Albert Hadley, a famous interior designer, used to say, “Forget the floor plans. Arrange the furniture where it is most comfortable and looks best. ” This may apply to apartments and houses, but when it comes to apps or websites, I couldn’t disagree more. In fact, most of the apps I deleted in the last few years had a poor “floor plan” and frustrating navigation. When I stumble upon a website and cannot find what I’m looking for within five seconds, I simply lose interest and exit. A good information architecture would increase my time on the website; it’s as simple as that.
Information architecture: What is it all about?
It is the discipline of making information findable and understandable. This includes searching, browsing, categorizing, and presenting relevant and contextual information to help people understand their surroundings and find what they seek online and in the real world.
Interaction Design Foundation
Every website, software, or mobile application requires a solid framework that helps define and organize user paths, guiding users efficiently toward their goals. This framework consists of three key elements:
- The content: the data, the actual information that needs to be organized. This is where systems such as navigation, search functionality, labeling and tagging, and information categorization play a crucial role.
- The user: the audience. Here, we focus on understanding how users search for, consume, and interact with content. Grasping the user’s experience is crucial for developing an effective and user-friendly design.
- The context: The setting in which a user engages with content, including where, when, why, and how they are searching for and interacting with it.
The intersection of Context, Content, and Users forms the foundation of Information Architecture (IA). It aims to balance the needs of the business with those of the users while effectively managing the available content. The goal is to cater to both parties, providing an experience that fulfills the organization’s objectives and the users’ needs.
Why is information architecture so important?
Creating a logical navigation hierarchy that meets the user’s demands is crucial for the success of the website or app. It provides a straightforward way to arrange this information, making finding what the user needs much easier.
A good IA would reduce users’ cognitive load. When a screen is cluttered with excessive information and lacks a clear structure, it becomes challenging for users to concentrate. A clear visual navigation path showing users exactly where they are improves their understanding of the content. Additionally, a well-structured IA should reduce the duplication of information, a negative pattern commonly observed in many websites. By understanding and documenting the content structure, especially on information-heavy sites, we can prevent these issues from arising.
Overall, investing time and energy in a well-designed IA enables the business to achieve a better return on investment through the efficient use of the platform.
Analysis of a website’s IA
This interesting task involves carefully analyzing a website’s information architecture and examining whether the above mentioned key elements are adequately addressed. For this purpose, I chose the website of a school I attended last year and know very well.
The New Haven Adult Continuing Education Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting adult learners through a variety of educational programs. These include English as a Second Language, High School Credit courses, the General Educational Development Program, the National External Diploma Program, and many others.
My analysis starts with identifying the target audience of the website – current or future students of the school. Most of these students are from abroad, and English is not their first language, nor do they typically have a strong academic background.
The website provides essential information about the institution and its diverse offerings for adult learners. It also simplifies the enrollment process for students and facilitates payments for those who need to handle course fees.
To conduct this analysis, I created a sitemap that clearly illustrates the website’s current information architecture. This visual tool helps clarify the site’s structure and organization, allowing me to examine its hierarchy and navigation more effectively.
The current information architecture of this website provides many helpful features for users. It includes a lot of data, both textual and scanned PDF brochures, in multiple languages. However, the existing IA has several issues that negatively affect the user experience.
Long global navigation:
The primary menu is overly lengthy, requiring users to sift through numerous options before finding the one they need. Additionally, the drop-down menus are extensive and lack clarity.
Here, we can see that the global navigation features eight main options, each accompanied by numerous sub-options. For example, the “About” section presents nine dropdown menu options that lack clear order or logic. The address of the school is not included and is hidden in one of the “Contact” drop-down menus.
Duplication:
Many features are repeated in several drop-down menus. As a previous user of this website, I have found that this redundancy can overwhelm users and create confusion about the available information.
Here, we see an overview of school programs listed in two sections: “About” and “Programs.” The distinction between courses and programs is unclear, with duplicated information. Users are forced to toggle between both categories, as related courses are split apart from their respective programs
Lacks clear user path:
Simple user tasks often pose challenges due to the lack of a clear and direct path. For instance, if a user wants to register for a course, one tab takes them to an online form, and another registration tab leads to a scanned brochure. If a user searches for course dates and times, they will not locate that information under the “Calendar” section, as one may assume. Overall, the user experience here is quite difficult, to say the least.
IA is too complex for the target audience:
Most website users visit for simple tasks, such as paying tuition, registering for a course, or checking schedule updates. The current IA is overwhelming and may be too comprehensive for the school’s target audience.
Proposed IA
The proposed IA addresses the above mentioned problems and provides users with a more straightforward and enjoyable experience.
The main modifications:
Removed the clutter
Cutting down menu options and consolidating tabs with no change in website content. The principle of choice in information architecture states: “More options mean more cognitive effort and more effort can sometimes mean more anxiety. Therefore, I have streamlined the global navigation from eight options to four.
Also, most users seek information about programs rather than look for graduation information or look at staff resources. Therefore, as a primary priority for users, I have positioned the section “Programs” as the first option from left to right in the global navigation.
I have consolidated several options into a specific parental category or section. For example, the “Contact” and “Staff” links, which were previously part of the global navigation, have been integrated into the “About” section. Everything related to the school’s structure is also conveniently located under that section.
No more duplication
Duplicated information was consolidated into one location. For example, the new drop-down menu in the “Programs” section displays the programs available to students. Simultaneously, it presents the list of courses as a subcategory menu within the respective program instead of duplicating it in another drop menu. Additionally, I have subcategorized all the request petitions for students into a single category rather than including them in all the categories.
Created clear user paths
Based on my experience and knowledge of the school, most website users want to do one of three things: pay, register, or search for courses. Therefore, the new sitemap includes a clear path for each of these tasks. For example, for registration, you go to the registration section, and the drop-down menu will guide you directly to the online form.
Remember the target audience:
The information for this specific audience needs to be user-friendly and uncomplicated. Users should not have to navigate through all the options to find a simple task, such as making a payment for their tuition. Keeping simple menus with clear titles would aid in simplifying the content to the users.
Reflections
The key to an enhanced user experience on a website or in an app relies on effective information architecture. Investing time and energy in iterative design, construction, and modification of this backbone can dramatically influence the success of the website and meet its users’ needs.
This assignment made me realize the lack of adequate information architectures on many websites I visit frequently. It is very tempting to present all the information to the user on the homepage without any specific order or logic. Some websites bombard you with a lot of data, hoping that something will catch your limited attention span. However, navigating through this overload of information and sorting out the specific details you need is quite challenging.
We should recognize “Homepage flooding” as a widespread internet disease. The strategies mentioned above may be the first step in finding a cure.
