Information Architecture

Structure your website's Information Architecture and navigation to match users' expectations, so that they can find information successfully and complete their tasks more quickly.

Benefits

• Develop a site organization and navigation that allows users to complete their top tasks more successfully and quickly
• Improve user task performance and efficiency and increase satisfaction
• Reduce complaints and support costs

What is Information Architecture (IA)?

• The Information Architecture (IA) of your website or Intranet refers to how the site is organized and labeled and presented to your customers and/or users.
• A good Information Architecture starts from users' task needs and priorities, not content. A good IA prioritizes the question "What information do users need, and where do they expect to find it?" over questions like "We have this content, where should it go?".
• We engage users and stakeholders in an iterative process where we firstly identify users' top tasks and the words they use when performing those top tasks; then we prototype, test and refine the top levels of the Information Architecture; then we take the architecture down as many levels as required.
• We use the CORE technique to engage your team in a task-centred approach to producing your web content (see an overview of the CORE technique)
• We use online tools for techniques such as card-sorting and IA tree-testing that allow us to engage your target audiences in testing and refining the Information Architecture.

What is the cost and timeframe?

• 10-15 weeks.
• $20-70K depending on the complexity of the website and the organization.

When should I revise my Information Architecture?

• When you're considering major website or Intranet changes and need to be sure that the site navigation is effective and efficient for your users.
• If you're receiving many calls or complaints from website users who are having problems finding information.
• If you're implementing significant reductions or changes to content—e.g. a 'remove the ROT (Redundant, Out-of-date and Trivial content)' program.
• When you've identified your users' top tasks and are planning on revising your website to better support those tasks.

What do I get?

• An Information Architecture that maps onto users' information needs and expections about categorization and navigation.
• Better task performance by users and greater user satisfaction.
• An Information Architecture that 'unfairly promotes' user top-task content, but which is comprehensive enough for users to navigate to less-frequently-needed content.
• A well-structured site-map.

Why Neo Insight?

• Neo Insight has been analysing and designing Information Architectures for public websites and Intranets since 2001, identifying the information organization and navigation schemes for thousands of customers, employees, students and citizens.