UX Information Architecture
UX information architecture organizes and labels digital content so people can understand where they are and find what they need. It defines the structure behind navigation, search, and related-content paths.
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Intro
UX Information Architecture
Information architecture, or IA, is the structure behind a digital product's content and functionality. You decide what exists, how items relate, and how people can find them.
Users rarely see the whole structure. They experience its consequences through navigation, search, filters, breadcrumbs, links, and labels.
Good IA makes useful content findable and discoverable. It also helps people understand where they are and what choices are available.
IA is not navigation
Navigation is a collection of visible interface components. IA is the underlying organization that informs those components.
This distinction changes the order of your work. You first understand the content, user needs, and relationships. You then choose navigation components that can represent that structure.
A sitemap is also not the complete IA. It is one planning artifact that visualizes hierarchy and relationships. The IA also includes labels, taxonomies, metadata, search paths, and maintenance rules.
The parts you design
You usually work across six connected parts.
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Sources
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ia-study-guide/
Supports
- Information architecture principles, research methods, and navigation design as connected areas of study
- Card sorting as discovery and tree testing as evaluation
- Ordered progression from foundations through research and navigation design
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ia-vs-navigation/
Supports
- IA as the identification of content and functionality plus their organization, structure, and nomenclature
- Navigation as visible interface components informed by IA
- Content inventory, content audit, grouping, taxonomy, and metadata as IA activities
- Need to understand IA scale before choosing navigation components
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/information-architecture-sitemaps/
Supports
- Sitemap as a hierarchy visualization and planning artifact
- IA as broader than a sitemap
- Content inventory, audit, taxonomy development, research, and structural planning as IA activities
- IA as an ongoing content-management process
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/flat-vs-deep-hierarchy/
Supports
- Breadth and depth tradeoffs in content hierarchies
- Risks of buried content, generic categories, overlapping categories, and overloaded menus
- Card sorting for structure discovery and tree testing for validation
- Breadcrumbs and alternative routes as orientation aids in deeper structures
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/3-click-rule/
Supports
- The three-click rule as unsupported by published evidence
- Task complexity and comprehension as more meaningful than click count alone
- Risks of overly broad structures created to satisfy an arbitrary limit
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/taxonomy-101/
Supports
- Taxonomy as a controlled vocabulary for classifying content
- Distinctions among navigation, underlying IA, taxonomy, and content models
- Taxonomy support for facets, search refinements, and related content
- Need for controlled terms rather than ad hoc vocabulary
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/card-sorting-definition/
Supports
- Card sorting definition, preparation, execution, analysis, and limitations
- Open, closed, and hybrid card-sort distinctions
- Card sorting as evidence about mental models rather than a finished hierarchy
- Importance of representative items, neutral labels, pilot testing, and follow-up questions
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/tree-testing/
Supports
- Tree testing as task-based evaluation of a hierarchical category structure
- Use of a text-only hierarchy and predefined finding tasks
- Path, success, and wrong-destination evidence
- Different purposes of generative card sorting and evaluative tree testing
- Need for usability testing when visual design, interaction, and content must also be evaluated
- https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/multiple-ways.html
Supports
- WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 2.4.5 and its intent
- Different users benefiting from different ways to locate content
- Navigation links, tables of contents, sitemaps, search, and page lists as sufficient-technique options
- Exception for pages that are steps or results in a process
- https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/menus/structure/
Supports
- Semantic lists conveying menu structure to assistive technology
- Identification and labeling of navigation regions
- Programmatic indication of the current item
- Consistent wording, order, and destinations across screen sizes
- https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/navigate-a-service/
Supports
- Navigation links for repeated, multi-task, non-linear services
- Avoiding navigation links for clear end-to-end journeys
- Selecting important top-level service links rather than copying a sitemap
- Separation of broad GOV.UK navigation from service-level navigation
- https://github.com/goabstract/Awesome-Design-Tools#information-architecture
Supports
- Discovery of maintained tools listed specifically for information-architecture work
- DYNO Mapper, Octopus.do, OptimalSort, and Treejack as curated IA tool candidates
- https://www.optimalworkshop.com/product/card-sorting
Supports
- First-party description of collecting participant groupings and labels
- Use of card sorting for navigation, menus, content, and information architecture
- https://www.optimalworkshop.com/product/tree-testing
Supports
- First-party description of tree testing for content findability and hierarchy evaluation
- https://octopus.do/
Supports
- First-party description of visual sitemap, content organization, collaboration, and export features
- https://dynomapper.com/
Supports
- First-party description of visual sitemaps, content inventory, content audit, and website planning features