Information Architecture (IA)
Why Information Architecture (IA)
Get it right and your customers will always be able to find what they want, when they want it and how they want it. It's about 'usability' and 'findability'. Information Architecture (IA) is all about building appropriate organisational systems of your data and information, easy to use and intuitive navigational and search systems and using appropriate language and tone of voice for your audience. Get this wrong and it doesn't matter if you're the best in business at what you do, your audience/customers won't be able to use your website or find the product or service that's right for them.
By investing a small amount of time at the beginning of your website project in ensuring the functions and look and feel that you want are done in a way that makes them usable, intuitive and simple to use can be the difference between your online presence being a major success or a major disaster.
What is Information Architecture
It is:
- The combination of organisation, labelling, and navigation schemes within an information system.
- The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content.
- The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and intranets to help people find and manage information.
- An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.
It is the bringing together of business objectives, content and data and the requirements of the people that will be using your website to create effective user experiences; enabling, empowering and compelling your target audiences to do what you want them to do.
Take the example of an ecommerce store, it can be top of Google's search index with the best looking design known to the internet but if a potential customer can't find the product they're looking for and get through the checkout process then ultimately, what was the point of creating such a website in the first place?
Sagittarius Digital takes information architecture very seriously. So seriously that it's a core part of our website development process. We firmly believe that without taking the time necessary to properly understand your customers and then developing an IA that is suitable for them then your website will never reach its full potential. To find out how our Information Architecture consultancy can make a real difference please take a look at our Information Architecture case studies.
Information Architecture Case Studies
Jacksons Fencing presented a unique Information Architectural challenge having a product set that had no real online appropriate structure and a target audience in the lower internet usage and skills segments. However, through research, profiling and a proper IA process we transformed an average website into a class leading ecommerce website.Read the Jacksons Fencing case study.
Eurotunnel came to us and asked us to re-invent their booking process user experience and through a solid process of research and profiling, competitor analysis and use case development, coupled with usability reviews from consumer groups and user experience planning we developed a booking process that increased online sales by 10% 'overnight'. Read the Eurotunnel case study to find out more.
For the past three years we were official web partners of what was the Rizla Suzuki British Superbike team and the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP team. We were selected because of our ability to create an entertainment, fan website experience that was able to effectively recruit and retain fans year on year, whilst opening new, very successful, revenue streams for the teams. Read the Rizla Suzuki case study.