Information

Architecture
101
Understand the messes you made:)
 What is Information
Architecture
And common methodologies
01
8 Principles
A guide from beginning to end
02
Techniques
Value to Users and
Business?
TABLE OF 04 Think like architects

Importance of IA
03 CONTENTS
IA for mobile apps
05 And tips

Key processes
06 To get you somewhere
01
What is Information
Architecture
And common methodologies
 What is Information Architecture (IA)

Avant propos
History of IA goes as far into the past
as ancient Egypt. Librarians in the
Alexandria library listed the content of
the library on a 120-scroll bibliography.
The principle is the same, only it was
not called Information Architecture, but
was just good sense :)
 Brief History

1970 XEROX Labs addressed the need for information structuring practices and
developed technology that would support it

Nothing IA involved until the suddenly came of internet :)

1988 Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld wrote the ‘Information Architecture for the World
Wide Web’ and unexpectedly became Amazon’ best internet book that year.
In the so-called information age, the work of information architects, UX designers,
interaction designers and content managers is more important than ever.
Without them, the web would descend into chaos.

“Good design, when it’s done

well, becomes invisible. It’s
only when it’s done poorly
that we notice it.”

Jared Spool
Information architecture is the practice of
designing structures.
Dan Brown
 Common Methodologies

Library Science
The art has many definitions, but the
clear one is “the development of
‘knowledge-organization systems’ “
A study of how to categorize, catalogue
and locate resources.
Used everywhere (museums, science
labs, hospitals…)
 The process of building and
curating archives filled with
content, which may need to be
edited or removed in the future in
order to maintain the integrity of
the archives

Art of cataloguing Archival science

The process of creating
metadata and assigning it to
content in order to find it
again in the future

Both elements are directly translatable to UX work, where goal is to create an IA that has appropriate and
usable metadata, with content available in the well-maintained archive
 Common Methodologies

Cognitive Psychology
The study of how the mind works and
what mental processes take place
there. It influences both the
interactions we design and the way we
architect information.
 The assumptions people carry in
their minds before interacting.
Information is easier to discover
when it is in a place matches the
user’ mental model of where it
should be

Cognitive load Mental model Decision making

The amount of information A cognitive process that allows
that a person can process at us to make a choice or select an
any given time. User’ cognitive option. Information architects
load help prevent information can help us make decisions by
architects from inadvertently providing certain information at
overloading a user with too key moments
much information at once
 Common Methodologies

Architecture
Modern information architecture’
founder, Richard Saul Wurman, was not
a web designer. He was a graphic
designer and an architect. It was from
architecture that IA was born. Wurman
believed that information should be
structured in the same way a building is
structured: with a solid foundation. His
idea is “the presentation of information
can be more important than the
information itself”.
IA can take many attractive forms and
is based on a precise, intentional
structure and solid foundation of ideas.
02
8 Principles
A guide from beginning to end
 The principle of Objects

“Treat content as a living,

breathing thing with a
lifecycle, behaviors and
attributes”
Dan Brown
Identifying what content goes on the
application is as crucial as identifying
the behavior of the content when the
user interacts with it.

Exp: grouping related content together

as well as determining each group’
behavior and attributes from Houz
 The principle of Choices

Giving user too many

choices can be
overwhelming
Give the user fewer focused tasks to
reduce cognitive load.

Exp: The number of options under

vanity search is extremely
overwhelming. A large number of
choices choice make user tired and
confused.
 The principle of Disclosure
“Show only enough
information to help
people understand what
kinds of information
they’ll find as they dig
deeper.”
Dan Brown
A coherent progression of layers of
needed information that displayed one
piece of content at a time. Each layer is
a part of a bigger content story that
user can understand, follow and gain
value from.
Information presented to a person who
is not interested or ready to process is
just noise

Exp: google Ads FAQ

 The principle of Exemplars

It is important to show an
example of content
related to the category.
The human brain categorizes items in
order to digest information better and
quicker

Exp: shows items as examples of

categories. Pictures are powerful tool
to attract eye scanning and data
processing.
 The principle of Front Doors
User could land on your
website through multiple
entryways. Make sure
each of your pages give
the user a sense of place
(where they are, what
they can do)
Also keep in mind that you also want to
make sure user has the ability to
navigate the rest of the content on the
website

Exp: Google Ads always does it right :)

 The principle of Multiple Classification

“Offering user several

different classification
schemes to browse
website’ content.”
Dan Brown
Providing simple ways to find
information as people classify
information differently and have
multiple classification systems.

