Organisational Focused IA Online Information Service

Pratap Dungrani

An unfortunate side effect of running a content management system is that it encourages information architecture built around organizational structure rather than users need.

Most organizations CMS driven websites, their information architecture closely mirrors their internal structure. This is because it is easy to divide up responsibility for updating various parts of site if it is structured along departmental lines.

The problem with this approach is that users do not think in terms of organizational structure. They are task focused and so often an organizational IA is entirely inappropriate. It leads to confusion and frustration among users.

What is the Problem ?

1. No Structure The most notable structural problem is when

designers treat a site like one big swamp with no organizing principle for individual items. User do not know how to find right thing within sort time of period.

This is common on news sites and catalogue-based e-commerce sites, where each item (articles and products, respectively) is treated as a stand-alone unit without connections to related items. No wonder users leave those sites so quickly.

Mistakes

Best practice: With help of good focus group you can achieve good structure which can lead to better site.

Solution of point 1

2. Search and Structure Not Integrated

Search and navigation are not built properly which laid to confusion where and what is displayed. User could not find product which they want to see and may get confused which page he is now.

For example, Arriving on a page from a search is like parachuting into a city. Hopefully, if you want to go to Paris, you'll land there rather than in Amsterdam, but in any case, you're unlikely to land on the doorstep of your favourite restaurant. To get there, you'll need to walk or take a cab. Similarly, users often need to navigate the neighbourhood around their search destination.

Best practice: Link all content together having similar feature. Navigation between those page should be easy and prominent. User should land to page which they require.

Solution of point 2

3.Missing Category Landing Pages Category helps to understand what section user

is about to access but without category it is like walking on path which has no predefined destination. Category on main page gives over view of different type products available online so user can navigate to its required page. Some site gives link to product page without including category which cost more time to find and navigate product.

Category is like Heading or Title of book. Without title it is difficult to find that we are interested in. So Category is very important part of site.

Best practice: List all category for product before implementing into web page. Only include child page once category is implemented. Make sure no category is missing.

Solution of point 3

4. Extreme Polyhierarchy Compared to the physical world, one of the online world's

benefits is that items can live in multiple locations. Because websites can classify products and other content along multiple dimensions, they help users navigate locally to related items and provide faceted winnowing of a large product space into manageable shortlists that can satisfy the user's main requirements.

User do not want to spent time in understanding location and details about products. User needs simple and unidirectional flow to look into products.

Too many classification options and structured dimensions force users to think harder to move forward. The profusion of options also makes people question the information scent. This lack of confidence early in the site experience extends throughout their visit and can negatively impact the end result.

Best practice: Make classification sort and easy to understand. Wide classification is not really required. As we see abstract in any report or book same way used abstracted classification for explanation.

Solution of point 4

5. Invisible Navigation Options The very worst mistake might be to have no

navigation, but that's so rare that I'm not going to discuss it. Still, any feature that users can't see might as well not exist; invisible navigation is thus nearly as bad as no navigation.

Small children may like to know what’s going on while navigation but adult user do not like this.

Navigation must be easy and liable. No product or banner should be placed near navigation as it looks like advertisement which will be avoided.

No navigation or Invisible navigation requires more time to find product or may not lead to required product which makes site less useful and loose visitor on site.

Best practice: Usability depends on navigation. Make paper chart to see all links are established and no page is left behind. Also make sure that page are not given wrong navigation. Flow must be maintained properly.

Solution of point 5

6. Uncontrollable Navigation Elements

Typically, anything that moves and bounces detracts from Web usability; when navigation moves while users are trying to find their way, it's deadly. Users should focus on the higher-level problem of where to go, not the lower-level problem of how to manipulate the GUI.

Navigation to non required page such as advertising page or unnecessary page. It will frustrate user and may result into less liked site. Developer team should consider needs and time of user while implementing such intermediate page.

Best practice: Do not use intermediate page as a link between two connected page. Inserting add page is bad concept and decrease view of user. No pop up box or dialog box is suggested. Direct access to linked page is ideal way.

Solution of point 6

7. Made-Up Menu Options Each and every user is not fluent in language that site

carry. Hard and Fancy words may create problem to understand what type of content is hidden behind that button.

Users can't find something if they don't know what it's called. Even if you provide synonyms, the main navigation terms carry extra SEO weight and it's a waste to optimize for a query that nobody will issue.

Simple words helps to understand type and user is likely to access what they understand. There is difference between ‘make simple’ and ‘make painful’. User may not click that menu if they do not understand it. Still there are lots of developing team who use fancy word to make it different amongst other site but in real it is not helping.

Best practice: Always keep in mind that user can be from any part of globe. Fancy words or difficult words are hard to understand so only use those words that are used by most of user around the world. Simple format is the best format.

Solution of point 7

8. Misguided Information Architecture: Too Many Parents

Too many parents confuses small children and website users. Frequently, you’ll stumble across websites that will make the crucial mistake of including too many parent pages on their main navigation.

