EM3 iOn weaves a useful Web

Many content-rich Web sites frustrate visitors because they are difficult to use. Why? Because the content is provided by different people who have few processes to ensure information is created, organized, and presented consistently. This paper discusses the need for presenting and organizing Web site content consistently and how the content management software EM3 iOn™ meets this need through its best practices Web publishing approach – a template-driven architecture and a unique information object model.

Inconsistency is the problem

Seeking information or completing transactions on the Web must meet audience expectations for consistency. This is the most important factor in a successful user experience. Expectations for consistency on the Web carry over from experiences in the physical world. For instance, if you visit a library, you know how to find things. There are catalogs (card or computer) and many shelves of books labeled with letters and numbers. You know that you can use the catalog to find an item's unique identifier and locate the identifier on the appropriate shelf to find the material you seek. You also know that adjacent to it you can browse for similar material. Libraries vary in size and arrangement and may use different indexing schemes, but because the system is consistent you can successfully locate information in any library around the world.

Consistency does not require homogenized categorizations. For example, fast food restaurants organize their menus by classifications: hot/cold, breakfast/dinner, healthy/value, etc. These classifications are not the same in all fast food restaurants because the exact classifications each one uses are pertinent to its food and marketability. Even on your first visit to a new restaurant you are able to easily order the food you want. This system is useful because of the consistency, not in the detail (the type of food or its specific categorization) but in the use of categories to help you make your selections or "navigate" the restaurant's offerings.

Back to the Web: sites that are difficult to navigate are not so only because they have colors that clash or things that blink or use different terminology than similar Web sites. Unusable Web sites are self-inconsistent. Poor design simply makes things worse.

When people first visit a Web site, they experience the site's presentation and navigation metaphors, or "what's on the menu" and how information is classified and arranged. From the first few clicks, visitors learn how the site is organized (i.e., how information is presented). While fewer, simpler metaphors make a site easier to use, inconsistent metaphors make a site confusing. Displaying one press release, for example, in large text with site navigation on the top and another press release in small text with navigation on the left is inconsistent in presentation. Another common inconsistency concerns a site's information architecture: a top level page for Product A displays a product overview and contains links to the latest press releases, features, and product reviews; a top level page for Product B displays the actual contents of a press release and links to technical support information. Such disparities are common when different departments publish content. Unfortunately, visitors who are trying to understand the company's product line are confused by the different organization of the two pages.

These examples are not meant to suggest that every page needs to display the same navigation or have the same color scheme and text style. However, similar types of information should be treated similarly throughout the site. Like navigation should lead to like content. Consistency in presentation and information architecture is the most important way to ensure that a Web site serves its purpose as a useful communication vehicle.

Do content management systems help?

While some companies add more staff to their Web teams in an attempt to manually solve the problems discussed in this paper, others are looking to content management (CM) systems as a solution. Many CM systems help maintain the processes (i.e., workflow tools) with which content is published on a Web site. This alone does not solve the problem of inconsistency. It merely puts a mechanism in place to ensure organizational or design experts review content for consistency before it goes live on the Web site. While workflow tools help, humans must still make judgment calls on a case-by-case basis, thus not eliminating the need for additional staff.

Some CM systems use design templates to ensure that information is dynamically generated and presented consistently from a look-and-feel standpoint, so companies do not necessarily need to retain design staff for this review process. However, templates do not solve problems in information architecture consistency, which is the most important factor in site usability. With most CM systems available, these problems require companies to employ library science-type resources to architect site content.

EM3 iOn™ (information object network) was designed to address both inconsistency problems without the need for companies to staff design and information architecture resources. Presentation inconsistencies are addressed through the use of design templates, and organizational inconsistencies are addressed through the use of a unique Information Object Model. EM3 iOn was not designed as a development platform where Web programmers use an API (application programming interface) to build and place any type of content anywhere within a site. EM3's information object model gives non-technical content providers a best practices framework to use for building and maintaining large-scale, robust Web sites. Rather than provide a "blank canvas" on which to paint, EM3 iOn provides a "fill-in-the-outlines" approach.

Design templates

The design templates within EM3 iOn reflect a company's identity – the colors, type, and layout. The templates define the areas of a page that will contain certain types of information – primary navigation, context information, links to documents, etc. The templates do not contain any informational content themselves – the information stored within iOn's database populates the templates dynamically to form pages as they are requested from site visitors. Consequently, when there is a need to change the look and feel for a site, a template change can be made, and all pages that use the template will be updated. Companies no longer need to edit every page on a Web site to affect global changes.

Templates do not imply restrictions on creativity for a site design. They simply enforce a set of rules for information display. iOn's templates use industry standard XSLT (extensible style language transformation), which is essentially well-formed HTML with some XSLT markup language to define the information fields. So what can be accomplished in HTML design can be accommodated in XSL templates. Within EM3 iOn, many templates can be used to provide for display of different types of information while still providing consistency.

The Information Object Model

Within EM3 iOn, Web sites are composed of a hierarchy of "context" pages. These pages provide contextual information and act as indices for more detailed information. Context pages set visitors' expectations and help them browse through a site. In fact, primary site navigation is composed of links to context pages, which serve as the skeleton for the site. Informational consistency is maintained because site visitors browse using primary navigation and are always presented with contextual information, not detailed information.

Detailed information is contained within objects, such as press releases, datasheets, white papers, survey forms, advertisements, or items for sale. Objects are not necessarily components of Web pages, nor are they necessarily stand-alone Web pages. Rather, objects are indivisible pieces of information. While a press release may have several parts – title, date, location, and several paragraphs of text – the whole press release (its data and metadata) is the thing that communicates useful information and is considered one object.

Within EM3 iOn, objects are dynamically referenced on one or more context pages. In fact, the same object can be referenced on different context pages on different sites – all managed with iOn. The same object will display appropriately on all sites even if the sites use different design templates – maintaining consistency in presentation.

EM3 iOn helps companies solve a common problem: serving multiple audiences (customers, employees, partners, investors, and media) through the Web. The practical solution has been for companies to create separate sites, each organizing content and presenting messages targeted toward a particular audience. The pitfall of doing this is the duplication of effort in maintaining all of these Web sites. The advantage with iOn and its shared object model is that content need not be duplicated to serve different audiences. Time and effort are saved because the content can be administered from a single location once, and any changes will be reflected to all sites and context pages.

This content re-use or "repurposing" is especially valuable as a site grows. A company in a rush to get a Web site live will use EM3 iOn to create context pages and objects and distribute the objects that seem relevant throughout various areas of the site. However, as the site evolves, additional areas can easily be added to the site, pulling from the pool of objects already managed within iOn – the objects can be aggregated in an infinite number of combinations. For example, a business starts to offer a new solution in the finance industry. The company's current products apply to this new solution area, so it's a simple matter of associating existing objects in a new contextual framework to build the new solution area of the site. With iOn, this can be done in minutes instead of days or weeks.

While there are many challenges in serving different audiences through multiple, content-rich Web sites, EM3 iOn dramatically helps by enforcing consistency in presentation and information structure.

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About EM3:
Group EM3 Inc. (EM3), founded in 1993, provides enterprise Web content management software that is designed to maximize business productivity and ensure timely distribution of information. Incorporating the best practices in online information management, its flagship product, iOn™ (information object network) is designed for use by business communicators. EM3 is located in San Jose, Calif. For more information, visit www.em3.com.