Information Architecture for Small Businesses
If you “Google” for the phrase “information architecture,” you’ll find a multitude of explanations for what it is, who does it, how to do it, and more. Industry analysts are touting information architecture (IA) as a cornerstone to enterprise architecture and it is fast becoming a necessity as corporations strive to organize all of their information. The question for small business owners is this “do I need to be concerned about information architecture when planning my site?”
Louis Rosenfeld uses this diagram to define the broad concept of IA. There are three areas that are taken into consideration – the content or information, the context in which that information is consumed, and the consumer of that information.
Click to enlarge.
This article is the launch point for a series of articles that are intended to guide you through a simplified process to employ information architecture in your web marketing plan. To us, IA is an iterative process. You may start with an initial concept for your web site but to attract and retain customers, you will need to develop an improvement cycle. From your initial launch, you will want to collect data, analyze data, make changes, and so forth.
In the beginning, “collecting data” will include information on your business, your current and target customers, and your competitors. As you further refine your site, you will be adding in feedback from your customers, web site analytics, and more.
Analyzing and visualizing data will help you make decisions about how your information is being consumed by your customers. This will serve as a foundation for the next step in the cycle – making changes.
Based on your data, you’ll refine how your site is organized and/or how the information is presented. Any changes you make will be as a result of customers interacting with your web site. Then, you start the data collection process again.
The end result is that you’re listening to the voice of your customer, getting inside of your customer’s head, and providing them with the information they’re seeking.
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