Parent page is head page of site and there should be only one parent page for one or more child page. One child page with many parent page creates confusion to user. User may not able to decide either one child page is same or different for different parent page.

Unfortunately, some site administrators feel the more parent page choices in the main navigation the better the chance the user will find his/her way.  This is not the case.  Too many options creates confusion and indecision

Best practice: Use less number of parent page in site e.g. 4 to 7 page and put other page as child page. Categorise those child page and only a lot one parent to every child page. No child page will have multiple parent pages

Solution of point 8

9. Navigational Irresponsibility: Creating Orphans

Orphan words itself describe meaning that have no parent. Many time subcategory or any product page is left alone without including into parent page. This pages are hard to find as no links are defined and sometime not accessible due to not defined into parent page.

This problems are usually generated while redesigning site or removing any parent page of that child page. If parent page is removed, there will be no defined link to child page and user may not find this page without knowledge of direct accessing link.

Continue… Instead of tying these orphan pages into the new

navigation, under a parent page, they are left out in the abyss only to be found again by users with the page bookmarked or found randomly through search. Orphan pages can be easily overlooked or forgotten with the excitement of building a new website, but is critically important to correct this issue. The integrity of your information architecture and ensuring your users are able to navigate to the most current and relevant information on your site depend on it.

Best Practice: Ensure that child page is also removed with parent page. Or link child page to newly created parent page so that it can be appear easily. Also make sure that you do not remove parent page completely if Child page is required.

Solution of point 9

10. Information Architecture OCD: Deep Sea Fishing

Deep sea fishing can be fun in the ocean, but burying your content in the depths of the sea is not recommended.  Sub-sectioning larger topics into smaller pages makes information more easily digestible; however, proceed with caution. Many clients that become lost in the weeds dividing topics from a Parent Page > to:

Subpage 1 (Level 1) >Subpage 2 (Level 2) >(…)Subpage 8 (Level 8) >Subpage 9 (Level 9) and before you know it your site has 10 different navigation levels.

Continue..... You cannot expect users to find the information

they require by navigating through 10 levels of navigation. User may end up navigating in between without getting result.

Solution of point 10 Best Practice: A common best practice for

most public websites, which can also be applied to intranet site, is to limit yourself to a maximum of 5 levels of navigation. Make navigation sort and effortless for user.

11. Navigation Quandary: Inconsistant Page Titles

Title is different compared to content on page. User end up on page contains information which user is not looking for. Puzzle are good for entertainment but on internet world it is not acceptable. If user gets different result after search than it will have negative impression.

For example, the main navigation title is ‘Documents & Policies’ but the page title is ‘Health Documents & Procedures’.  If there is a discrepancy between menu title and page title many users will assume they have not arrived at the page they intended.

Solution of point 11 Best Practice: Consistency is key –

ensure all main menu and submenu navigation match page titles, which in many cases can be controlled through your content management system within your intranet. After adding content make sure to check the title of that content, it will help to maintain consistency in user search.

Best way is by checking Usability of IA. There are many methods for studying usability, but the

most basic and useful is user testing, which has 3 components:

Prefer having user or team member to check and review the functioning of site.

Ask the users to perform representative tasks with the design.

Observe what the users do, where they succeed, and where they have difficulties with the user interface. Shut up and let the users do the talking. Take feedback from user and try to resolve problem encountered by user and implement solution as soon as possible.

How to Improve

Let user test site independently and do not help navigating through site. Make sure user face no difficulties understanding menus, category while navigation.

Best way to test site is to use 5 to 10 user who are from different background. Instead of trying to self solution and running large procedure to find errors, use real life user and take feedback. Run small test with the help of user and attain solution easily.

Developing team posses high knowledge of site and may miss small problem that user may face. SO prefer user testing instead of focus group. Focus groups have a place in market research, but to evaluate interaction designs you must closely observe individual users as they perform tasks with the user interface. Listening to what people say is misleading: you have to watch what they actually do.

Usability plays a role in each stage of the design process. The resulting need for multiple studies is one reason I recommend making individual studies fast and cheap. Here are the main steps:

Before starting the new design, test the old design to identify the good parts that you should keep or emphasize, and the bad parts that give users trouble.

Conduct a field study to see how users behave in their natural habitat. Make paper prototypes of one or more new design ideas and test

them. The less time you invest in these design ideas the better, because you'll need to change them all based on the test results.

Refine the design ideas that test best through multiple iterations, gradually moving from low-fidelity prototyping to high-fidelity representations that run on the computer. Test each iteration.

Inspect the design relative to established usability guidelines whether from your own earlier studies or published research.

Once you decide on and implement the final design, test it again. Subtle usability problems always creep in during implementation.

When to Work on Usability

The only way to a high-quality IA (for user experience) is to start user testing early in the design process and to keep testing every step of the way.

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-10-ia-mistakes/

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/fixing-information-architecture/

http://www.intranetconnections.com/blog/5-common-information-architecture-pitfalls/

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-questions-about-information-architecture/

http://journalofia.org/volume5/issue2/04-burford/

Reference