Your site's information architecture and navigation design are the guiding force for your users' understanding of who you are, what you do and where to go. How many times have you found yourself visiting a site, thinking, "How come they don't have a section named for what I'm looking for? Why can't I find this important content I need more easily? I give up." A poorly designed architecture leaves users guessing where to turn next and feeling frustrated. After all, what good is the best product on earth if no one can find it?

• Clearly communicate message and organize content.
  When your site's structure is based on the way your users think about your services and offerings, there's no guesswork involved. When you're speaking the same language as your users, less 'mystery navigating' and poking around sites occurs. Users feel more confident about moving around your site and have a reliable way-finding system in place to guide them.
  
  
• Build user confidence and site loyalty.
  When users are rewarded with the content they expect when they click on a link, and when they feel comfortable navigating through a site, they become more confident users. This confidence keeps users coming back to your site when they require similar services or content.
  
  
• Establish an expandable and flexible structure.
  Today's Web sites are constantly growing and changing. A well-designed information architecture system anticipates this growth and plans for it to happen in an organized way. You won't be left a year or two down the line realizing you need another site redesign because your new content just won't fit the established site structure. And a flexible navigation can change over time to accommodate user browsing patterns. In this way, you can promote services and related topics more appropriately geared toward specific browsing habits.
  
  
• Decrease customer support costs by increasing customer satisfaction.
  Sites that make sense and provide what users are looking for mean users who are happier with their online experience. Users who require less assistance from your company's support staff. And that means more satisfied customers and less overhead.

1. Perform a content inventory.
   A content inventory is a complete detailed inventory and documentation of all pieces of content in the current site. It assists us in the process of organizing, assessing and placing your content into a new architecture structure.
   
   
2. Interview users and stakeholders.
   We'll interview your users to gather specific tasks and site needs. Having a full understanding of those needs will lead to the creation of a site that better meets users' expectations. The interview process involves definition of user types, recruitment of 4-6 users from each key audience type, conducting of interviews and analysis of feedback.
   
   
3. Create a task analysis.
   Our task analysis involves compiling all tasks as identified in the user interviews and organizing them into related task groups. These task groups form the basis for the mental model.
   
   
4. Construct a mental model.
   The mental model is a visual representation of how users think about interacting with your site content. We base the model directly on user interview data and it becomes the foundation for the high-level site architecture.
   
   
5. Unify the mental model with content types.
   Once the user tasks have formed the mental model, we take the content that was organized in the content inventory step and place it in appropriate "slots" that most closely match the desired user need. In this way, we begin to build out the lower levels of the navigation system. It also helps us identify areas where users aren't getting the content they want, or, conversely, are getting lots of content that they don't want.
   
   
6. Create the detailed site architecture.
   The unification of the mental model with the content types forms the site architecture. We use this structure to place and reorganize all site content into a more logical, flexible, and expandable system.

Contact us today to learn more about how site architecture and navigation system design can improve your site.