orginaly published by Silas Partners September 2005

Information Architecture, or IA, is a buzzword around web design of late. Most of the time buzzwords end up being nothing more than a flash in the pan, but information architecture is more like the pot you use to cook up content and navigation into a tasty website stew. Essentially, it is the work that turns conversations and Word files into useable websites. At the most basic level it is determining a site map and navigation scheme, but it can also be thinking critically about the information offered on each page of a site.

Many people come to us with some of this work already completed and just want us to implement their site architecture. These groups feel that they best understand their site structure, and would rather have us spend our time creating designs and migrating content. This is an understandable position-anyone who has ever sketched a site map on a napkin has done Information Architecture. However, there are a number of reasons why this approach is not the best choice for your ministry.

Driving without Direction

Think back to all the times you have been lost driving someplace. I know it often happens to my family when we are on vacation. I’m sure there was interesting scenery going past my window, but I never see it. I’m too busy looking out for road signs and making sure the tension in the car doesn’t make anyone’s head explode. When people don’t know what to do on a website, they generally don’t just sit there and stare at a great design. The design is there to make the information presentable, but without good IA site visitors will never find your information.

Our designers can create design after design, but if the site is built on shaky IA, their great design is nothing more than window dressing. Good IA also helps our designers create designs that support your goals for your website. IA is the framework that supports your core functions. Designers are experts at creating a user interface that points a user toward a particular part of the page. With good IA, they know just what to highlight and what to push to the side.

Organizing Content

At many organizations, a website redesign means a chance for everyone to throw content into a big bucket, and, all too often, that content is just splattered Jackson Pollok style all over the canvas of your new website.

Starting with a complete IA plan allows you to channel the creative energy at your ministry to create content that is going to be useful to your site visitors. A good focused information architecture plan allows your ministry to communicate specifically with content creators. Nothing is better for someone looking to create content than direction.

Without a focused IA plan, it can be difficult even to know what content is needed for the website, let alone understand where the best place for that content to live on the site. The project gets off into the weeds since there is no clear plan to how content should be structured.

Insiders

Every organization develops its own ways of thinking and speaking about what it does. At Silas Partners, we use so many acronyms I don’t expect anyone outside of the company can follow our conversations. We also think differently about what we do than someone outside Silas Partners. This article is a perfect example. When we say IA to a client many of them have no idea what IA stands for, let alone why it is important.

Matt Morrow was my editor in college. Everyone had someone, or was the someone, that their college friends used as an editor. Without great editors, I would have never been considered a good writer. We all know that to produce a piece of great writing we need someone outside ourselves to review our work-the same principle applies to the Information Architecture of your website.

It may seem counterintuitive that someone who knows little about your organization would be able to create a more usable site structure than the person who knows everything, but it is very true. If you think about your average site visitor, how much do they know about your ministry? More often than not, they know very little about the internal workings of your ministry. This is where good IA can help. Well thought-out Information Architecture can guide site visitors to the pages and actions that are most important to your organization.

The Untrained Eye

So at this point you may be saying to yourself, “Our website passes all these test with flying colors.” To find out how good your IA is write up a few common tasks like “find our service times,” or “download a PDF of our most recent article,” or more complicated, “sign up for our eNewsletter.” Next find someone who has never used your website and doesn’t know much about your organization. Relatives are great for this, especially those who aren’t especially Internet savvy. Plop them down on your homepage and ask them to complete one or more of those tasks. As they are trying to accomplish the task, ask them questions about why they are doing what they are doing.

This testing will show how good your IA is. If your unsuspecting subjects can quickly find what they are looking for without going back and forth between pages, then either you have great IA or you cheated and chose your friend who just so happens to work for Silas Partners.

Or better yet have someone at Silas Partners take a look at the site. We have a bunch of people trained to look out for common IA mistakes. Fixing them doesn’t have to be a monumental undertaking either. Sometimes all it takes is re-ordering a menu or even something as simple as adding a button or a word on a page to make a world of difference.

So take some time to do some IA testing on your website and let me know how you did. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.