Why information architecture?
Because your website can only be successful if the right
information is in the right place.
On two thirds of websites it's hard or even
impossible for visitors to find what they're looking for. The most
important resaons:
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The information the user wants is not on the website.
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Important information is lost among an excess of trivia.
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Information is not where the user expects it to be.
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The terminology on the website doesn't match the user's terminology.
Information architecture methodology
There is no ready-made solution for a good information architecture.
We look at your company's specific situation and decide which methods
to use.
There are often 3 steps to designing a good information
architecture.
- Preparatory research
- Inventory
We inventory your online and offline
content to get an idea of the information you have to offer.
- Internal interviews
To make sure we understand
your business, we interview a number of key people in your organisation.
- User research
Your website isn't for you, it's for your users. What do they
want? Which words do they use? What do and don't they like?
There are lots of ways to find out. Which one we use depends on
your specific situation.
Based on the user research we draw up an information
architecture that's based on facts rather than feelings or
opinions.
More information on user research
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Draw up information architecture
After the preparatory research, we as experts draw up
the inforamtion architecture. This includes the complete
tree structure, labels for all navigation items and the
right crosslinks.
For complex projects we often do a card sorting test.
The point of card sorting is finding out which information
users put together and what they call it.
Card sorting can be handy for large websites, intranets or
support websites.
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Test and correct
If
10 years of experience has taught us one thing it is that no
expert knows everything. Neither do we.
It doesn't matter how pleased we are with an information
architecture. It doesn't matter how pleased our customer is
either. It's all about the users.
There's only one
way to find out if they're pleased: a user test.
That way we can find out if the structure is sound and
whether there are still things we can improve. It's always
better to find flaws sooner rather than later.
Result information architecture
- Complete structure of your website, intranet or extranet.
This architecture is
flexible, so you can add pages without disturbing the
structure's logic.
- Terminology of all the navigation levels.
- Indication of the most important crosslinks.
- Reports of all the steps of the process. That way you
can always check what a certain decision was based on.
What's the next step after information
architecture?
Most clients ask us to also create
mock-ups.
Mock-ups are rough sketches of all page types. They make it clear which
information goes where.
All this results in a functional analysis. A
functional analysis is a complete description of the content and
functionalities of the website. It's the basis for the request for
proposal.
Price
Starting from 3.000 euro (excl. VAT).
More info? Get in touch.
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