What is Information Architecture (IA)?
Refers to how we organize, structure and label content on our software.
What is the purpose of Information Architecture?
To help people achieve their goals and accomplish tasks with the least amount of friction.
What would be the ‘Skeleton’?
Information Architecture (Site map)
What would be the ‘Flesh an Organs’?
Content
What is the ratio between primary navigation and site structure?
1:1 mapping/relationship
What 5 things does Information Architecture reflect?
- How a website is structured
- How content is organized
- Influences primary navigation (but not all nav)
- Defines where content “lives”
- Big impact on user experience
What are the 6 steps to setting up Information Architecture?
- Follow conventions, benchmark peers
- Look at traffic data to understand the most popular areas and consider structure around those areas.
- Look at search data to understand what is searched the most to consider as higher priorities
- Define hypothesis and first draft of IA
- Conduct a card sort to validate
- Refine the IA
What is User Flow?
Refers to how people move through the IA structure.
How do you determine the length of the flow?
Number of different screen states, NOT the sum of the number of screens.
What 3 things do you need before designing a screen?
- Understand where the screen sits in the structure
- Understand it’s sequence in the main user flows
- Be conscious of different screen states
What do you need to consider before wireframing?
Need to consider all the different user flows/scenarios and identify the top 3-5 critical flows.
What is navigation in UX?
By product of IA representing the customer’s mental model.
What are the 3 types of navigation patterns?
- Horizontal
- Vertical
- Navigation drawer/Off canvas nav
What is a horizontal navigation pattern?
Primary (global) navigation on the top of the page on every page. It can drill down to a secondary navigation that changes depending on your location in the website.
What is a vertical navigation pattern?
Local (secondary) navigation particularly useful for a long lists of subsections that wouldn’t fit horizontally.
What is a navigation drawer pattern?
Borrowed from mobile, the global navigation disappears in certain areas and is replaced with local navigation. The global navigation is only accessible when clicking a menu button (hamburger) to open a sliding drawer.
