Information Architecture

Planning the architecture of information to be included on your web site involves several steps:

1. First, you must determine all the possible kinds of information that might be useful in accomplishing your web site goals. What information do you already have? Brochures? Databases? Catalogs? White papers? Specification sheets? In this step you define the universe of information available.

2. Next, it's time to ruthlessly edit the list of possibilities to eliminate anything that does not directly and obviously serve the site goals. It's helpful to have us as a neutral third party involved in this process, because employees and departments often have their own agendas for what they would like site visitors to know. Sometimes this has little to do with your customers needs and more to do with internal politics or job recognition issues. We can help your business or organization edit effectively by providing an objective, professional point of view.

3. Once you determine the actual information to be included, the structure of how the information will be presented can be planned. How will information be categorized? What names will be used for categories? Will icons be helpful, and, if so, are there iconic symbols that can easily be understood? Do these need to be international? How can links be structured to allow viewers to find information they are seeking in a minimum number of clicks? This step may involve storyboarding the site or building dummy pages so link structures can be visualized and tested for flow problems.

4. Finally, the results of planning the web site's information architecture should be clearly documented to serve as a reference as the site is actually developed. Part of this includes details about any content that needs to be developed especially for the site, and who will be responsible for providing the content. Identifying who will need to sign off to approve content is also essential.

Turtle Island Web Design has years of experience to help you manage and create your web site's information architecture efficiently and successfully.