Bianca Visagie
25 August 2022
Humans see patterns and structures in everything. When a pattern or structure doesn’t make sense to us, we become frustrated. The same goes for any digital product. When it’s poorly designed and nothing makes sense, we don’t want to use it. So how can your digital product avoid becoming unusable?
The answer is quite simple: Information Architecture (IA). What is Information Architecture? It’s the secret ingredient that might just make or break your product.
What is Information Architecture?
Put simply, it’s the way the information on your website or app is structured and organised. It’s a key aspect of UX Design that focuses on organising information and making it easy for users to find and process the information they need.
Like I said before, humans want things to have patterns and structures. Your website, app, or digital product is no different. Users want to be able to quickly and easily find the information they need. It’s more than just good website navigation, it’s about what information is displayed on your home page, your product pages, and your content pages.
When building your information architecture, it’s crucial to understand the user, their needs and goals, and how they look for information and create a structure that accommodates those needs, goals, and behaviours.
Why you need Information Architecture
In order for users to make sense of your product, the following should be kept in mind:
- The information needs of users;
- the site or app’s content;
- and your business goals.
By keeping the information needs of users in mind, information architecture creates an easy experience. Users are able to find what they need, which limits frustrations and prevents the loss of sales and leads.
It also minimizes content issues. IA should be done before wireframing begins. It helps to establish a clear structure for your wireframes and helps your pages and content flow more naturally.
Lastly, IA can encourage users to take action on your site. At the end of the day, your business goal is to make money. The goal is profit, whether through direct sales from your site or leads. IA ensures that you have meaningful calls to action. Your content should be structured around those conversion goals.
How can you create good information architecture?
There are a few ways to create good information architecture. Stakeholder interviews, card sorting sessions, and thinking like your user are all standard practices. However, here are a few more tips:
- Define a site or app strategy with your user’s needs in mind;
- Prioritize user satisfaction;
- IA first, design second. Your site might be beautiful, but if it doesn’t give users what they need, it will be worthless;
- Analyze user-research data and adapt your IA to find the best possible solution;
- Work with UI/UX designers to incorporate design elements with IA.
Make use of experts
Information architecture is an invaluable part of good UX design. It allows your users to navigate your digital products without feeling lost or disoriented. That’s why at Integrove we strive to make the complex clear. We can help you to create powerful digital products with our team of expert designers and architects. Let us help you connect the digital dots.