Information Architecture

Information Architecture (IA) as a practise broadly speaking encompasses two disciplines:

1. Definition of pages required including:

Gathering business requirements
Gathering user requirements
Dividing pages into logical groups
Defining how these pages are linked to – the 'site navigation'
Creation of a 'site map'
Labelling of navigational and other site wide elements.

and

2. Page layout (wire-framing), including:

Positioning of navigation, content, and other elements of page furniture
Definition of function of interactive page elements
Creation of page templates

IA in UX design

IA is perhaps the very nub of user centered design. It is where everything begins.

The IA is the skeleton or the frame on to which the visual design, the functionality, and content, are hung.

In a UX design project it is beneficial to put together into a single work package the requirements gathering and the information architecture.

In this way all subsequent work packages flow from the IA, as the IA is the expression of the project requirements in concrete form.

Gathering business requirements

The first stage of requirements gathering is to aggregate the business requirements.

This should involve representatives of all stakeholders within the business, not just senior management or sales, but any part of the business that will be affected by the website, which could include those responsible for maintaining the website including content writers, human resources – in fact any department.

The output of this first stage should be a statement of aims and objectives the proposed website should seek to fulfill.

Gathering user requirements

At such an early stage in design it is perhaps counter-intuitive to gathering an evaluating user requirements.

However, one set of users is already present. The various stakeholders in the business are also users of the website – it is a mistake to presume that it is only customers who are users.

Additionally people in the business already possess vital knowledge about customers.

Workshops utilising card sorting or other techniques can be employed to shape the eventual IA.

Stakeholders should also be called upon to input into the creation of 'personas' (fictional, archetypal customers/users).

User journeys

An important aspect of IA design is to map the types of journeys various users would have to go on to arrive at designated end points, such as buying a product or service from the website.

By using the personas developed in the requirements gathering, and role-playing with them key stages in a user's route are sequenced.

Included in these journey's should be documented key decision points which will inform where particular information is provided in the IA.

IA and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Effective IA design will consider how users will discover the goods or services a website is designed to sell or to provide.

Entering a search query is often one of the first stages in any user journey. An effective IA will provide pages that act as entry points for targeted searches.

Competitor analysis and benchmarking

One shortcut to both requirement gathering and to user data is to examine competitor websites (and where project appropriate competitor offline services)

A good approach to to examine the market broadly, and pick one key competitor to look at closely, and document:

Services provided by competitors
Classes of information provided by competitors – E.g., help pages, contact pages
Product/service classes – E.g., how do your competitors delineate and present their offerings?

Site analytics

An advanced site analytics program such as Adobe SiteCatalyst is a major asset to any UX design project. Even a more basic program such as Google Analytics is very valuable. (Obviously this does not apply if you do not have an existing website).

Statistical analysis of actual user behaviour and data of the search phrases and referrers to your website provide valuable pointers on user journeys and their key decision points.

The search phrase and referrer data are important too to key words/phrases employed by users.

It is vital to compare site analytics data to competitor analysis, as omission of any element present in competitor analysis in site analytics is an indicator of missing elements in the current site.

Labelling and content planning

A common failing of websites is to label fundamentally crucial information, such as the naming of pages and navigation elements, in ways that make sense to the business but not to the user.

The user research in the requirement gathering stage should seek to identify not only how users perceive the goods/services being offered, but the names that they give them. You can have the greatest website in the world selling 'red widgets', but if the public commonly call them 'pink widgets' your website may not perform as well as it could.

Labelling core elements in a way that is instantly understood, and also ideally reflecting common targeted search queries,is a key output of IA work.

Another common failure is for websites to present information in a way that mirrors the internal structure of the business. This can often lead to information about a topic that is perceived by users to be of a whole to be separated out into different pages, each providing users will only a partial view.

It is important that they IA reflects users perceptions rather than the businesses insider perspective. Correctly identifying the classes and discreet groupings of information the user requires will feed directly into the content plan for the website.

Allocation of function & cost/benefit analysis

One consequence of thorough preparation and detailed analysis that taking a UX design approach can be that a very large number of requirements are defined.

This is not problematic if a stage for rapidly refining these requirements is out in plan early.

'Allocation of function' is a technique for assigning requirements to the user or to the system. For example work with personas commonly produces requirements such as:

The user needs to be able to search for object x.

This can be interpreted as the website will require a search engine. Conversely an opposite interpretation is that this task can be allocated to the user. This means the user will use a pre-existing search engine.

It is quite valid to assign the fulfillment of user requirements to external agencies. This approach can save a lot of time, effort and money.

A cost/benefit analysis allows the most important requirements to be prioritised, as well as those less important requirements that can reasonably be delivered at low cost but still add value.

Requirements that require significant effort for marginal return are de-prioritised, or discounted completely.

Page layouts and wireframes

A vital output of IA is create wireframes of page layouts, and often working prototypes using programs such as Axure.

It is, however, a mistake, to confuse these outputs – wireframes, prototypes – as being the entirety of information architecture practice.

The IA practitioner can perform their duties on the back of a proverbial fag packet.

Wireframes can hand-drawn or created in a Word doc. The site map can be represented in a spreadsheet or a Visio diagram.

Programs like Axure do have some advantages: quick generation of working prototypes for example. But it is not necessary to be wedded to them. Sometimes a sketch on a piece of scrap paper is the most effective solution.

1:1 usability testing

Wireframes, prototypes and site maps should be tested with users as early in the IA design process as possible, and should be repeated at frequent intervals: basically whenever significant changes are made.

Laboratory testing is very useful, but it is also typically expensive and time consuming.

Informal testing with colleagues or friends, or strangers just pulled in off the street, can be equally as effective.

What IA is not

IA is quite separate from graphic design. For example IA will not necessarily decide what colours the buttons are, or which font faces are employed.

IA is not the same as coding and web development. IA does not even require that the practitioner know HTML or any other web technologies – though it is very advantageous if they do.