[Sigia-l] card sorting to group links, but priority?

[Billie Mandel]

Eric asked: what techniques can we use to discover (and test?) the
optimum order of these links within their groups?

I'm working on an enterprise portal design project right now, and
thinking about some similar issues.  A method that I'm using now is to
get frequency/business impact from how often users call someone/submit
helpdesk tickets about that task.  I get this both qualitatively
(interviewing business process owners, aka the people who get called)
and quantitatively (from ticketing systems).  The interviews tell me
both frequency ("I get X thousand calls/month on this task) and
relevance to the business (this is a critical task that has X business
impact). 

I'm cross-referencing this data with search log analysis - what are the
tasks that people most need to do on the company portal, and what do
they desperately need that they can't find?  The most frequently needed
- and the ones most critical to the business - get higher placement.

Also, some of the tasks in my new task-based nav lend themselves to
sequential, step-by-step link ordering (i.e. "Hiring a consultant."
First fill out _form X_ and give to recruiter.  Second, interview
candidates according to _company policy_.  Third, _get a purchase req_
etc.)

After I deploy the new portal, I plan to test the order with some guided
contextual inquiry, watching specific users do a specific set of tasks,
seeing if/whether they get hung up. 

- Billie 
IA in BA-landia


**********
Billie Mandel
Information Architect
Openwave Systems Inc
billie.mandel at openwave.com