Training Worksheet: Information Architecture

A Step by Step Guide to Help You Organize Your Information

Information Architecture is the way that you organize the information on your website so that it can be easily found and accessed by your users. Information Architecture includes your menu items, categories of information, where you place your content on your website, and the words you use to define content (vocabulary).

Start thinking about how you will organize your information by following this step by step process:

1. Think about the mission and goals of your organization. Review your strategic plan or plan of service.
2. Make an inventory of what content is currently on your site.
3. Define your user groups - who use your site and what kind of tasks do they do on the site?
4. What would you like to add to your website? Do you have any new services or resources that you would like to promote?
5. Review any analytics that you can access. Which features of your current website get the most use?

Bring all this information together to determine your menu structure, content to be included, and vocabulary to be used.

For more information on Information Architecture:

Usability.gov is the leading resource for user experience (UX) best practices and guidelines, serving practitioners and students in the government and private sectors. The site provides overviews of the user-centered design process and various UX disciplines. It also covers the related information on methodology and tools for making digital content more usable and useful.

https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/information-architecture/index.html