Big 4 professional service
Website information architecture
Information Architecture
Solution
Overview
Client, one of the Big 4 companies, was in the process of creating a new website to act as one access point for 142 websites that represent the organization's different branches. The solo website should grant different languages and locations while exhibiting personalization.
Problem
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Earlier Information architecture (IA version 01) was created to be internally focused and doesn’t represent external users.
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The website not only included different geographies but also partners and alliances were embedded.
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The Main issue is grasping stakeholders’ ideology and not getting down to users’ ground.
Identified concerns in earlier information architecture (IA version 01)
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Lack of unified identity
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Shattered brand guidelines due to customization
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Confusing user journeys
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Undiscovered business and user goals
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Absence of isolation effect due to unrecognized actions for users.
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Adhering to business-acknowledged terminologies that might not be understandable for users.
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The scariness of user engagement due to lengthy content
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Disagreement from stakeholders about categorization.
Solution
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Gather information from different teams to visualize site structure
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Understand content types and their fit in site sections.
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Identify the website’s primary and secondary goals
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Create (IA version 02) that depends on non-business-oriented users.
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Plan usability testing on both versions on IA.
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Invite both external and internal users (Stakeholders) to be testing candidates.
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Apply tree-testing, card sorting, and focus group UX methodologies.
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Create (IA version 03) based on usability testing reports.
Challenge
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Sharing the idea of creating a completely new information architecture instead of enhancing (IA version 01)
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Attendance of 80+ stakeholders to workshops for user testing.
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Alignment of external and internal user testing timelines.
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Creating a protocol that is understandable for an external user and reflects the professional standards expected from stakeholders.
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Collecting insights from the content team and product owners pre-creating (IA version 02) and testing execution.
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Adding flexible items in each section of information architecture to allow personalization while conserving consistency.
Process
More than one process was needed to align with different timelines and entities.
01
IA master testing process
02
Testing agency collaboration process
03
Internal team double diamond process