Information Architecture Design
Information Architecture Design (IA) is the science of structuring content as it is applied to news websites or blogs, online stores, booking apps, downloadable software, etc. The goal of information architecture is to classify the content in a clear and understandable way and arrange it according to relations between the content pieces, allowing users to find what they need with less effort. Not applied solely when creating a product from scratch, IA is used in redesign.
Information design and information architecture are key components in the design of user experiences.
In rapidly changing and complex environments, organizations must focus on the user experience of their digital products, services, and solutions. A compelling experience increases customer loyalty, brand value, and productivity. It creates experiential value for people and economic value for organizations.
We logically organize the knowledge and goals of your organization into a roadmap for refining or creating successful solutions to meet those goals. The process analyzes the goals of the company, identifies current and future audiences, defines functional components and content, and finally unifies the information around a consistent design.
Users
Who they are, what their information-seeking behaviors and needs are
- Contextual Inquiry
- Personas
- Ethnography
- Task Analysis
- Usability Testing
- Articulating User Needs
- Documenting UX Requirements
Content
Volume, formats, metadata, structure, organization
- Indexing & Cataloging
- XML & Metadata
- Thesaurus Development
- Site Architecture
- Writing
- Content Management
- Navigation & Labeling
Context
Business model, business value, politics, culture, resources and resource constraints
- Defining Business Needs
- Project Management
- Project Scope an Definition
- Business Analysis
- Systems Analysis
- ROI Calculation
- Technical Constraints
The Five Steps Of Information Architecture Design
Conduct customer research
The aim of this stage is to learn about a user’s needs. You must work with a customer profile and the results of customer and stakeholder interviews. The data revealed at this stage will allow you create a user persona profile, list business requirements, and get an idea of what a user wants. Because these tasks belong to a UX designer or business analyst, you need the results of their activities.
Update and review the content
When you know what a user wants, you can update the content of an existing website and list it. The main activities to perform at this stage are content inventory and content audit. Let’s look at them.
Apply card sorting for content classification
All types of content must be classified and have proper names that won’t confuse a user. You need a taxonomy to do it.Taxonomy is another word for classification. In the case of IA, it’s an attempt to group different unstructured pieces of information and give them descriptions.
Build a website hierarchy for user-friendly navigation
Every website or an app needs a solid navigation system that helps a user find what they need. As soon as you have the results of card sorting activities, you will understand how to embody and classify the content in reality. This step embraces navigation design, labeling, and site mapping. Let’s define them one by one.
Create a UI prototype for future development
Although a sitemap is the first prototype in information architecture development, you still have to create advanced prototypes by wireframing and data modeling.