Information Architecture and Navigation
Welcome to the next lesson of UX design. In the previous article, we learn how to prioritize your features. What makes them important and how to actually add value to your product or features, link to the previous article.
In this article, you’re going to learn how to Define the field of Information Architecture and explain when its techniques are used in a product. Then, you are going to explore methods for organizing complex and diverse types of content.
What’s IA?
Information architecture (IA) is a field focused on organizing information inside the digital products. For example, whenever designers build applications and websites, each screen is laid up so that users can quickly locate the info they need. It also provides a flow that helps people move quickly between screens.
These are 4 ways you can explain how content should be structured to others.
1. User Flow — Use when: Trying to represent a specific journey through the goal of the app
2. Mind Map / Concept Map (A way of visualizing relationships between abstract ideas) — Use when: Trying to explain how people imagine the relationship between content. What’s their mental model of how everything relates?
3. Taxonomy (A hierarchical classification of content) — Use when: You’re trying to represent how content is hierarchically organized and interrelated
4. Sitemap (A way of organizing and structuring all the content that you have) — Use when: Documenting the hierarchical organization of content that is then reflected in the navigation
The Key Process of IA
The method below is designed to create IA for a digital product, but you can adapt it to the non-digital product.
1. Set business objectives
To establish IA creation objectives, you may ask yourself two questions: why do you want to do it, and what do you want to accomplish with it? Work with all stakeholders to decide this. You want to engage them and agree on the final version.
2. Defines user objectives
Who are the individuals utilizing the website? Follow user interviews, create users, create situations and answer questions:
- What will these users do on the website?
- What’s their goal?
Use narrative technique so stakeholders can readily see and comprehend what you’re saying. Find best-case situations, worst-case possibilities, and think about ways to avoid the latter.
3. Analyze rivals
Sometimes creating hot water again is extremely unneeded and may harm you. Make sure you know your competitors.
Think about their architecture.
- Where is the information displayed?
- What is common denominator information?
- Is the website or app navigable?
- What makes it excellent and what makes it bad?
4. Defining content
If a site already has material, look through it first and determine what to get somehow rid of. If it’s new, start again from scratch. The material must be well understood.
Write down everything on the web/app page. This may take a long time. This option includes all pages, all downloadable material, and any media or interactive content.
Conclusion
By spending effort on IA, you establish a basis for effective user experience. Then again, content is any app or website’s core. Well-organized, well-structured information allows your consumers to engage with a product, leading to a wonderful experience.