Exp: search vs advanced search for

different users (a broad search system
vs a narrow search system)
 The principle of Focus Navigation
Designing navigation
means establishing a
strategy for finding
content on website, have
different menus for
different types of
information.
A navigation system is how users go
through the content on your
application, define one is important,
define more than one menu type for
different types of information when
possible.

Exp: Each type of information has a

menu
 The principle of Growth

“Assume the content you

have today is a small
fraction of the content
you will have tomorrow.”
Dan Brown
Content grows at almost an
exponential rate as new ideas come,
new categories become more apparent,
and more content is added to website.
Designing with future in mind.
03
Value to Users and Business
Importance of IA
It’s important that we produce content that user will find valuable.
But the most valuable content will
not get discovered if the IA is bad
And it bad news for both user and business.
 Value for User

If the process of finding

information is too
complicated or too slow,
user will simple abandon
the process and move on.
People want instant gratification and
impatient. Also information overload
and choice can be disaster. This means
IA must be able to deliver the right
content at the right time for them.
According to Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld (Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 3rd edition) the IA

of a website needs to address different user needs.

 Good IA greatly impacts
the UX. The faster the
users get to their
destination, the greater
their satisfaction.
Knowing the users and their information
seeking behaviors is the key to success.
So we need to prioritize which architectural
components to build
 Value for Business

If users cannot find

critical information or
perform important tasks,
business can lose out in
many ways.
Therefore, IA plays a crucial role in
business as well.
 Dissatisfaction of users can lead
to reduce sales and the effects
can be long-lasting. Users are
unlikely to come back but seek
other competitors who’ll solve
their problem

Employee Productivity Sales and Reputation

Bad IA for internal content
can result in wasted time and
reduced productivity
 If users cannot find what they
need, marketing cost will go way
up just to achieve the same
results (remarketing).

Acquiring New Users Reducing Marketing Costs

Getting users to give their
personal data is key to the Big
Data world.
 User is less likely to seek help if
they can find what they are
looking for.

Reducing supporting cost

Reputation and SEO Ranking
A big impact on SEO. and documentation
Structure and data affect:
-Usability: easy to use
-Seamless flow leads to
higher conversion.
-Ranking places website
higher in search results.
Repetitive and poor defined
content hurts your SEO
04
Techniques
Think like architects
 Aspect

Content Link name Page name URL

Type of content Current page info Creator and Owner

Step 1 / Group and Label the content

Card Sorting technique

Determine how users group different items into
different categories

Follow up with Labeling

A data representation way.
So labels can represent loads of data effectively
in few words
 Step 2 / Define navigation and site map
(1)
How will users get the these contents?

For each session, user’ navigation is -most of the time- a tip of the iceberg - your Information Architecture

● Is a backbone of your website

Information Architecture ● Is invisible to users
● Can be represented in different types of diagrams and sitemap

Content > Group and Label > Present in a diagram -> Sitemap
 Step 2 / Define navigation and site map
(2)
● Menu
● Breadcrumbs
Navigation - collection of UI elements that are connected in meaningful way ● Filters
● Footer
● ...

● the set of actions and techniques guiding users throughout product

Navigation ● enabling them to fulfill their goals and successfully interact with the product
 Organization systems

These are the groups or the categories into which the information is divided.

It helps users to predict where they can find certain information easily.

Three main organizational structures:

● Hierarchical
● Sequential
● Matrix
 Hierarchical
Main goal is to present content on the carrier, be it a book page or poster, web
page or mobile screen, in such a way that users can understand the level of
importance for each element.

