Introduction
Information architecture is the organising and labelling of content to make the website usable and understandable. We classify content and arrange it into similar themes.
By doing this we try to provide
- Clear linking and signposting to related content
- Logical placing of pages in menus
- A map of our services
- A logical site structure so that users that come into the site from their web browser or a direct link can find their way round.
Our menus are split into
- Main categories – these are usually the overall services we provide
- Sub categories – Pages listed ‘in this section’ are sub pages of the main heading. Basically, more detailed information on a service or topic.
We sometimes split content up into separate pages, so the user is not overloaded by information. We also put some pages into multiple menus so that there is more chance they can be found using site navigation and sometimes the topic could be relating to a couple of our service areas.
Our pages are split into
- Title and description
- Main page content area
- Page menu – by using this you can jump to a certain point on the page
- Related services – Other Somerset Council pages that may be linked or be of interest
- Explore the topic – Other external sites that might be of interest on the topic
Why information architecture is needed
- It saves the user time and gets them to the right place with the fewest clicks
- Makes it easy to use the site
- Helps with user experience – What the user feels when they use the website
- Improves user interface – How the user interacts with online services
- It helps us decide where the placement of menus should be and how they should look
- Gives the user a site map to navigate
How we structure our website
We conduct user research to learn about users needs and to get a user profile and user flow. From the research we review and update any existing content and identify any new content needed. Card sorting helps us to classify content and group it together.
We create a list of content and decide on what pages are needed, get rid of any pages that are not needed, refresh information to make sure it is not out of date and restructure page layouts.
Card sorts
We usually do a card sort after user research has taken place. The topics and themes that emerge from the user research and the existing content are reviewed and used as a starting point for a new structure.
- The topics and themes inform a new content list
- The new content list needs to be arranged into new site headings
- We use Trello or Planner to do this
- Cards are created and then slotted under new headings
- We also add details to cards to make sure all identified information is covered on the page