Information Architecture

This document provides information on information architecture, including the IA process, user journey mapping, tree testing, and card sorting.

I. IA Process

1. Gathering information from the Discovery session to identify the website's main purpose and goals before starting information architecture. Consider doing the User Journey mapping session (optional) to dig deeper into issues the current website/app might have.
2. Conduct user research to identify the needs and expectations of the website’s target audience (Card sorting, tree testing).
3. Identify the content requirements (if new content/page needs to be created)
4. Create a sitemap to visualise the website’s structure - Use Sitemap template here
5. Create wireframes - Use the Wireframe library here

II. User Journey Mapping

• A user journey map is a visual interpretation to depict the journey of a person interacting with a product, trying to accomplish a specific task or goal.
• The ultimate purpose of user journey mapping is to optimise and improve user experiences and also to achieve a specific business goal. E.g if the goal is to improve the conversion, need to keep it in mind when doing the user journey mapping.
• Each Phase (steps the user takes to accomplish the goal) in the map features a few swimlanes.

User journey map with three swimlanes — Actions, Emotions, and Pain Points.

Swimlanes are key aspects of interaction such as:

• Action the user is taking (specific things that the user does).
• Thoughts that the user is having;
• Emotions that the user experiencing (positive or negative emotions);
• Pain Points that the user faces along the way (issues or bottlenecks);
• Touchpoints and channels the user interact with.

The current-state map is a visualization of existing experience. It is basically mapping how users interact with your business right now. The current-state map will help you to identify problems that users experience right now.

A future-state experience, on the other hand, is a visualization of a journey for a product that doesn’t exist yet. If you want to envision new ways of supporting your users, you should go for a future state mapping.

Notes to create a user journey map:

• User personas are required.
• The user journey is different from the user flow. User journeys describe the high level of interaction with a product while user flow is more specific to the user interface (screens/pages).
• Each user journey describes one flow/scenario.
• Focus on mapping the experience of user personas.

II. Tree testing and Card sorting

• Tree Testing and Card Sorting are two popular methods to organise the information.
• Tree testing is the inverse of a card sort.
• Tree testing is useful as a follow-up to card sorting. You first conduct a card sort to understand the user’s mental model and use this information to design a hierarchy of information in your product. Use tree testing to test the real user’s behaviour.

1. What is Tree testing

• Tree testing is a method of evaluating the hierarchical structure and findability of the content

• The hierarchy of the content visually looks like a tree

• When to use:

  • Tree Testing is valuable when redesigning the product.
  • Help to identify areas where your navigation system doesn’t perform as expected, or users cannot find the information that they need.

  How to conduct Tree Testing

• Create a sitemap

• Prepare your tasks. Write tasks for your test participants. The tasks should explain what they should try to find. Sample: Imagine you’re on the Homepage, and you need to find where to find out about [product] that this company offers.

• Define metrics:

  • Common metrics: Success rates (% of participants that were able to find the item)
  • Directness (% of users can get the correct answer from the first attempt)
  • Time on task (how much time do they need to complete the task)

• Tree testing is a quantitive research method - which means you need a big sample size to get reliable results.

• Shouldn’t take longer than 20min for 10 tasks

2. What is Card sorting?

• Card sorting is a user research technique that helps you understand how users expect content to be organised in your product.
• Card sorting will help you organise information in a way that makes sense to your users
• When running a card sorting, we give test participants cards that represent the content and ask them to group them into meaningful categories.

How to conduct card sorting?

• Prep the list of cards
  • The topics should be selected based on the content of the app/website.
  • The maximum card should not exceed 40 cards.
• Prep the Pre-study sample questions
  • [Sample] - I find {insert name} website difficult to navigate/ find the information I am looking for. Options: Strong Agree/ Agree/ Neither disagree or agree/ Disagree/ Strong Disagree
  • [Sample] - Are there any areas of the {insert name} website you find difficult or feel could be improved? Option: List the specific areas. Eg:
    • Navigation (Menus, Breadcrumbs, Footer, Links, CTAs)
    • Content Display (Visibility, Accessibility, Layout)
    • Search & Filtering (Properties, Blog, Content)
    • Data Collection & Forms
    • Branding & Message (Values)
• Prep Post-study sample questions
  • [Sample] Were there any areas/ terms that were not included in the cards and if so, which and what group would they relate to?
  • [Sample] Are there any items that you are not sure about which group to put?
• Recommendations
  • 15/15/40 rule - 15min 15 participants 40 topics
  • Find topics that users struggle to categorise