Let’s talk about website requirements.
Your website must meet the needs of people who are viewing the website with different electronic devices such as, desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones.
Your website must have useful search features to help users find the information they need. Users must be able to sort and filter information as they go through with their search online.
If your product line is complex, personalization is useful. Based on a user role or profile, you can limit the information presented to them automatically.
To fulfill these three requirements, you need intelligent information.
Separate content and formatting
The best practice for accommodating multiple screen sizes is to separate content and formatting. You will deliver content and a series of formatting options for different screen sizes. When a user requests for information, information formatting is determined by the features of the requesting device and browser. For websites, this is known as responsive design.
In HTML, you can choose to embed or separate content and formatting. Consider this simple example of embedded formatting:
A better approach is to take the formatting out of the HTML content:
<p>This is an example without formatting.</p>
You then create a CSS file with the required formatting:
.p {font-size: 14px}
Because content and formatting are now separate, you can use different CSS files for different browsers, or use conditional statements in the CSS file to allow for different formatting. Similarly, when you write content, it should use tags that specify meaning, not formatting:
<title>This is the title</title>
<abstract>Here is a topic overview</abstract>
<p>This the first paragraph.</p>
A key feature of intelligent information: automated formatting based on tags.
Metadata for search
Metadata classifies information into groups. The website search can then allow users to specify which information groups they want to see. In the simple example below, users can specify location, age, and quantity to limit the product types on display.
In the source content, that metadata is included for each product:
<product location = “zoo” quantity=”1”>….
<product location = “pond backyard” age=”duckling”>….
The website code can then use the product metadata to determine which information is displayed for each combination of checkboxes.
Metadata for personalization
For personalization, you set up metadata using the same way as the preceding example. However, instead of asking the user to select settings, you use information that you already have about the user to determine what information is displayed. For example, if you have a buyer’s profile and know that a customer is feeding hundreds of ducklings, you can personalize the information that is shown to that customer.
A key feature of intelligent information: metadata.
Metadata and automated formatting are two characteristics of Intelligent Information.
- Why is Intelligent Information Important? - 19 May 2017
