2.3.4 Findability

"Findability Precedes Usability

In the alphabet and on the Web

You can’t use what you can’t find"

(Morville, P. (2005). Ambient Findability. p.111)

Findability is the art and science of making content findable. The science is library science; the art is language arts and the user interface design. (The Association for Enterprise and Content Management. (2008). Findability: The Art and Science of Making Content Easy to Find.)

Findability is more or less understood by businesses and too often confused as search.

How well is findability understood in your organization?

Findability is not only about making research but also on how to make information findable.

Most of businesses agree on this point: Findability is critical in Organization’s Business Goals and Success (62%).

How critical is findability to your Organization's Business Goals and Success?

However as a study on findability shows (Cf. The Association for Enterprise and Content Management. (2008). Findability: The Art and Science of Making Content Easy to Find.) and as we will see later in Chapter 3 findability is not well defined and implemented within companies and this is mainly due to a management failure.

As Peter Morville describes it in his book "Ambient Findability" (Morville, P. (2005). Ambient Findability. p.111) Findability is defying classification. It flows across the borders between design, engineering, and marketing. Everybody is responsible, and so we run the risk that nobody is accountable.

Findability is the matter of everyone within a company for example when designing the company website you have different actors: designers, engineers, information architects, brand architects, marketing department.

Another example is the one of a secretary or an archiver when storing documents. He or she have to think about how to make those materials easy to find for everyone (by choosing the right metadata, the right technology) this include a

collaboration with all departments within a company. If not those contents are not findable and lost in a certain way.

The solutions given by the Peter Morville are two: cultivate cross-functional collaboration and on an individual level to learn how to be pro efficient and to go beyond the job responsibility.