Feature Article

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Information Architecture for My Office

By Amber Swope

As an information architect, I evaluate content, analyze its purpose, categorize it, and determine the proper storage and retrieval for it. This is all well and good for my professional life, but I realized I had perhaps taken it too far when I applied information architecture (IA) to my personal life. Granted, I have a long, rewarding relationship with spreadsheets, like the one I used when to help ease the transition when I moved ... or the one I used to organize my wedding ... or the one I used to plan the holiday brunch — you get the picture.  But I think I have reached a new high (or, perhaps a low?) with my recent use of IA to guide my office reorganization.

This realization dawned on me when I admitted to a fellow information architect that I had created a task analysis, made an item inventory, analyzed item location and use, and tracked every item in my office with a spreadsheet. They looked at me strangely, as if this wasn’t normal behavior. Upon further consideration, I acknowledge that I may not have needed to create the task model, but the analysis and item inventory/tracking are completely valid organizational techniques. I simply took the advice that any professional organizer will tell you and codified it using the means at my disposal. Thus, I managed to optimize the storage and retrieval of items, refocus my attention on my primary tasks and basically remove a significant amount of junk from my office.

For those not completely horrified by my ability to over-analyze or those who just can’t look away, here is the process I used.

1. Task Analysis
I started with my task analysis, which I modeled using IBM’s Task Modeler.  I modeled my regularly-performed tasks and identified the items that I used to perform them using the note feature. The following image shows one of my tasks:

Although I knew that I would need my computer, monitor, etc. to complete most of my tasks, I still included them in the spreadsheet to make sure that my list was complete. I then normalized the item notes to see what items were used most frequently.  If I’d had the time and was properly motivated, I might have created a hierarchical taxonomy of the items, but even I realized that was going too far.

2. Item Inventory
To get a handle on the challenge in front of me, I created a complete item inventory of everything currently in my office.  I used Microsoft Excel and created a spreadsheet with the following columns:

• Item: name
• Frequency (of use): periodically/daily/weekly/monthly/none
• Use: personal/work/both
• Room (current): room where item currently resides
• Location (current): location in room
• Issue: problem with current situation
• New Room: room where item should be
• New Location: location in room
• Storage: storage solutions for items
• Dependency: what needs to happen for item move

I started by filling in the first seven columns and was stunned at the amount of stuff I have crammed into my 9’x15’ office. My initial list had over 50 items and it currently lists over 75 items.

Some items were difficult to label. For example, are the dog beds ‘professional’ or ‘personal’ or ‘both’? I opted for ‘both’ because I find that petting the dogs during stressful conference calls is a key success strategy. I applied the same value to the clock, because I actually do track the time during non-working hours.

3. Item Analysis
The first thing I noticed was that a lot of the items in my office were not used in my daily work and I started to look for more appropriate places to store these items. Some items, like the recipes and cookbooks, were obvious issues, but because I live in an old bungalow with small rooms, the obvious place didn’t have the necessary space. Instead of dumping them in my already crowded kitchen, I moved a storage unit into my dining room and am using it like a sideboard. (Eventually, I will create an electronic database of my recipes, but that’s another project.) Other items, such as my wardrobe with all my clothing, were just going to have to stay in my office until I can afford to completely renovate my house and build a decent sized bedroom, which means that they’ll probably be there forever.

Next, I looked at the items that were personal, such as bills and checkbook, and localized them all in one storage unit. For items that were rarely used, I moved them to other rooms, such the basement or attic. I considered this archiving and reserved it for items I need only once a year or less and I hope to use the spreadsheet to remember where I put them when I actually need to find them.

There was a category of items that really challenged me — those things that I had once found useful and that I may again need to use. The prime example of this was materials from training classes I had attended and that I knew I should reference. However, as I sorted through the project management course materials from 1996, I realized that if I didn’t already know this information and use as part of my daily life, I was never going to do so.  My solution was to recycle all the paper and that cleared 1.5 linear feet of paper from my storage unit. Same with periodicals that I kept to reference some day; apparently that day had come and gone without me remembering in which magazine the information I needed was written or that I even had it in my possession. Ditto for the writing samples from my first 6 jobs; they went out the door.

As I slogged through yet another file from a project 10 years ago, I had an epiphany: if I filed something away, unless I needed to use it on at least a monthly basis, I wouldn’t a) remember that it existed or b) remember where it was if I did remember it existed. This changed my entire perspective on what I could store in files in my storage units and led me to get rid of my ancient, over-stuffed filing cabinets. Instead, I moved archives to portable file boxes and have my “live” projects out where I can see them.

I went back to my task models and looked at the items that I used most often (those that I need to complete the tasks I perform most frequently) and quickly identified the items that had earned the right to be on my desk: computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, phone, pens, paper/notepad, glasses, clock, working folders, printer, stapler, lamp, To Do list, PostIT notes, and current project files. I added pictures and drink coasters to that list and concluded it was the ideal list for what should be on my desk.

4. Progress tracking
Because I can get distracted and forget where I am on this type of ongoing project, I colored coded the rows to track my progress:

• Green: item in correct place
• Yellow: item needed attention, but I may not yet know the correct location or there may be a dependency blocking my progress
• Orange: item needed immediate attention and I knew where it was to go

The following image shows the current state of my spreadsheet:

I’m feeling pretty good about my progress, but still need to address a few pesky yellow and orange items.

Summary

My office is still not the paragon of organization for which I strive, but I have made a lot progress — now I can see the surface of my desk — and I recycled about 6 linear feet of paper.  I can also find most of the things I need quickly. My desk is more organized. And, I have a nice, pretty spreadsheet to show off my insanity.

The following image is a picture of my desk after I completed this article.

(Yes, I do have a red Swingline stapler with which I will not part.)

Major disclaimer: this picture is a snapshot in time; I have not yet figured out how to get a spreadsheet to actually keep my desk clean for me yet.

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