Information architecture (IA) involves structuring and organising information on websites to enable your users to find the information they want. Information architecture is vital to a well-designed site, and should aim to be natural and intuitive for your target audience. Because different users have varying needs and behaviours online, sites need to accommodate these needs and behaviours.

Why should I?

IA is the foundation of good website and intranet design. It is about planning where information and services will be located on the site in the most convenient and logical way for users.

Australian Government agencies are finding that IA issues need to be addressed at all stages of a website lifecycle. New sites may have a large body of content that requires structure and classification, defined using an IA that allows for growth over time. Long-established sites, however, may have grown in an ad-hoc way or grown very large. As a result, both may be confusing to users, difficult to manage and may not accurately reflect current agency priorities or users’ needs.

What should I do?

Some users know exactly what they are looking for. They know it exists and what it is called. This is called known-item searching.

Other users may not know precisely what they’re looking for. They may come to a site with a vague idea of the information they need, but may not know the ‘official’ labels and terms to describe what they want, or even know whether it exists, resulting in casual browsing.

These methods of finding information are not mutually exclusive. Even in the best-designed system, users may switch between known-item searching and casual browsing as they explore the site.

Agencies should incorporate the recommended common page elements when designing their information architecture. Given that the wide audience for many Australian Government websites, a site’s information architecture should also cater for differing levels of literacy and familiarity with the web.

How do I?

IA is closely tied to issues such as navigation, metadata, usability testing, usage analysis and search facilities.  The Better Practice Checklist Information architecture for websites provides guidance on developing IA for websites.

Subjects:

• Information Architecture
• IA
• content
• navigation
• user testing