information architecture.
Information architecture organises content and functionality so people can find things: navigation structure, labelling, grouping and the relationships between sections.
Where information architecture fits on a long engagement.
The most common structural mistake is organising by the organisation. Navigation reflecting internal departments makes sense to the people who built it and none to a user who does not know which department owns what they need.
Card sorting and tree testing produce evidence rather than opinion. Card sorting shows how users group concepts; tree testing shows whether they can find things in a proposed structure. Both are cheap and both settle arguments that would otherwise run on seniority.
What an assigned team does with information architecture.
Structure decisions are expensive to revisit once URLs are established and indexed. Reorganising navigation means redirects, lost search equity and re-learning for existing users.
Getting it evidenced early rather than reorganising later is why research and structure work are scoped together under outsource ux design.
What we use information architecture for.
- Structure that matches user models Grouping tested rather than inherited from the organisation chart.
- Findability measured Tree testing establishing whether people can actually locate things.
- Labels users recognise Terms from research rather than internal vocabulary.
How information architecture capacity is assigned.
Information architecture is assigned inside design capacity, with structural decisions evidenced before URLs make them expensive to change.
Tell us what your roadmap needs information architecture for.
A service delivery manager replies with the disciplines we would assign, the monthly capacity and what the first month looks like.
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