomy; applying facet analysis to thesaurus construction; and designing a metadata schema for a web site or intranet;
• planning, designing, documenting, testing and evaluating labelling, navigation and search systems for a web site or intranet;
• utilising a range of tools and techniques (eg blueprints, wireframes, card sorting, affinity diagrams, content maps, personas), and software in the process of developing the information architecture for a web site or intranet;
• undertaking usability/findability testing of users using prototypes and a range of evaluation techniques and interpreting findings;
• evaluating information architectures, and software products for web content management.

091301

This unit covers principles and practice of the emergent field of web content management. It focuses on developing organisation systems for websites or intranets that are responsive to business imperatives and user needs, and that facilitate effective retrieval of information. Particular emphasis is given to developing practical skills in these areas and to applying a range of popular tools, techniques, software commonly used for web content management.

On-campus

Examination (3 hours): 50%; In-semester assessment: 50%

Minimum total expected workload equals 12 hours per week comprising:

(a.) Contact hours for on-campus students:

(b.) Additional requirements (all students):

Studio room required

FIT