Website Architecture Planning | UX

If you’ve ever visited a site that was disorganized or you couldn’t find what you were looking for (even though you know the information is there), you’ll understand how frustrating a bad layout can be. You may even have decided to stop using that site and changed over to a different company with similar services as a result.

If this has happened to you, you understand the importance of categorizing your own site’s content in a manner that makes navigating to the desired pages an easy matter—because you don’t want to lose clients, of course!

But how do you know whether your site’s layout and categorization is as easy for your users to understand as it is for you? After all, you built the site (or at the very least gave your developer/website manager directions in doing so), and therefore know where to find everything, but your target market may have a slightly different way of thinking. And if your users struggle to find your content the way you’ve grouped it, they too may consider moving on to a competitor. This is where card sorting (and card sorting software or sessions) saves the day.

Is your website organized in a manner that makes sense not only to you but also site visitors within your target market? Nothing can be more frustrating than not being able to find information that you know is available on a site. When content is not where you expected it to be, your website will lose visitors and reputation of being a credible source of information.

Card sorting (and by extension, card sorting tools) is a convenient means of testing your site’s layout and finding out whether or not you need to make any changes that can improve your information architecture.

AB testing is a randomized experiment that has two variants (A and B) which are the control and variation within a 2 sample hypothesis testing. This kind of testing is a way to compare two different versions of the same variable, generally done by testing the reaction that the subject has to variable A against the reaction to variable B, and then determine which of the variables is more effective. Sometimes called split-run testing and bucket testing, this is a pretty standard test. What does this have to do with website optimization? When you run an A/B test for your site, you are able to test two versions of the same content against each other to see which performs better as a whole—it will lead to more conversions, a lower bounce rate, and a higher retention rate.

Determining how to organize your web site is no easy task. Finding the right structure for your site can take quite a bit of research and trial and error. To find that right fit you need to understand information architecture and choose the right method for you.

Having a website is a vital part of internet presence. It is used to communicate with those who are curious about your brand as they visit the site to seek information. The website needs to be able to help them find what they are looking for and connect with them in a way that will help you achieve your own goals as a brand.

It takes time to make information easy to find on a website, and you must be willing to review the website from the perspective of someone that is outside of the brand so that you can really understand if it does or does not work. Presenting this information in a way that can be understood to a variety of people will take the skills of someone that can write clearly and concisely with just a dash of empathy.

How can you ensure this? Start by asking yourself these questions: who is coming to my website and what are they looking for? What do I want them to know? Is the content of my website meeting the needs of the biggest or most important visitors? Are the same questions being asked over and over again? Is there any content on the site that would keep them interested in coming back? As a website, you must do more than just provide information, you must maintain, cultivate, and grow relationships with visitors.

This guide will offer some advice about the best practices on how to evaluate and improve your information architecture. You will need to start by thinking with strategy about your content, then recognize how to organize the pages for a more intuitive user experience, and then you will gain information about how you can write more effectively for your content on the internet.