Information architecture is the most critical component of your site, yet it’s often overlooked. When done correctly, it enables users to navigate logically through a site, confidently find the information they seek, and accomplish their goals. Without defining a website's structure, hierarchy, and navigation, you cannot ensure a consistent user-experience, and run the risk of frustrating visitors, and ultimately, losing them for good.

1. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Getting Your Blueprints In Order

2. Agenda
 Defining User Experience
 Defining Information Architecture (IA)
 Breaking Down the Concepts of Information Architecture
 How Does IA Fit into the Project Lifecycle
 Strategy and Tactics
 Wireframe to Design Examples
 Why IA Matters

3. What is User Experience?
The term used to describe the
overall experience and
satisfaction a user has when
using a product or system.
It most commonly refers to a
combination of software and
business topics, such as selling
over the web, but it applies to
any result of interaction design.*
*Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience

4. Elements of User Experience
*Jesse James Garrett http://www.jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf

5. What is Information Architecture?
Information Architecture Culture, Business Goals, Technology,
(IA) is the art of Resources
expressing a model or Context
concept of information
used in activities that IA
Content Users
require explicit details of
complex systems.
Information being read, Tasks, Behaviors,
data, documents, Audience, Looking to
knowledge accomplish goals
*Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_architecture

6. User Experience
Usability Engineer
Graphic Designer
Information Architect
Interaction Designer

7. Richard Saul Wurman coined the term in
“information architecture”
in 1997

8. Let’s take a Deeper Dive

9. Breaking Down the Concepts of
Information Architecture
1 Information
2 Structuring, Organizing, and Labeling
3 Finding and Managing
4 Art and Science

10. Information
is Data
and
Knowledge

11. How
would you
Structure,
Organize and
Label all of these
products from scratch?

12. Your Users Are….
browse.
search.
ask
questions.
Can they find your data?

13. Managing
these
solutions
entails
finding a
balance
between the
user and the
business
needs

14. Little Bit of Art Little Bit of Science
 Experience  User Needs
 Intuition  Patterns of Behavior
 Creativity  Scientific Analysis

15. Succinctly…

16. Information Architects could almost be called
“Digital Librarians”

17. Where Does IA Fit into
the Project Lifecycle?

18. Typical Project Process
Discovery Design Build Test Launch

19. Optimized Project Lifecycle

20. Optimized Project Lifecycle

21. Strategy and Tactics

22.  Audience Research
Strategy
 Audience Personas Users
 Content Audit / Analysis
 Classification Schemes
 Labeling
 Card sorting
 Affinity Diagrams
Business
 Data Flow Diagrams
 Beta Sitemap
 Content Maps
 Low-Fi Wireframes  Hi-Fi Wireframes
 Navigation Optimization Technical
 Wireframe Testing Requirements
Tactics

23. Audience Research and Personas
 Conduct interviews
with your users
 Online user testing
 Audience surveys
 Record each session
with audio and or
video.
 Watch, list, and
interact
 Formulate personas
based off of your
research

24. Content Audit and Analysis
 Is there an existing website? Is there a current sitemap
that illustrates the number of pages per domain?
 Need to understand the existing content and data
types in order to optimize the hierarchy
 Target the content types instead of generalities

25. Content Audit and Analysis
 Create spreadsheet detailing the breakout of existing
pages
 Document Page Name, URL, Document Type, Topic of
Discussion and any additional Notes

26. Classification Schemes
How Will the Content Be
Organized?
 Alphabetical
 Audience
 Color
 Date
 Geographic
 Popularity
 Tag-Based
 Task
 Topic

27. Labeling
 Need clear and concise
words that differentiate
grouping from grouping
Where to look for input on
justified labeling conventions
 Ask individuals during user
research
 Information gathered from
card sorting exercises
 Review internal search
words
 Review referring keywords

28. Card sorting
 Task users with
grouping
information in a
fashion that makes
the most sense to
them
 2 different types of
card sorts: Open and
Closed
 Results are analyzed
and used as a guide
when creating the
website’s hierarchy

29. Affinity Diagrams
 Describes the system
from the users point of
view
 Captures the behavioral
requirements by detailing
the scenario driven
requests by each persona
 Useful for illustrating the
interaction between the
audience and the system
and/or website

30. Data Flow Diagrams
Graphical representation of
the “flow of data” through an
information system.
Data Flow diagrams can also
be used for the visualization
of data processing.*
*Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_flow_diagram

31. Beta Sitemap

32. Content Map

33. Low-Fi Wireframes

34. High-Fi Wireframes

35. Navigation Optimization
 Are your targeted keywords
present within the
architecture?
 Are there any words that
can be changed which will
not change the context of
the label?
 Must strike the balance
between optimizing for
search engines and
changing the meaning for
the user
Example: Instead of just “Articles”
what type of articles are they? Could
they be labeled “Cooking Articles.”

36. Wireframe Testing
 Moderated and
Unmoderated testing
 Users are assigned
tasks to complete
 “Blocks of content” are
clickable to other
wireframes
 Testing is recorded to
capture the subtleties
 All qualitative data

37. Wireframe to Design
Examples

44. Why Does Information
Architecture Matter?

45. Why Does Information
Architecture Matter?
consider this…

46. Do you know how many potential customers
leave your site due to frustration?

47. How much extra
time and money is
spent on customer
support because
your customers
can’t find the
information they
seek?

48. If customers can’t find what they’re
looking for, what does that say about
your brand?

49. Jakob Nielson states:
“ The cost of poor navigation and lack of
design standards is….at least ten million
dollars per year in lost employee
productivity for a company with 10,000
employees.
”

50. Continuing IA Education
Websites / Blogs
http://www.iainstitute.org
http://www.boxesandarrows.com
http://www.userglue.com/blog
http://maadmob.net/donna/blog/
http://blog.jjg.net/
http://semanticstudios.com/
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/
http://businessol.com/usability-blog

53. Thank you.
Questions.
Wrap Up.