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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<meta name="author" content="John Robb">
<title>Information Architecture, plainlanguage.gov - John Robb, UX Designer</title>
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<h1>Plainlanguage.gov: Information Architecture</h1>
<p>January, 2016</p>
</div>
</div>
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<div class="container col-sm-offset-1 col-sm-10 col-md-offset-2 col-md-8 col-lg-offset-3 col-lg-6" style="margin-bottom:96px">
<p>
For my Information Architecture class, students were tasked with improving a website’s IA using site maps, wireframes, and a content analysis. I chose to
restructure <a href="http://www.plainlanguage.gov/">plainlanguage.gov</a>, a website last updated in 2005. The website is currently riddled with
unnecessary and outdated information along with confusing structure.
</p>
<a class="fancybox" href="img/pl/current-site.png">
<img src="img/pl/current-site.png" class="img-responsive">
</a>
<p class="caption">The current plainlanguage.gov homepage</p>
<p>
The final project was handed in as a PowerPoint presentation containing the content analysis, site maps, and wireframes. <a href="img/pl/Robb-HF740-FinalPresentation.pdf">Click here to view it.</a>
</p>
<h2>Challenges</h2>
<p>
<b>Scope: </b>
The current plainlanguage.gov website is haphazardly massive, making it difficult to define a scope early on.
</p>
<p>
<b>Client: </b>
There was no client for this project, so I created business goals which may not have reflected the organization’s actual goals.
</p>
<p>
<b>Class Constraints: </b>
Students were given two weeks to complete the project including a site map, content analysis, and wireframe templates. No formal user research was conducted for this project due to the short timeframe.
</p>
<h2>Process</h2>
<p>
First I set the project’s business goals, design goals, scope, user groups, and risks in a "Project Overview" document. Then I created a site map to
reflect the current state of the website’s structure, including the primary and secondary levels of the entire website as well as the tertiary level of one
tab.
</p>
<a class="fancybox" href="img/pl/old-sitemap.png">
<img src="img/pl/old-sitemap.png" class="img-responsive">
</a>
<p class="caption">Current Site Map (created with Gliffy) <a href="img/pl/old-sitemap.pdf" target="blank">View high-res PDF</a></p>
<p>
This activity unveiled many problems with the website’s structure:
</p>
<ul>
<li>The homepage did not reflect the website’s structure or content</li>
<li>Categories were not targeted towards users’ typical needs</li>
<li>The large amount of content on the website resulted in a complex structure</li>
</ul>
<h3>Content Evaluation</h3>
<p>
Conducting a qualitative and strategic content evaluation revealed many content issues. The most severe issues were about the findability,
accuracy, and usability of the content:
</p>
<p>
<b>Findability: </b>
Website Architecture and Navigation hide content from users and the “Search” function is broken.
</p>
<p>
<b>Accuracy: </b>
The event displayed on the homepage is over 2 years old and many links (e.g. all on “examples” page) result in a 404.
</p>
<p>
<b>Usability: </b>
Links are presented within long sentences and paragraphs, inhibiting “information scent” and skimming. Content that should be on one page is split into
multiple pages.
</p>
<p>
See the full content evaluation in <a href="img/pl/Robb-HF740-FinalPresentation.pdf#page=19">the appendix of the full report.</a>
</p>
<h3>Updated Sitemap</h3>
<p>
The updated sitemap implemented a series of improvements:
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Eliminates unnecessary pages that don’t meet business goals (e.g. “Popular Topics,” “Useful Plain Language Quotes,” “Usability,” “HowTo.gov,” “Short,
Funny Videos”, and more)</li>
<li>Restructured the architecture so the homepage lies on the primary level with other important primary categories</li>
<li>Rather than supplying information in tertiary links, important content is pushed to primary pages.</li>
<li>The new categories were extrapolated from the personas and probable use cases of the website</li>
</ul>
<a class="fancybox" href="img/pl/new-sitemap.png">
<img src="img/pl/new-sitemap.png" class="img-responsive">
</a>
<p class="caption">Updated sitemap (created with InDesign)</p>
<h3>Updated Wireframes</h3>
<p>
The final part of the project included a series of wireframe templates that reflected the changes to the sitemap. I chose to create the wireframes in Axure
with a mobile-first approach to force a focus on the most important aspects of the interface.
</p>
<a class="fancybox" href="img/pl/wf-1.png">
<img src="img/pl/wf-1.png" class="img-responsive">
</a>
<a class="fancybox" href="img/pl/wf-2.png">
<img src="img/pl/wf-2.png" class="img-responsive">
</a>
<p class="caption">Initial whiteboard sketches</p>
<a class="fancybox" href="img/pl/home.png">
<img src="img/pl/home.png" class="img-responsive">
</a>
<p class="caption">Homepage Wireframe (created with Axure)</p>
<a class="fancybox" href="img/pl/primary-lp.png">
<img src="img/pl/primary-lp.png" class="img-responsive">
</a>
<p class="caption">Primary Landing Page</p>
<a class="fancybox" href="img/pl/examples.png">
<img src="img/pl/examples.png" class="img-responsive">
</a>
<p class="caption">Non-Article Page</p>
<a class="fancybox" href="img/pl/article.png">
<img src="img/pl/article.png" class="img-responsive">
</a>
<p class="caption">Article Template</p>
<h2>What I Would Do Differently</h2>
<p>
Conducting formal user research using card sorts and tree tests could have validated or contradicted some of my design choices.
</p>
<p>
I would have started with a smaller scope, then expanded if necessary.
</p>
<p>
Comparing each piece of content against the personas’ goals would have made it easier to decide what content should exist on the website.
</p>
<h2>What Went Well</h2>
<p>
Designing the wireframes mobile-first simplified the layout of the desktop view and kept the interfaces focused and uncluttered.
</p>
<p>
Doing this project from an information architecture perspective was a good idea, as it unveiled issues with the foundational structure of the website
which affect the entire experience.
</p>
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