Information Architecture

Information Architecture (IA) deals with the visitors of your site, the goals of your site, the structural design and the organization of your Web site. In essence, it is the blueprint of your Web site—the structural logic that leads to the crystal clear delivery of your message and a delightful user experience. Regardless of medium, information design and interaction design are inseparable in developing clear communications. The benefits of Information Architecture include site usability, and a clear textual and visual description of how users will ultimately convert to the goals of your organization. In short, IA is the foundation of your success.

The IA is comprised of the four sections outlines below:

Behavior Model
Conversion Goals
Web Site Architecture
Calls To Action and Key Content Elements

Behavior Model

The critical first step in planning your Web site is to articulate the behavior model that represents your site's visitors. Your site visitors' needs and goals change as they interact repeatedly with your site over time. Likewise, their behavior progresses through a series of stages. An effective Web site delivers value by addressing needs and goals through each and every stage. Acro Media develops a behavior model that is unique to your site and the needs of your visitors.

Conversion Goals

After mapping out your behavior model, Acro Media can now plot out the conversion goals of your site. Every Web site will have its own unique goals that must reflect the business goals of the organization in order to maximize ROI. Various goals are plotted out that take into account the various audience groups and the behavior stages identified by the model. Once these goals are identified, the funnel steps are described which will lead a user down the path to a successful conversion.

Examples of Web site goals include:

Lead generation (for service-based companies, complex products, etc.).
Capture of contact information.
Sign up a new member.
Direct purchase of a product (ecommerce, packages services, etc.).

Once these goals are plotted out in your information architecture document, they are easily integrated into your Web analytics software (Google Analytics) to ensure that your site's goals are measurable and trackable over the lifetime of your Web site.

Web site Architecture

Acro Media’s architecture sitemap—is a clearly labeled overview of site pages and elements organized according to content theme (e.g. About Us, Products & Services) and purpose (e.g. Search, Contact Us, Privacy Policy).

The IA details interactive elements, text and calls to action (messaging that persuades users to act in accordance with your site goals) that either appear site-wide, on the homepage, or on other specific pages. The IA prioritizes each of these according to its relative importance, to help determine how best to channel site visitors through your site and towards desired actions.

Call to Action and Key Content Elements

Dynamite graphics and gorgeous aesthetics alone won’t convert site visitors to your goals. Calls to action (CTAs) are focused messages and/or compelling images—in the right places—that move users from one page to the next and urge them to act. Effective CTA design anticipates your target market’s needs and desires, objections, queries and more, to persuade them to do what you want them to do. In determining the CTA design of your Information Architecture, Acro Media focuses on your visitor behavior model, site conversion goals and sales process and cycles. Key content elements ensure that your visitor finds the relevant information quickly and in an effective format that compels conversions.

Usability Test

The Usability Test pinpoints key areas for improvement and determines if your site is working for, or against, specific organizational goals. This test measures both quantitative and qualitative criteria and presents ratings that determine the overall usability score. Elements tested include: contingency design, Information Architecture, user interface, copy design and site performance.

Online Survey

A custom designed survey solicits feedback from real site users. Results help shape the design and organization of the new site.

Card Sorting

Real and/or representative users participate in an exercise to organize key content topics into primary buckets/sections. This provides insight into what actual site users determine to be a logical flow for their browsing behaviour, and determines how the Web site navigation should be re-organized. This is an extremely valuable exercise when re-examining the Information Architecture.

Persona Development

A persona is a visual and textual representation of a key user group for your site. The persona is developed based on research into the target market, and creates hypothetical users of the site, their motivations for browsing the site and some insight into their browsing behavior. The process of creating these personas ensures that your site is designed from a user-centered perspective rather than from an organizational perspective.