Why designing IA is crucial?

Any website or mobile application has its own information architecture. The reason why we use these apps is due to its content and the way it is organized. You can put awesome text, pictures, videos in your app, but without proper structure your app will be doomed just because your user won’t reach them. So while designing your app or website you should work on it’s information architecture thoroughly.

What is Information Architecture as itself?

The information architecture is the structure of app’s content, or simply a backbone of your website or app. The main reason of designing the information architecture is to make navigation in your app simple and intuitive for your users.

Are there any differences in IAs of mobile apps and desktop apps or websites?

Of course. It is obvious that using a smartphone is different from using PC.

Mainly due to device specifics and usage circumstances, designers have to design IAs for PC and mobile apps in different ways.

Lets start with device specifics.

Do we use our PCs and mobile phones the same way? No. Our interaction with a smartphone is based on taps and swipes while using PCs we use clicks and keyboard.

What about screens? Of course, there is a big difference. On smartphones the screens are significantly smaller, so fewer information we can fit into them. It is worth noting that, due to the fact that mobile internet connection may differ with that at home, mobile applications should be optimized for loading time.

What about circumstances?

Firstly, people often use their smartphones outside: going to/from work, on the public transport or driving a car. So designers have to take into account these distractions that might occur.

And secondly, designers should consider different viewing conditions, in which users are using their apps. It can be usage under the sun or while driving a car and looking on the screen at an angle.

What about value of IA?

First things first, it’s quiet obvious that, if the information architecture is designed badly, the users won’t simply discover the most valuable content.

In fact, Google just blocks websites with low valued content, so it’s crucial for businesses and, especially, designers to produce content that users will find valuable and make it easily findable.

So what are the steps of designing information architecture?

To create best foundations, a company has to create an Information Architecture document. It may take some time, but at the end it will be a worthwhile investment.

Steps for designing IA

1. Understand user’s goals.

To do this step, designers should follow UX practices: conduct user interviews, create jobs to be done(JTBDs), personas, user scenarios and answer the questions:

• Who will be using a product?
• What are they going to do?
• What do they want to achieve?

To allow stakeholders to easily visualise and understand what you are explaining, you should use storytelling approach. With stakeholders you may find best-case and worst-case scenarios.

2. Design business objectives.

Why do you want to do it? What do you want to achieve? Ask yourself these two questions. In order to determine that you have to work with key stakeholders.

3. Conduct competitor analysis.

Think about your competitors’ information architecture.

• Is the website is easy and intuitive to use?
• What are strengths and weaknesses of the website?
• Where the information is displayed?
• Where are your opportunities and threats?

4. Define content.

You need to have a clear understanding of the content of your website(both if it already exists or is currently designed).

Content inventory, grouping and audits help designers achieve this.

• Content inventory shows us what content we have and where it is exactly. Typically it is presented as spreadsheet or list.
• Content grouping identifies the relationships between the information.
• Content audits gives us information about whether the information is useful, effective and accurate.

5. Categorize & Prioritize content.

Once you have a list of all content, prioritize it.

Some of most common techniques are analytics, card sorting and contextual inquiries.

6. Create sitemap.

When you have all your content logically grouped, you go to creating a sitemap or simply to creating ways for users to get to website’s content.

As it was said above, information architecture is a backbone of your website and isn’t visible to your users, but can be visually presented in different types of diagrams and spreadsheets, and be called a sitemap.

So first, you need to have content of your app or website grouped and labeled, and then presented in a diagram.

Once you’ve done that, you can start creating navigation — simply a collection of UI elements that are connected in a meaningful way.

7. Test your website.

As it is commonly known, UX designers have to test early and often.

There are couple ways to test if your information architecture works. The Nielsen Norman Group suggests four different types of testing, depending on the design phase and goals.

1. Tree testing.

A tree test is an information architecture focused technique conducted to determine if critical information can be found in the site’s IA. Participants navigate through the website only by using link names. Tree testing is a quantitative testing method.

Questions it answers:

• Are the names of categories understandable?
• Do the category names accurately convey content?
• Is content categorized in a user-centered manner?
• Are content titles distinguishable from one another?
• Is information difficult to find because the structure is too broad or too deep?

2. Closed Card Sorting

The test is used to determine the strength of category names. It is both a quantitative and qualitative testing method.

Questions it answers:

• Are the names of categories understandable?
• Do the category names accurately convey content?
• Is content categorized in a user-centered manner?
• Are content titles distinguishable from one another?

3. Click Testing

The test shows us how users use the available UI components. It is a quantitative testing method.

Questions it answers:

• Which navigation components are utilized?
• Which navigation components go unnoticed?
• Which navigation components are avoided?

4. Usability Testing

The test is used to determine how and why users use a website (or a product). It is one of the qualitative testing techniques.

Questions it answers:

• How do users find information?
• Which navigation components are utilized?
• Which navigation components go unnoticed?
• Which navigation components are avoided?

Conclusion

Information architecture is an integral part of every app or website, it’s backbone so to say. And whether the user experience will be good or bad depends on how the information architecture is designed. Will it be easy and smooth or problematic and not clear to use the app? Will the content be displayed where exactly users expect it? Will the users have good experience using you app/website overall?

That’s why designing information architecture is crucial both for users and businesses.

This is it from my end. Do let me know your thoughts or questions if any.