What is Information Architecture?

Information Architecture (“IA”) is the process of organizing unstructured data, often digital artefacts, into a logical, systematic structure. It is the field of study that deals with how people interact with digital information. It’s an important aspect to consider when designing websites, intranets, and other types of software because it helps you understand what users are looking for and how they will expect to find it. Below are some of the sub-steps needed to be completed to make your website or application more navigable and easy to consume.

User Research and Analysis

Navigation and Hierarchy Creation

Wireframing

Labeling

Taxonomies and Metadata

Data Modeling

You probably don’t spend much time thinking about your information architecture, but it is a critical component of any successful business. Information architecture involves the way you categorize and structure all the content on your website in order to make it easily findable for customers. This post will take you through some basics of what information architecture is and how to implement it successfully on your site. It includes the decisions about which types of content go where and when in an organization’s pages or screens, as well as how they are connected together logically. The goal with IA is to make the process of consuming information as seamless and easy as possible for the information consumer.