Information architecture

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User’s Defining Structure

September 4, 2009 in Online, Search, Social by Anthony | No comments

There does not need to be much guess work when developing a site’s navigational architecture. With the deluge of information from search, internal navigation and site search queries, managing the volume of information is more of an issue than any scarcity.

Use user navigation data. Identifying under utilised menus and obscure categorisation terms is easy. Just look for the ones that are not being used. If a section of the site is especially hard to move through, you will find users will resort to Site Search more as well.

Look at internal search queries. This is a good guide to how the customer wishes to navigate your site. It is both a focus group and user testing run for free. User search queries are a good guide to alternative content categorisation as well.

Research the language customers use to describe your product and services. Monitoring the market online through the content they generate and the industry’s query space is important. This information is valuable for site development as well as creating copy, creative and other campaign choices.

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Your customers don’t care

August 18, 2009 in Advertising, Online, Social by Anthony | No comments

There is only one real question that most companies really need to answer:  How does their product or service make the customer’s life better? This is why they will spend their money. It is why they will seek out your brand. It is also something that is often forgotten.

Marketing communications are often used to achieve internal or industry political aims over communicating and connecting with the audience. Everything from the message in TVC’s, the media buy all the way through to a website’s Information Architecture (IA) are defined by internal considerations. Politics, internal bias and the company’s myopic worldview are all things that the customer just doesn’t care about.

It is seen as often online as in ‘old media’. One place in particular where it can be found is on a company’s website. A few examples include:

  • Internal and industry jargon determining navigational IA
  • Copy tone and style tied to a formal, PR style for use in social media
  • Display advertising constrained by existing static print material
  • Keyword selection & optimisation defined by intra-industry considerations first
  • Purchased display advertising determined by offline relationships
  • Social media interactions defined by adversarial customer service practices
  • Sales copy as company puffery that fails to address customer desires & needs

These examples fail the “Does the customer care?” test. The customer does not care what industry term is used to describe a product. They do not care about the words you think they should find you on, and they do not care to seek you out in places where you think they should go. They will search on the terms they want to, they will not learn how to navigate your site if it is obscure and they certainly won’t find it if you do not communicate with them where they are.

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