Iterate 1st tranche of IA guidance

[sarawilcox]

Iterate 1st tranche of IA guidance after user testing.

• Take IA out of headings/page titles

About IA

• Make What IA is say "What is IA?" - in fact, this is not good practice. I've called the page "About information architecture" for now.
• Headings found to be “jarring” by dyslexic user- H1s, H2s, H3s with very little content in between. I've stripped this back.
• Most users want to see more examples, and “see examples of 'not how to do it' vs ' how to do it', to see the value of a good IA and how to do IA”. Am adding a few more examples to help clarify things.
• Suggestion of using NHS.uk as a case study for examples throughout the guidance. Have tried to clarify - not as a case study but examples.
• Make examples visual (note: only one user saw visuals on Why IA is important)
• Iterate images on Why IA is important
• Users tried to click blog posts – would be good examples, but need more context: what could I learn from it? Where is the link taking me?” Links to blog posts deleted for the time being.
• IA team contact info – add what they can support with, and how to contact- crosslink to other page
• IA principles - One user still wanting an example on this page, or linking off to examples on other pages - Linked off to another page.

Your topic in the wider IA

• “Topic” not fully explained – users didn’t find a definition, one equated to content. Examples of topics and sub-topics now included.
• User confused by word “wider” in title - not sure what to do about this.
• IA team contact- add another form of contact for those not on slack - we can't do this. No other means of contact.
• No definition of canons, unclear - references to canons deleted
• Opportunity to flesh out importance of synonyms using NHS.uk as example

Measure the success of your IA

• Agile terms – some users want reference to when this is done (e.g discovery, beta) while others state agile isn’t used by all teams so should be used. Deleted mention of agile phases.
• Need to include info on what to do if no access to analytics, or how to gain access - don't think we can deal with this here.
• Examples – suggestion of examples needed for internal search, user needs - won't add examples of user needs. This may feature in 2nd tranche. There are examples of internal search on another page.
• Definition of information scent from Why IA is important needed here, or cross linked
• “content switches between general and NHS specific.. Could the difference be made clearer?”

Overall

• More examples, more visual e.g use diagrams - have added more examples but not more visuals at the moment.
• How does this fit into a wider design process? Don't think we can deal with this here.

[sarawilcox]

[sarawilcox]

[sarawilcox]

I think I've done all I can for now. Remaining issues, e.g. visuals, to be picked up in next issue: #1565