Information Architecture
Information Architecture1 is the discipline of organizing content and features, improving both the utility and the findability of information in a product. It relates to labelling, language, navigation, search and placement while supporting business goals at the same time. It helps to design an effective website and makes the customers happy.
Information Architecture has nothing to do with visual design and only focuses on the optimal way of presenting information to a user. As such, it is part of the User Experience practices since it directly impacts the ease of use of a product. Its goal is to answer the customer needs the more accurately possible, providing key data and interaction at the best location.
To make a long story short, Information Architecture is the science of finding a good balance between the information itself (the content), the people using the information (the users), and the business issues (the context) in which the information is being presented. Regarding certain aspects, Information Architecture is tied with Usability very closely.
Benefits
Embracing Information Architecture offers several key benefits:
- Cutting development cost by minimizing changes during design and development stages: planning the product structure upfront ensures less issues will be raised later on.
- Acquiring new customers by designing a product that is easy to use and very effective: satisfying the needs of customers is the key to achieving business objectives.
- Reducing customer service issues by ensuring that users can navigate, understand and appropriate the product by themselves without any additional help.
How can I help?
Being an adept of user-centred design, I have a deep understanding of the importance of organizing information. I can help you to create an organized and logical web application, taking into account your business requirements and your customers' needs at the same time. Here is a sample of the activities I can perform for you:
- Auditing a web application and making recommendations
- Building a new architecture and a sitemap2 according to your business goals
- Designing wireframes3 for each page
Footnotes
- Information Architecture is often abbreviated IA.
- Sitemaps are documents showing the overall structure and hierarchy of a website.
- Wireframes are black and white blueprints that typically show the location of content, images, navigation and other element for a given page. However, they are not meant to convey visual design (e.g. colors, graphics or fonts).