Web IA - Defining Site Requirements 5/2000

Information Architecture is the blueprint from which all other aspects of a web site (function, navigation, design, etc.) are built.

I. Defining Site Requirements

Step 1. Define Site Goals

You want everyone in the company (at least most of the important decision makers) to be involved. This doesn't mean that everyone should be actually making the decisions, but they should agree on the overall content and purpose of a site. Defining a site's goals establishes a clear, well-documented idea of where the site is going, and ensures that everyone is participating. This will also help to achieve user/client buy-in and ownership. By ownership, I mean that the client will feel like they are part of the decision-making and development process, not just being handed a new site.

First determine who will be involved in determining the sites goals. There are two important groups (and maybe more) that you must receive participation and acceptance from. 1. The people signing the checks. These are the upper-management or business owners that must approve spending for the project. These are the people who likely will be making the final decisions, and must be satisfied with the product. 2. The people who know the most. These persons could be the business owners, they could be the customer service reps, or they could be the webmasters. Figure out who performs what functions within the company and make sure those in the know are heard.

You must decide what type of formal documentation and goal setting is required. For a large-scale web site development project, it is important to take significant time to formally plan and document the goal setting phase. Obviously project management skills are much more important in large-scale development projects. A series of formal meetings to establish, and agree on, a sites goals and objectives should be utilized. For the development of a smaller site, or under very limited time constraints, skipping much of this formal process may be advantageous. Goal setting can be achieved through interviews with key personal.

Questions

What is the mission statement or purpose of the company or organization?
It is very important to achieve a firm understanding of this, before you run off and try to build a site.

What are the short and long-term goals of the site?
The short-term goals may be to attract new users with a well-designed and visually pleasing site. The long-term goal may be to facilitate online bill payment. Even though phase 2 may be a ways off, it is important to understand before building phase 1, because it will influence the way the back-end and infrastructure is built and configured.

Who are the intended audiences (users)?
Obviously these are the people you should be designing the site for, not because the owner likes Flash. This is something you must constantly take into consideration when developing a site. Keep asking yourself, "does it add value to the user".

What is it that will drive people to your site, and what is it that will keep people coming back?
Not necessarily what advertising and marketing will you do (if any), but what is it about your site that makes it worth visiting? In addition, what is it that will make the user want to come back? What is the most valuable content you will offer? What is your niche?

After receiving feedback from members of the organization, you now need to generate order from the chaos you have created. John Shiple (of Webmonkey and Squishy Designs) recommends separating the responses about target audiences and saving them for later. He then recommends rephrasing the rest of the questions as goals, and putting them into a list. If the list is long, group them into categories. Then take these categories and goals back to the clients and have them rank them in order of importance. If anyone has recommendations for titles of these categories, make note of them. It is then necessary to take into account the relative importance of the person giving the feedback. Once you have compiled a master list of the sites goals and their importance, you must get client agreement and sign off. Sometimes it will take multiple iterations of the list before an agreement is reached. From this interaction you should be able to develop a solid understanding of the important content that will be contained in the site. You should also be able to see the major content sections of the site beginning to take shape. The site goals will form the basis, and section one- Goals, of the site Design Document.

Step 2. Define Site Audiences

It is important to identify the various audiences or user groups that will use your site. If you are redeveloping or designing a site that is currently in existence, it is important to recognize the audiences that currently use the site, but also potential audiences that you want to attract to the site. If you are developing a completely new site you have to anticipate the audiences that will likely come to the site, and those that you wish to attract. For a financial Web site these audiences could range from brokers to college students, to retirees. It is imperative to recognize why each of these audiences would be coming to the site, and design methods that allow them to easily receive the content they desire.

After defining these potential audiences, the client must rank them in order of importance. If one particular audience group represents the majority of a company's potential revenues, then they should obviously be ranked as a high priority. It is at this stage where you can begin to see how the important goals relate to the important audiences. An important goal that relates to an important audience, should be reflected as a highlighted or important piece/section of content on the site. Try to anticipate what each user group is trying to accomplish when coming to the site. These needs should drive the development of content, and later help to define the sites structure and navigation. The Audience forms section two of the Design Document.

Step 3. Competitor Analysis

Knowing your competition is imperative when designing and developing a Web site. It is important to understand and evaluate your competition, and identify potential opportunities or threats. Your competition allows you to see what is working and what isn't. It helps you generate ideas on ways to improve on what is being done by others. It also helps you identify where others have an advantage over you. You should constantly evaluate and monitor the competition for new developments and initiatives. There are many useful services that focus on competitor research and monitoring. One such company is Corporate Insight (www.corporateinsight.com), which publishes e-monitor and mutual funds monitor for the financial industry. Many times it is helpful to develop a matrix of features offered by your competitors. These are two basic representations of how you can track competitor sites.

Part II of this paper "Designing and Developing" will follow at a later time.

John Shiple of Webmonkey and Squishy Designs inspired many of the ideas and methods discussed in this paper.