It activates the ability of the brain to distinguish objects on the basis of their
physical differences, such as size, color, contrast, alignment, etc.

This is based on Gestalt Psychology

 Sequential
This structure creates some kind of a path for the users.

They go step-by-step through content to accomplish the task they needed.

This type is often used for retail websites or apps, where people have to go
from one task to another to make the purchase.
 Matrix
This type is a bit more complicated for the users since they choose the way of navigation on their
own.

Users are given choices of content organization.

For example, they can navigate through content that is ordered according to date, or some may
prefer navigation along with the topic.

In addition, content can be grouped according to the organization schemes.

They are meant to categorize the content of the product.
Alphabetical schemes Chronological schemes
Content is organized in alphabetical order
This type organizes content by date
They can serve as a navigation tool for users

Topic schemes Audience schemes

Contents is organized according to subject The type of content organization for separate groups of users

Matrix / Schemes
Searching systems
● Helps users search for the data within the digital product like a website or an app.
● Effective only for the products with loads of information when the users risk getting
lost there.
● Search engine, filters, and many other tools
● Plan how the data will look after the search.

Wireframing
● Wireframes are the best way to represent the connections between different
screens
● Identify how the site will work from a practical perspective.
● Sketch out certain key screens in order to demonstrate how a user will interact
with the information available.
● A valuable deliverable to share with clients, and for developers and visual
designers to reference as they build mockups, prototypes, and final products.
 Taxonomies and Metadata
A taxonomies:
● A set of things that grouped together
● Are records of how we group similar types of content or information
● Based on mental model of target audience, we have one or more taxonomies for websites or app

Then “tag” content with metadata so users can search for content based on the assumed taxonomies

Exp: multiple taxonomies based on brand/model or bodytype or price range or colour

Then IA would tag a car with all the info above and it helps users to look for what they have in mind
 Data modeling
Or content modeling - and may be shared with a content strategist
Determine structured content types that represent user needs, business logic and requirements, even internal editorial practices

In case of redesign, new data models will need to be mapped to existing structures in order to assure content migration.
Use
● Spreadsheets to map out field types and relationship requirement
● CMS

Data modeling can result in creation of documented content types, or content templates.
Use to create content by content strategist or copywriters
 Step 3 / User testing

Test early and test often

There are some ways to test IA - by suggestion of Nielsen Norman
Group - it also depends on the design phase and goals
 Test 1: Tree testing
This test is used to determine if the key information can be found in the IA of the website.
Participants navigate through the website only by using link names.
Tree testing is a quantitative testing method.

Tree testing shows us if the names of the categories are understandable:

● if they convey the content correctly
● if the content is categorized in a user-centered manner
● if the titles are distinguishable from one another
● if the information is easy to find.
 Test 2: Closed card sorting
Determine the strength of category names.
Both a quantitative and qualitative testing method.
● if the names of categories are accurately conveyed
● if they accurately convey the content
● if the categorization is done in a user-centered manner
● if the titles are distinguishable from one another.
 Test 3: Click testing
The test shows us how users use the available UI components.
A quantitative testing method.
It shows us which navigation elements are used and which are overlooked or avoided.
 Test 4: Usability testing
The test is used to determine how and why users use a website (or a product)
A qualitative testing technique
It reveals how users find information, which ways do they use and which do they ignore or just plainly refuse to use and why.

If you cannot do all 4, make sure you at least do the usability testing in combination with an interview at the end.
That will give you valuable insight into what features people are using and what they do on your website and why.
The answer to the question ‘why?’ is such valuable information that can help you design and get better results.
 THINK LIKE ARCHITECTS

There’re parallels between architect’ work and UX’ work

There is common ground in the world’ view and also the way we think
about design
Architects are a type of designer, not only about making beautiful
space, but also about balancing aesthetics with usability.
Architects solves problems, crafting solutions too.

When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve
the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

Buckminster Fuller