The eight principles of Information Architecture

Hierarchy and navigation are two essential components of any digital product. The first component defines the structure of content, while the second involves the ways users move through it.

There are lots of things which should be taken into account when building the Information Architecture, or IA, for a digital product.

According to great writers, Information Architecture is what gives meaning to the content, to the structure, that enables users to use something. AI is a combination of organization, navigation, taxonomy and aims to make the user understand content faster.

Reference: image from the book Information Architecture: for the web and beyond (ROSENFELD; MORVILLE; ARANGO, 2015)

Imagem from: https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/process/information-architecture/information-ux-architect/

Read also these articles about IA:

An Excellent Beginner’s Guide to Information Architecture by Career Foundry

What is Visual Hierarchy? by Interaction Design Foundation

In an attempt to summarize the most critical requirements for IA, Dan Brown created eight principles that can be used as a reference.

These principles are a great place to start when learning what it takes to create a solid Information Architecture for a project.

The eight principles of Information Architecture

1. Principle of objects: Content should be treated as a living, breathing thing with a lifecycle, behaviors, and attributes. Different content has different attributes and behaviors. An architect should start every project by identifying the kinds of content that will be present.

2. Principle of choices: It’s important to create pages that offer meaningful choices to users. At the same time, the range of available choices available for the user should be focused on a particular task. According to the book “The Paradox of Choice” by Barry Schwartz, too many choices can overwhelm a user and negatively affect their experience using a product. More options mean more cognitive effort, and more effort can sometimes mean more anxiety.

3. Principle of disclosure: Show just enough information to help people understand what kinds of information they’ll find as they dig deeper. By limiting the information they see at any one time, you allow your user to better absorb what they’re seeing. If users are interested in the information, they can dive deep into it by moving from preview to detailed information.

4. Principle of exemplars: Show examples of content when describing the content of the categories. For example, when browsing categories on eBay, each category is represented with an image of a product that falls into that category. This makes it easy for users to identify the category.

5. Principle of front doors: Assume at least half of the website’s visitors will come through some page other than the homepage. That means that every page should include some basic information so they know where they are. It also means every page should include at least top-level navigation so users will know what they can do next.

6. Principle of multiple classification: Multiple classification means that there should be different ways for your users to browse the content on your site. Different people are likely to use different methods for finding the information on your site. For example, some users may use a search function to find the content while others may want to explore through browsing.

7. Principle of focused navigation: Focused navigation means that navigational menus should not be defined by where they appear, but rather by what they contain.

8. Principle of growth: Assume the content on the website will grow. The amount of content you have on a site today may be only a small fraction of what you’ll have tomorrow, next week, or next year. Make sure the website is scalable.

While these principles are tailored to creating IA for a website, it’s possible to adapt them to other digital or even non-digital products.

Defining the sitemap

Sitemap example

Image from: https://www.chiefofdesign.com.br/arquitetura-da-informacao/

Hierarchy and navigation are two essential components of any digital product. The first component defines the structure of content, while the second involves the ways users move through it.

A sitemap helps visually denote how different pages and content relate to one another:

● The inventory of what we have

● Where it sits in the overall site hierarchy

● How we would navigate to it

The sitemap must take into consideration what the user expects to see (based on research) as well as how the business wants to show the information (based on project requirements).

Also, card sorting is a simple way to figure out how best to group and organize your content based on user input. One of our reasons why information architects like card sorting is the clarity of patterns that typically emerges.

Benefits of creating a sitemap

● A sitemap gives you an understanding of website navigation.

● Using a sitemap, one can easily calculate the amount of content needed.

● An interactive sitemap gives an understanding of work scope.

● Without a sitemap, one can not be sure that everything is taken into consideration and prepared.