The information architecture and the User Experience

Importance of Information Architecture and Design Evaluation

"Users must be able to find content before they can use it; searchability precedes usability." - Louis Rosenfeld, Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond.
AI and UX are essential activities. However, a recent study by Mckinsey "The Business Value of design" determines that more than 40% of the analyzed companies still do not take into consideration the end user during the definition and development of the sites, and over 50% admitted that they do not have an objective way to evaluate or establish goals for their design teams. Due to a lack of objective evaluation of this activity, it is difficult to make budget allocations.To define the KPIs and proposed objectives, it is essential to understand the scope and impact of developing a good Information Architecture (IA).

What difference does it have compared to other disciplines?

• AI is not UX Design: the term Information Architecture (AI) is closely related to the concept of User Experience (UX). However, it is more about the structure of the entire website or application, while UX design is related to how a user feels when interacting with it.
• AI y Navegación: navigation guides users through a website or application via links. It is basically a collection of user interface components such as filters, related links, footers, and also global or local page navigation. Navigation is built based on AI as part of it.

But what is AI and what activities and tasks does it require?

1. Define the company's objectives

To define the objectives, it is key that the different areas of the company are involved and agree with the final version.
The objectives can be divided into the following categories:

• Improve brand positioning
• Increase billing
• Reduce costs
• Support the different processes of consideration and consultation

2. User Analysis

It is important to highlight that we are referring to users, which means that it can be internal company personnel, suppliers, potential clients, media, etc... Each of them uses our site in a different way according to their needs and interests. Therefore, it is important that through surveys to user groups, we determine which "user personas" we are going to define, as well as the usage scenarios.
To do this, we must ask ourselves what these users are going to do on the website, what are their goals? Do they have limitations, for example, in terms of technology to access the site?

3. Competitor analysis and benchmarking

An exhaustive analysis of our competitors' sites is essential in order to be distinctive and import or adapt good practices from other sectors.
Competitive analysis helps to understand the industry and document the characteristics and technologies used by the competition and how they have addressed various issues. This process can be quite extensive or quite simple. If it is not possible to conduct an analysis with in-depth surveys or group dynamics, it is advisable to analyze and document the characteristics of three of the main competitor websites. This process is carried out by listing or relating the requirements of our site, to which we can add additional features identified from the analysis. To complete the analysis, it is advisable to prepare a conclusive report on the results, which can be used to work on competitive positioning.

4. Content Analysis

The most common scenario is to encounter a site that already has content. In this case, the most important thing is to decide what content to keep and what to get rid of. Therefore, the most appropriate way to approach this is through a complete inventory.
This task involves identifying all the content present on the site: pages, banners, downloadable content, interactive content, data sources (external data sources), etc., so that we can determine what needs to be removed, created, or updated. This process is laborious, but it guarantees us a comprehensive view to address the creation of the AI, as well as for planning the site's development phases.
If due to issues related to commitments and time we cannot carry out a complete inventory, we can conduct a content audit. This approach provides us with less information, but it is quick and simple.

5. Information architecture and site map

The information architecture proposal will list the pages and present the hierarchy and structure between them. It should also show the objectives, the needs of different users, as well as the functionalities of the page. Finally, the site map will be developed based on the information architecture created previously.
The benefits of a good information architecture.

• Mejor alcance del proyecto: una arquitectura de información actúa como un modelo para mapear patrones y rutas de interacción. El diseño de AI personalizado proporciona una mayor claridad para el proyecto. Desde una perspectiva presupuestaria, una mejor comprensión del alcance del proyecto permite al desarrollador proporcionar estimaciones más precisas a los gerentes de proyecto, propietarios de productos y clientes.
• Correct content gaps: AI tries to organize content in a logical way, taking into account what content may be missing and what content fits in each place. A personalized information architecture identifies areas of content groupings or duplications.
• Full product view inside and out: an information architecture acts as a model for mapping interaction paths. And therefore, it is the foundation of any site to understand and create marketing automation functions, having a complete view of marketing initiatives, blogs, and landing pages.
• Improve the SEO of the page: websites with a clearly defined and effective site structure perform better and have a much higher ranking in search results.

Conclusion

At SEIDOR we can advise and support organizations in each of these aspects in the implementation project of their eCommerce platform in order to guarantee an excellent Customer Experience for their clients.