Information architecture (IA)
IA is the structuring, organising and labelling of content to make finding information easier for users.
Components of information architecture
IA is made up of 3 components:
- organisation — sorting and labelling categories and subcategories
- content structure — arrangement of information across pages
- navigation — pathways and access around the content.
Central to all components is the user
Make sure you understand your user and their needs before making any decisions about your IA.
Carrying out user research and reviewing feedback can provide valuable insights into where your IA may need work.
Organisation
When reviewing the organisation of the IA, look at how pages are grouped together and labelled as a whole group.
A general rule is no more than 7 child pages to a parent page. However, this is just a guideline — consider what’s best for your user.
Group topics in ways that make sense to the user
It’s easy to default to organising content around internal structures or workstreams. These will often not make logical sense to a user.
Consider:
- The user journey — what’s the user’s situation, what do they need and when.
- What other information or questions the user may have as a result of this process or information — processing timeframes, complaints processes, alternatives if they do not qualify.
Surface the most important pages
When the child pages are not a step-by-step process, put the most important or popular pages at the top of the child pages.
Consistency is not about rigid structure
Consistency is more about predictable logic and design rather than following specific structures.
The structure of the content should be balanced. Limit the levels in the structure and avoid burying topics. The more levels, the less visible your pages are in the menu and the harder they are to find.
If your IA feels unbalanced, look:
- at your categories and subcategories higher in the IA — are they too specific or too general?
- for gaps in the information — keep asking, ‘what does the user want to know next?’
Make parent page titles meaningful
Parent page titles and summaries should reflect all child pages under the parent page.
Some topics may seem to stand alone and not fit into the existing categories. Consider placing the page where the user most likely needs this information in their journey. Label the parent page based on the user situation rather than the topic.
You need to add a page called ‘Animals that cannot be hunted’. The only hunting parent page is called ‘Hunting licenses’ with multiple child pages about getting a license.
Changing the parent title to ‘Going hunting in NZ’ means you can include the new page.
Use clear, descriptive labels
When labelling the pages, avoid using generic terms. For example, information (all content is information), manage (all processes are managed in some way). Be descriptive in your titles, if there is an action to be done include the verb in the title.
- Use: Apply for an overseas license
- Avoid: Application
- Use: AI project overview and roadmap
- Avoid: Overview
Tools to help — card sorting
Users sort the various topics (cards) into groups that make sense to them.
You can give the users preset group categories or they can come up with their own categories.
There are online tools you can use to make a card sort and analyse the results. Or you can make your own on a whiteboard either online or in person.
Content structure
Think about how you divide up large topics or related topics over multiple pages so that it’s easy for the user to find and follow.
Break down the content based on the user
The content for the whole topic or process should be divided up in a way that makes sense to the user.
Take the whole topic or process and work out how to break it down into stages based on what the user is doing and needing at that point.
Structure content as a user would progress through it
Provide information at the point in the process the user requires it. Avoid unnecessary information up-front and make it timely instead.
If there’s a gap in the process, for example, a 6 week processing timeframe — plan how this fits into your content structure. After waiting the 6 weeks, the user will return and need to find where they left off. To make this easier, consider:
- breaking the content so it aligns with the stages of the user journey
- providing navigation options so users can easily resume partway through the process, for example, jump links.
Make page titles reflect what part of the process it covers
Clearly identify the purpose and action in the page title and summary. Do not mislead users about what is on the page.
- Use: Change your address
- Avoid: Manage your information
Tools to help — user journey mapping
User journey mapping is plotting out the steps a user goes through. Then you can align your content to that journey, rather than trying to make the user fit your content process.
Understanding what the user goes through when completing a process may include stages that you were not aware of, particularly for decision-making and information gathering.
Design for the user journey — Digital NSW
Navigation
How the user moves around the content. This includes the visibility of related pages and linking between pages.
Support navigation from any entry-point
Good navigation should not be just a top-down linear approach. Some users will enter the website in the middle of your content structure from search engines or links.
Picking up the navigation from there should be straightforward and easy for the user to orientate themselves. Finding previous, next stages and accompanying information should be obvious and easy to find.
The layout of the structure should make sense
The stages of the process should be clear, if users are expected to follow on from page to page this should be obvious.
Check:
- how the pages link to each other, is it clear that the user needs to navigate to the next page in the process?
- are there any loops in the linking, where pages link to each other and neither provide a clear answer.
Tools to help — tree testing
Tree testing, sometimes called reverse card sorting, is an interactive simulation of your IA. Users are given tasks and asked where they would find the answer. This helps test your labels and the structure of the topics.
You can either watch the session or you can use a online paid tool to record the user behaviour. This includes the pathways they take and any backtracking through the IA they do.
Good IA helps artificial intelligence (AI)
Good IA enables AI to understand processes and support users with more accurate answers and information.
Good labelling and structure helps AI to crawl the content. This helps AI understand how the topic relates to the bigger process and how the user fits in with the process. This enables AI to provide more accurate assistance to users.
Find out more about how good content design can support AI to provide more accurate and helpful information for users.
Design content for AI and your users: what works and why
Lessons unlocked: what we learnt from our AI assistant pilot blog
Utility links and page information
Last updated
