Information Architecture for intranets – the foundations
This post forms the first article for Information Architecture and outlines some considerations at the planning stage.
An intranet that delivers real value and engages users will be based on a well-designed Information Architecture (IA).
Why is this so important?
An intranet is the mechanism that delivers relevant information to its user base. If the information cannot be found, or isn’t delivered within logical boundaries, the intranet will soon become irrelevant and redundant. Nobody wants that. A solid information architecture is a prerequisite for a well-maintained and well-performing portal. A good information architecture helps people find what they need and accomplish the tasks they want to complete – in a way that makes sense to them.
The information architecture is the foundation of a well-designed intranet and will include many areas to consider.
What are the areas I need to consider?
- Understanding of your users
- Understanding of your content
- Understanding of the scope
1/ Understanding your users
The most important step in planning an effective information architecture is understanding your users, your target audience:
- Who are your users?
- What key roles do they have?
- What do they want to do?
- What is their top task?
- Are they working remotely, using mobile devices?
- Are they all within your O365 tenancy?
- What terms do they use to look for content?
- What do they want to learn?
Answers to these questions will help to build a permissions model, a site structure, the beginning of a taxonomy and the permissions various users may require.
2/ Understanding your content
You may have heard the expression ‘content is king’. It is only king if you can find it! Finding relevant content logically and quickly is vital. Think about the categories of information in your organisation, such as services, products, areas of expertise, audience, and functions.
Don’t just think about your organisational structure and who owns the content. Think about the information people need in their daily work and the logical experience in finding that content.
A good example is to think about New Starters within your organisation. They will be looking for key information from many departments: HR, Finance, Estates, Pay and Pensions, etc. What if all training material for new starters, irrelevant of who owns the content, is surfaced within one page of your intranet specifically designed for new starter induction, wouldn’t that be a great end user experience? This scenario is perfectly possible and easily managed within SharePoint.
Think about the user experience in finding content. Departmental structures are not always the logical route to finding information. Research suggests over 70% of users will try to find the content via navigation before performing a search, so structure and navigation are important.
A taxonomy should be developed to help categorise content based on the above precepts.
3/ Understanding the scope
To get started with a high-level design, we need to understand the scope of the elements that will be involved.
Navigation/Site Architecture – how you will structure your sites so that users can find content. Are you considering a devolved publishing model whereby business areas curated news articles and other content? Are sites required or can you use metadata and/or independent libraries only?
Page Architecture – how content will be organised on each page so that users can further navigate or consume content effectively. Use of dynamic content surfacing.
Metadata Architecture – how you will structure and label your individual content items for browsing and searching as well as compliance and retention.
Search Experiences – how your users will “consume” your information architecture in addition to browsing.
Once a full understanding of the above areas is achieved, we can move on to the core elements that make up an intranet and plan out a proposed information architecture.