WebDesign & Review * Features_ * Creating An Information Model / If an Information Model is clearly defined and firmly established, users will be on a fast track finding and retrieving the information they need. As you plan what to include under content management and what to exclude, you must consider a wide range of dimensions through which you will categorize and label your information. Some of the dimensions will be specific to the needs of information authors. Others will meet the requirements of your products and services. Still others will explicitly meet the needs of internal and external users of information. As you design your Information Model, consider how large an information body it must encompass. Some Information Models are very small, specific, and limited in scope. Others stretch across entire organizations, encompassing thousands or millions of pages. In the next section, you start with a small, personal Information Model. In subsequent sections, you consider larger, more complex models for larger bodies of information. The three-tiered structure of an Information Model The Information Model you build will have a three-tiered structure. At base, the first tier of the Information Model consists of the dimensions that identify how your information will be categorized and labeled for both internal and external use in your organization. The second tier sorts your information assets into information types. The third tier provides structure for each information type, outlining the content units that authors use to build information types. Figure 4-1 illustrates the three-tiered structure. In this chapter, you learn how to determine the basic dimensions of your Information Model. In Chapter 5, Developing Information Types and Content Units, you learn how to identify your information types. And, in Chapter 6, Using Content Units to Structure Information Types, you learn how to identify the content units that provide the internal structure for each information type. Figure 4-1: The three-tiered structure of an Information Model The dimensions you identify as the foundation of your Information Model become the attributes and values of the metadata you will use to label your modules of content in your repository. The information types will provide your authors with the basis for creating well-structured modules that represent a particular purpose in communicating information. The content units will describe the chunks of content that are used to construct each information type. In the next section, you will look at an extended example of the process one might use to begin the development of an Information Model. Throughout the core design Chapters 4, 5, and 6, I refer to this extended example to provide you with a model for developing the Information Model for your organization. Continues next page... Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery by JoAnn T. Hackos John Wiley & Sons About the author: JoAnn Hackos, PhD, is President of Comtech Services, a content-management and information-design firm based in Denver, which she founded in 1978. In her new book, "Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery," Dr. Hackos explains the content-management strategy that she developed for companies such as Nortel, Motorola, Cisco, and others and walks readers through the stages of effective Web content management. She can be reached at joann.hackos@comtech-serv.com. For more information about her new book, visit http://www.comtech-serv.com The Design & Publishing Center _/_ WebDesign & Review Comments and critiques are the opinions of the individual posters, and NOT that of Web Design & Review, unless otherwise stated. You are invited to SUBMIT your site for inclusion here. Please post your reactions to our online Site Review Form Or send your comments and impressions to: LETTERS at graphic-design.com Please put "REVIEW" and the name of the reviewed site in the SUBJECT line of the email, or the "Title" line of the review form. Your comments may be published, but your name and/or email address will NOT be published to anyone. This is the Web Design & Review web site at: http://www.WebDesign-Review.com/ Copyright 2001, 2002 WebDesign & Review, all rights reserved.