If the term “information architecture” is new to you, think of it as the navigation structure on your intranet. Effective information architecture makes it easy for employees to find what they’re looking for.
This playbook is designed to help you understand your intranet’s current information architecture and make improvements as needed. We’ve broken this process into 5 steps, some of which will be completed by Knowledge Architecture, and others that will be completed by your team. Each step is described in detail below. We look forward to partnering with you on your new information architecture.
Step 1: Review your Current State
When you're ready to get started, your Knowledge Architecture team will generate a snapshot of the current state of your intranet’s information architecture. This reference point will empower you and your team to take what works from your existing information architecture, and leave what doesn’t behind.
We’ll provide your current state snapshot to you in an interactive outline hosted on Dynalist. It will contain your intranet’s Tier 1, 2, and 3 navigation items.
Tier 1 items are the items visible on your intranet’s top navigation. (e.g. Home, People, Projects, etc.)
Tier 2 & 3 items are typically the headers and links on the left navigation of your intranet, but may also include content that appears on the community landing page or wiki pages on your intranet. We do not recommend going more than 3 layers deep at this stage.
Here is a section from a current state information architecture draft with Tier 1, 2, and 3 items identified.
Your Knowledge Architecture team will share this snapshot with you, answer questions, and support you in revising it if needed.
Contact your Client Success Manager or support@knowledge-architecture.com to get started.
Step 2: Review IA Templates
If your intranet transition will be a “Lift and Shift” of your current information architecture, skip Steps 2 and 3 and move on to Step 4.
Some intranet teams would like to use the transition to Synthesis 6 as an opportunity to address navigation pain points, reorganize the intranet completely, or something in between. If this is the case, then you have important decisions to make:
Is your current information architecture the right starting place, or do you need a completely different structure?
If you do need a completely different structure, what should that structure be?
It can be hard to know what good looks like for an information architecture because different people find information in different ways. A navigation structure that works for one set of users may not work for another, which can leave intranet teams in a difficult place when it comes to reorganizing content. However, if we look across enough users, patterns tend to emerge. Surfacing these patterns allows information architecture conversations to be less about one person being right or wrong and more about what works for the majority of users. Of course, this requires research.
Knowledge Architecture has completed quantitative and qualitative information architecture research with 600+ AEC users to identify navigation paths that get users to critical information quickly. We’ve combined this research with our experience supporting 130+ AEC intranets to create two information architecture templates. These information architectures were tested with architects, engineers, new employees, and seasoned professionals on a mock Synthesis 6 intranet, which means the research subjects were able to interact with mega menus and other new user-interface elements that didn’t exist in previous versions of Synthesis.
In this step you’ll review these templates to determine if either is a good fit to use as the starting point for your intranet’s new information architecture. If neither are a good fit, then we will use your current state as the starting point and inject best practices from Knowledge Architecture’s templates when applicable.
Template 1: Essentials
The Essentials information architecture is simple, complete, and flexible. It is a strong foundation that can be added to over time.
Essentials is designed for a firm with one or two primary offices and one or two primary disciplines. For example, an architecture firm that also provides planning and interior design with headquarters in Chicago and a handful of satellite offices across Illinois and Wisconsin.
Template 2: Essentials Plus
The Essentials Plus information architecture supports users who need company wide information, regional information, and information specific to their discipline.
Essentials Plus is designed for a firm with many offices and many disciplines. For example, a firm that provides architecture, engineering, and surveying with offices in Chicago, Denver, Austin, Raleigh, and Albany and a dozen satellite offices.
Step 3: Pick your Starting Point
Which of these three options (Essentials, Essentials Plus, or your current state) would you like to use as the starting point for your new intranet’s information architecture?
Once you’ve answered this question, your Knowledge Architecture team will provide you with a Dynalist version of your starting point information architecture for you to develop into your future state.
Step 4: Design your Future State
In this step you’ll adjust your starting point information architecture to meet your organization's needs. You’ll adapt your starting point information architecture in Dynalist by:
1. Removing content that doesn’t need to be migrated because it is redundant, outdated, trivial, or irrelevant (ROTI).
Redundant - Content that is listed in multiple places. Each piece of content should only appear in one location on the information architecture initially. This will be it’s primary location. If needed, additional links to this content will be added in the next step.
Outdated - Content that has been superseded
Trivial - Content that is not worth the investment to maintain
Irrelevant - Content that doesn’t apply to your organization’s current structure or needs
2. Adding content that is missing.
If you are working with one of Knowledge Architecture’s templates, cross reference the template against your current state. Copy items from your current state that aren’t ROTI to an appropriate location in the template.
If high priority essential content is missing from your information architecture, now is the time to add it. If you are working with your current state as your starting place, explore the Knowledge Architecture templates. You may find helpful navigation structures for your missing essential content there.
3. Identifying Private Communities. If there are communities that will have secure content that only a fraction of employees should have access to, identify these communities as “Private.” An example of a Private community might be a Leadership community containing sensitive content.
4. Identifying content that needs to be referenced in multiple places. There are times when it is helpful for content to appear in two areas of the information architecture. When this is the case, add links to that content in the information architecture and label these secondary locations as “Link”.
5. Ensuring important Tier 1 items will be visible to users. With Synthesis 6’s out of the box fonts and font size, you will generally be able to view seven to eight Tier 1 items across the top of your intranet. Here is an example of an information architecture with seven items in Synthesis 6:
However, you may lose real estate if you intend to:
Increase the font size
Have long Tier 1 names
If there are too many Tier 1 items to display, the additional items will be accessible via an ellipsis at the far right of the navigation. Private communities will only be visible to users who have permission to see them.
6. Evaluating the quantity of Tier 2 items do you have in each Tier 1 category. With Synthesis 6’s out of the box fonts and font size, you will generally be able to view five Tier 2 items in one mega menu. The HR + Office example below is a Tier 1 category that has with five Tier 2 items:
If there are too many Tier 2 items to display, the additional items will be accessible via an ellipsis at the far right of the navigation. While most Tier 2 items will be pages, which don’t have unique permissions, communities can be Tier 2 items as well. Private communities will only be visible in navigation to users who have permission to see them.
7. Evaluating the quantity of Tier 3 items do you have in each Tier 2 category? The number of Tier 3 items you'll be able to see will vary based on the height of your browser window. The taller the window, the more items you'll be able to see. That said, you will generally be able to view twelve Tier 3 items in one mega menu with Synthesis 6’s out of the box font, font size, and a browser sized for full screen on a laptop. To see additional items, the user will be able to scroll down.
The Design Technology category below is an example of a Tier 2 category with more than twelve Tier 3 items:
Step 5: Build and Revise
When your Synthesis 6 environment is deployed, you or your Knowledge Architecture team will build out your intranet’s shell based on the information architecture you’ve created in Dynalist.
Once you see your information architecture in the context of Synthesis 6, you may want to make adjustments to item titles, item order, etc. The content outliner allows you to quickly rename pages and drag and drop content, so it will be easy to revise your information architecture as needed in Synthesis 6.
When you’re comfortable with the information architecture as it appears in the shell, it’s time to invite end users to see the shell and react. Your Knowledge Architecture team can advise you on methods for collecting feedback based on your firm’s needs and your information architecture’s complexity.
Wrap Up
We look forward to partnering with you on your new information architecture. Contact your Client Success Manager or support@knowledge-architecture.com to get started.