Design Your Information Architecture
Type "information architecture" into a search engine and you're likely to come up with some mind-bendingly abstract definitions.
These would include "the art and science of expressing a model or concept of information used in activities that require explicit details of complex systems." (Thank you, Wikipedia.)
Of course, if you're not an information architect, that's probably overkill.
So just think of it this way: Your website's information architecture (IA) is, essentially, its structure.
It's the way you organize and present your site's content so your audience can find what they're looking for easily and intuitively.
And so you can direct your audience to take action you want—like making a purchase.
What Makes a Good Structure?
Much like well-designed buildings, effective IAs can be identified by their usability, elegant design and simplicity.
Poor IAs are like rambling, ramshackle houses—too many places where you turn a corner and end up getting stuck in a closet.
Over time, sites can become awkward and hard to navigate because the organizational structure hasn't been clearly defined.
When you start with a well designed IA, you're able to guide your audience through your site seamlessly.
Why is that important?
Think about this: Research shows that many online purchases fail not because users decide against a purchase, but because they can't find what they're looking for.
A well-organized IA will help—and making things easier for users brings them a big step closer to becoming customers.
Now that you understand the importance of IA, you're ready to design or redesign one for your site.
Step One: Consider Your Needs (and Users)
Like any good architect, you need to survey your landscape before starting to design.
In doing so, you should consider these elements:
- Structural consistency. All sections and subsections of your site should be of relatively equal volume. You don't want one section that's enormous relative to the rest; neither do you want a subsection to break into 12 different sub-subsections.
- Navigational logic. One level should lead logically to another.
- Scalability. You need to plan how your site will handle growing amounts of content—and traffic.
- Intuitiveness. Your audience should be able to find their way through your site without getting lost along the way.
- Personalization. Can your website be personalized for individual customers?
- Customization. Can users specify how they'd like your site to look and function?
- Dynamic content. Will content change depending on a user's activities, such as their keystrokes and mouse movement?
Step Two: Create a Site Map
To create an IA you'll need to create a complete site map, listing navigation and main content buckets. For example, something like this:
- Home
- Products
- Product One
- About Us
- Contact Us
You'll also need a content map that shows what each page contains, and how the content within interacts with other pages. For example:
- Home (Welcome Message, Latest News, Links to Products)
- Products (Special Offers, Links to Products)
- Produce One (Name, Benefits, Features, Price)
- About Us (Mandate, History)
- Contact Us (Address, Hours of Operation)
These maps will be references to your content inventory—a complete list of everything on your website, including text, images and multimedia—that you should also be compiling.
In creating your site map, consider using a card-sorting exercise.
For the IA-uninitiated, this is a low-tech activity that helps quantify how users think about the content of your site.
Label index cards with the name of content or functionality. Give these to test users and have them sort the cards into groups that make sense to them.
This will guide you in structuring your site's navigation.
Step Three: Create a Wireframe (and Maybe Some Flowcharts)
Once you design your site's navigational map and the contents within each page, you need to rough out how each page will look.
This usually involves creating wireframes, which are low-fidelity blueprints that guide site design.
For example, if your home page had a header, a navigation menu, a footer and a welcome message, you could draw boxes for each of these elements.
You could then provide such blueprints to designers and developers, who can use them to build your website and make it pretty.
You might also find it useful to define the flows for how users interact with your site.
For example:
- User clicks search marketing ad
- User visits landing page
- User submits contact information
- User receives special offer email
- User clicks email link to product page
- User clicks purchase button
- User completes purchase
By considering your various flows, you'll design better pages, identify potential barriers and create way better content.
Step Four: Fix the Friction
Once you set up your site—with a cohesive and organized IA—conducting usability tests will help you see how your audience interacts with it.
In usability testing, you give testers—people who represent your typical audience—tasks to perform on the site. Then observe how easily they can complete them.
This kind of testing can highlight areas of friction, as well as suggest potential enhancements. Plus, you get feedback from the very people you're trying to communicate with in the first place.
During your site assessment, you may find a number of organizational issues that can cause friction for visitors.
By addressing these problems through a more cohesive, user-friendly structure, you can eliminate friction, making it easier for your audience to find needed information.
For example, let's say you have a site that has downloadable forms and brochures. If you group all these forms in a single, centralized location, users can find them easily. You're meeting their needs while communicating important information.
Everyone wins.
Think of IA as the foundation of your house. You don't notice it unless it's not functioning properly.
And users don't usually notice information architecture—unless it's badly done.
A well designed IA is virtually invisible—but allows users to be completely engaged with whatever information you're communicating.
What's Next?
Now that you've thought about your information architecture, it's time to establish a style for your content.
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