An introduction to information architecture for

websites and intranetsHow we do it at Content Formula

Introduction

As the internet has matured site owners have aimed to refine the way they design and build websites and intranets

Whereas in the past they would dive in and start designing and developing without much thought, now they recognise that proper planning is essential in building a quality website or intranet

This more disciplined approach to building sites has led to the development of now tried and tested techniques

Gathered together, these planning and build techniques are often referred to as information architecture (or IA for short)

This deck aims to explain the fundamentals of IA and shows how we approach IA in our digital agency

What is information architecture?

The categorization of information into a coherent structure, preferably one that the most people can understand quickly, if not inherently.

The science of figuring out what you want your site to do and then constructing a blueprint before you dive in and put the thing together

The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities, and software to support findability and usability

Why is IA important to me?

If you have an existing website or intranet or are planning to build one, then IA is definitely something you should be thinking about

Applying IA principles to your site will, above all, help ensure that it delivers against its objectives and realise the vision

The discipline of an IA approach to your site forces you to think carefully about what you are trying to achieve with your website or intranet

Information architecture helps you build (or improve) your site with the end user as the core focus

IA will help you save money and time as you are more likely to get it right first time.

How do I apply IA principles to my site? More of an art than a science, IA is not a prescribed and agreed

process that is applied to all web projects in the same way

However, there are many common IA tools and techniques that can be used at various stages of a web or intranet project. They include: user interviews, task analysis, traffic analytics, card sorting, persona development, user journeys, to name but a few.

Digital agencies will have their own approaches and tools for information architecture and will adapt them depending on the project

It’s important to recognise that IA is not something that you use just for new sites. You can apply IA techniques to an existing site in order to improve it.

IA at Content Formula

We strongly believe that projects that are approached with an IA mindset will be more successful

We have in-house information architects who work on new build projects. They work with the client from the start of the project and use a framework to define a comprehensive information architecture for a site.

However, we don’t always have the luxury of getting involved with a site from the start. This is why all Content Formula staff, be they account managers, project managers, site editors, designers or developers, receive formal IA training.

As such we try and inject IA principles into all projects, however small

The following slides show the general approach that we use for IA when working on a new website or intranet build project. If working on an existing site we will pick and choose the IA tools and techniques as required

The Content Formula approach to IA

Research & definition Prototyping Implementation

context

content users

At Content Formula IA techniques and tools are used at all phases of the web or intranet project. It’s not just a planning process at the start. To do this, we use the above 3-step framework

Research & definition Prototyping Implementation

context

content users

The research & definition phaseThis is the most important phase of any web project. Having said that, it is the phase where most site owners will cut corners or worse, skip altogether. This is because they often assume that they already know everything there is to know about their business.

We divide our research & definition across three areas: context, content and users. We use a variety of tools and techniques in each area. These are discussed in the next few slides.

The lines between each of the three research areas can be a little fuzzy with lots of overlaps. If you are one of those people who prefers to put things in boxes, we would urge you not to worry too much about that!

Research & definition Prototyping Implementation

context

content users

Context (research & definition phase)It makes sense to start by looking at context - it is here that we examine your business objectives and strategy. From these we help you define your web objectives and site goals. We look at elements such as your overall business, your customers, your competitors, your web technology, web team resources and skills, success metrics, site governance and even company culture.

Research & definition Prototyping Implementation

context

content users

Content (research & definition phase)Nowadays, on most new build projects we are often replacing or upgrading an existing site. Whilst it’s tempting to start with a blank slate, it’s important to take a long hard look at the existing site to understand what worked and what didn’t. This provides a huge amount of information in terms of content, structure and web metrics. If we don’t have an existing site to work with, we will turn to alternative content sources like brochures, manuals or customer service training materials.

We use a variety of tools and techniques to analyse sites. Some of these are more scientific and quantitative like the site review toolkits that are used for scoring sites according to various criteria. Some techniques are less structured like content analysis. In this we study sample content in order to determine content types, define navigation structures and begin understanding the vocabulary that will go to make up the labels and categories of the site.

Research & definition Prototyping Implementation

context

content users

Users (research & definition phase)Understanding user needs lies at the heart of a successful project. Whilst we use online surveys to help us do this, one-to-one interviews with target users provide much richer insights. In these we aim to understand users’ motivations in coming to a site. We may also use card-sorting techniques to help define navigation and vocabulary. Other techniques for studying users include analysing web metrics and search logs.

There are two important outputs of this user analysis. The first, personas, are a fictional descriptions of target users. These personas are then used throughout the prototyping and implementation phases to aid decision making (for example, when prototyping we ask questions like “what would Nora Newbie want?”). The second output is a set of user journeys. Based on the premise that users come to a site with a specific objective or goal in mind, a user journey is a mapped out pathway that we want a user to take in order to achieve their goal.

Research & definition Prototyping Implementation

context

content users

The prototyping phaseReferring to the rich data and learnings that we’ve picked up from the research phase, we begin the prototyping phase. To help us do this we create simple mockups called wireframes. These are just line drawings of the site and can even be done on paper. They contain real content, the navigation and where necessary, we include metadata too.

We start by wireframing the main pages of the site and then test these with end users by walking them through the wireframes and asking them to carry out typical tasks. The amount of valuable feedback that is received when doing this user testing is always mindboggling. Even the most experienced wireframe designer overlooks aspects which users uncover when the prototype is placed in front of them. For example, your site’s wireframe may have a call to action button such as “click here to place an order” but testing might reveal that users just don’t see it. It can get more complex than this but it’s always surprising how users very often don’t get the most obvious things!

We repeat the prototyping-testing cycle until we are satisfied that users behave as we would want them to. We also prototype the deeper pages of the site so that nothing is left to chance. When this is done we move to the graphic design stage and perform similar testing there as well.

Research & definition Prototyping Implementation

context

content users

The implementation phaseSo, we’ve now got some beautiful designs, a navigation system and metadata that have been fully tested. We’ve got detailed wireframes with instructions and specifications for the developers. By this point, and due to all of the research and testing that we have done, we are feeling pretty confident about what we are about to build. And so we start building!

If the budgets and timelines allow, we like to perform additional testing here too. Website development is usually iterative and component based and so this works pretty well. For example, we might take a registration form that’s just been developed and ask some test users to try it out. There’s always much less actionable feedback at this point but there can be some surprises too.

About us

About Content Formula

Established 2005 Family business 14 staff £1m turnover (2009/10) 50% of revenue derived from intranet work Strategic focus on healthcare We differentiate ourselves by not only building but also

managing websites for our clients

Contact

Dan HawtreyManaging Director0207 381 6671dhawtrey(a)contentformula.comwww.contentformula.comwww.twitter.com/contentformulawww.facebook.com/contentformulahttp://uk.linkedin.com/in/danhawtrey