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Information Architecture
(for the rest of us!)
Intro 1 2 « 3 » 4 5
Chapter 3
Site content
Now we're getting closer to a web site. We know what the goal of the site is, we know who it's targeting, and we have some idea of what the competitors' sites look and feel like. It's time to gather together all of the building blocks for your site.
1. Making a list
With your list of goals, audience assessment and competitive analysis as a guide make two lists:
- content elements or pages — blocks of information, graphs, images, stories, bios, etc., that the users will be coming to your site to read, see, download, analyze, or print out
- functional elements or pages — interactive pieces like forms, member login or registration pages (I'm purposely keeping this fairly lightweight at this time since this document is really geared toward the "more business, less baubles" kind of site.)
Keep in mind what you learned in reviewing competitive sites. This can either be a template of what to do or what not to do.
Also, don't forget static subjects like Privacy Policy and Copyright Notices in your content elements list. While not so important in print collateral, this is an example of critical content for any well-developed web site.
2. Checking it twice
Everyone in the organization with a stake in the site should be providing you with their own lists of desired content. Incorporate all of the site content ideas into these lists, then review and revise as necessary.
If there is a list of functional elements, rank them by importance. Think of each of these elements as if you were buying an application for your computer and decide if any given element (application) is important enough to be included in your budget. You will have to work with your web developer at this point to get an idea of cost-to-build and the time involved to implement these requirements.
3. Organizing the content
There are a variety of techniques you can use to organize your content. A large table to work on or a large blank wall would be helpful. On an index card or sticky note, list a content or functional element (from your list of content/funcitonal elements) and give the card a title. Once you have cards/sticky notes for each of your content/functional elements, arrange them into groups. Once you're satisfied with the organization these groups, make an additional card/sticky note for each group and give each group a name.
Again, if there's a team effort afoot, have everyone work on the arrangement of elements and groups until you have consensus that the organization is logical, intuitive, coherent and non-repetitive.
4. Top level navigation labels
So, you've got sticky notes, or cards, or scribbles on a white board arranged into groups with a note or card at the tope of each group designating a name for that group. You've just laid out the basic content architecture for your web site! The label cards will become the names of major navigation elements throughout your site to guide your user in to the information they've come for and back again.
5. Clean-up
There are two fairly important items to attend to here:
- check again with your team and/or your web developer to make sure everyone is still on the same page with regard to content organization and content divisions or labels, and
- make sure any content inventory that might need revising is done now based on any changes or revisions made to the content list.
6. Design document, chapter 3
Create a new chapter in your design document called "Content and Functional Requirements." Include a section about how the content is grouped and named, your list of functional requirements, and a summary of the content inventory as "Appendix B: Content Inventory."
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