This document outlines 8 better practices for information architecture (IA). It recommends diagnosing important problems, balancing research, advocating for long-term goals, measuring engagement, supporting contextual navigation, improving cross-silo search, combining design approaches, and tuning designs over time. The overall message is that IA is an ongoing process that requires balancing different design perspectives and tuning over multiple iterations.

1. 8 better practices
from information architecture
Lou Rosenfeld •! Rosenfeld Media •! rosenfeldmedia.com
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2. A handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/
A little goes a long way
documents meet the needs of your most important audiences
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3. Balanced research
leads to true insight,
new opportunities
from Christian Rohrer: http://is.gd/95HSQ2
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4. Steward Brand’s Pace Layering
model Typical design
focus
Stuff that gets ignored:
mission, vision, charter,
goals, KPI, objectives
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6. Contextual navigation:
your site’s desire lines
Determine
through content
modeling, site
search analytics
Deep navigation requires
content modeling:
a better approach to
deep IA and content structuring
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7. Recognizing
specialized queries
(e.g., proper nouns,
dates, unique ID#s)
search pattern:
regulations
March 2011
search pattern:
regulations Owens
search pattern:
search pattern: regulations
TA292761 Caterpillar
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8. " " Treat your content
to do
like an onion
information
layer usability content strategy
architecture
indexed by search
0 engine
leave it alone leave it alone
squeaky wheel issues
1 tagged by users
addressed
refresh annually
tagged by experts (non- test with a service
2 topical tags) (e.g., UserTesting.com)
refresh monthly
tagged by experts “traditional” lab-based titled according to
3 (topical tags) user testing guidelines
content models for structured according
4 contextual navigation
A/B testing
to schema
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9. Your site is a moving target
built on moving targets
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10. Summary:
8 IA better practices
1. Diagnose the important problems
2. Balance your evidence
3. Advocate for the long term
4. Measure engagement
5. Support contextual navigation
6. Improve search across silos
7. Combine design approaches effectively
8. Tune your design over time
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11. Say hello
Lou Rosenfeld
lou@louisrosenfeld.com
Rosenfeld Media!
www.louisrosenfeld.com | @louisrosenfeld
www.rosenfeldmedia.com | @rosenfeldmedia
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