Information Architecture
As more and more organisations build websites they are becoming aware that it is no longer sufficient just to have an online presence. The questions which are now arising are:
- Are we effectively servicing the needs of our customers?
- Is the website working towards our overall business objectives?
- How can we ensure that we maximise Return On Investment from this project?
The process of Information Architecture can be utilised to develop a website that services both business objectives and user needs, leading to maximum benefit for both the organisation and site users.
Information Architecture (IA) can be broadly defined as the organisation and structure of information, content, functionality and usability of a website. It is an emerging discipline and draws on skills, themes and topics from many disciplines including web design, web development, library management, technical writing, statistics and in a more limited sense psychology and marketing management.
In defining IA our process is as follows:
- Meeting with project stakeholders, including senior management where appropriate, to accurately define website/project objectives.
- Preparation of research materials, including site prototypes and content audit when required.
- Conducting 1 on 1 or group workshops with a broad range of site users.
- Data analysis from workshops and website logs.
- Label testing processes.
- Preparation and presentation of deliverables.
User workshops typically run for 30-45 minutes and consist of discussion regarding the user's thoughts on the current site, improvements required, how and when they use the site, together with activities used to collect quantitative data for further analysis. This can include techniques such "card sorting" exercises, where users are asked to group cards representing pages/content of a site. The results of these are ultimately taken for statistical analysis, however much of the benefit comes from discussing the result with users and observing the process taking place.
Read on to find out more on Information Architecture deliverables ...
