Planning the information architecture (IA) for your CWRU website involves organizing and structuring the content your content as a first step. By taking the time to plan your content before your website build, you’re helping to make your website more intuitive and easy for users to navigate and find information.
Here’s a structured approach to planning the IA:
1. Define Goals and Objectives
- Who is your target audience?: Identify primary users (prospective students, current students, faculty, staff, alumni, etc.). Be honest with yourself during this process. A website can’t be all things to all people, so it’s important to craft your structure and content with your primary target audience in mind.
- How will they be using your website: Align IA with your strategic goals, such as increasing enrollment, enhancing communication, securing funding for new research, etc.
2. Audit Existing Content
- Content Inventory: Compile all of the current text and images you have for your website.
- If you are missing content, but know it will be created shortly make a note of it.
- Content Evaluation: Assess the relevance, accuracy, and usefulness of each piece of content. Identify content gaps or outdated information.
- Please note: During this step, it’s important to remember that your university website is not meant to be an archive, as your website is meant to be an up-to-date place for web users to learn more about the current state of your information. Instead, there are other tools/methods at the university for preserving data such as utilizing Google Drive or Box.
3. Create a Plan/Sitemap to Organize Content Hierarchically
- Create a Sitemap: Develop a hierarchical structure that outlines the main sections and subsections of the website. A visual representation (a bulleted list with indents or a visual sitemap) helps in visualizing relationships between different sections.
- Navigation Best Practices: To help make sure that your navigation provides the best experience for your users and is also accessible please be sure to consider the following:
- No more than 5-6 main navigation items: To avoid wayfinding issues and overwhelming users please keep main and secondary navigation items to between 5-6 choices.
- Consistent Voice/Tone: Avoid switching from topic-based (“Research”) to audience-based (“Students”) in your navigation. This helps users know where exactly they can find the information they are looking for without worrying if they need to look in more than one place (ex. “What if I’m a student and a researcher?”)
- Avoid Acronyms: According to university style guidelines, acronyms should always be spelled out on the first reference. For this reason, and the potential confusion it could cause users, acronyms are not advised for main page titles/navigation items.
- Avoid Jargon: Please be sure your navigation isn’t phrase-based or using colloquial terms.
- Visit the Neilsen Norman Group's website for more information on creating a sitemap.
Please note: It helps when thinking of the structure of your website to remember that you will have to create pages with content for each of the navigation labels you choose. For example, it would be a bad idea to choose to have a “News” page in your navigation if you don’t yet have any news articles. You can always add pages to your site in the future if needed.
4. Create a Way to Organize Your Content Based on Your Sitemap
You can use Google Docs to help you stay organized: Once you’ve decided on the structure of your website, follow these steps to create a comprehensive content document:
- Create a New Document: Open Google Docs and start a new document. Name it according to the project or website you’re working on, such as “Website Content Plan” or “[Website Name] Content Draft.”
- Outline Your Sitemap: At the top of the document, outline your sitemap. This should reflect the main sections and pages of your website as determined during the planning phase. Use headings to represent each main section or page, mirroring the structure of your sitemap.
- Detail Each Section: Under each header in your document, provide a detailed breakdown of the content needed for that section. Include sub-sections if necessary. For each page or section, specify key elements such as:
- Page Title: What will be the main heading or title of the page?
- Introduction: Briefly describe the content and purpose of the page.
- Main Content: Outline the key points or information that should be included. This might involve bullet points or brief descriptions.
- Calls to Action (CTAs): Note any CTAs that should be included on the page. There are button options in Drupal you can use for important calls to action.
- Media and Assets: List any images or videos that need to be included, along with their descriptions or placements.
- SEO Considerations: Include any relevant keywords, meta descriptions, or SEO guidelines for each page.
- Assign Responsibilities: If you’re working with a team, assign specific sections or pages to team members. Use comments or notes in Google Docs to provide instructions or feedback.
- Set Deadlines: Create a timeline for when content should be drafted, reviewed, and finalized. Google Docs allows you to add comments and track changes, making it easier to manage revisions and deadlines.
- Collaborate and Review: Share the document with other team members, stakeholders, or clients for input and feedback. Use Google Docs’ collaborative features, such as comments and suggestions, to refine the content.
As you craft your content please be sure to review the Web Writing Best Practices as well as the digital accessibility requirements for your content.
Thinking ahead about good information architecture is critical to having a successful online presence. If you have any questions about information architecture or how it relates to your Drupal site please reach out to help@case.edu or sign up for one of our upcoming Drop-In Sessions.