Building a Phenomenal Information Architecture for your Intranet

Even with an excellent intranet search, clear and intuitive information architecture is very much relevant for improved information searchability.

Intranet Information Architecture versus Navigation

Many confuse intranet information architecture (IA) with navigation because there is a strong link between the two, but they are not the same.

Information architecture describes the relationship between the information on the intranet so that we don't forget about the critical content we need.

For example: Let's take [Policies].
Policies can be broken down to [Expense Policies], [HR Policies] etc. [HR Policies] can be further broken down to [Recruiting] and [Benefits].

It's important to know what IA you will have on the intranet, but navigation may not necessarily use the same labels. Some deeper parts of the IA can be used for things like content types or libraries represented in a view.

For example, instead of using this navigation: [Company Operations] -> [Policies] ->[HR Policies] -> [Recruiting], we may have a top navigation link titled [How We Work] and have a single search tool allowing you to search resources based on a tag. Those tags can include policies and related documentation. In this case, the end-user doesn't necessarily see the intranet IA, but the author who tags the content is aware of the IA so that the right content is labeled correctly.

Intranet Search versus Intranet IA

Searchable doesn't always mean it's findable.

Why is that? Even if you name the content with descriptive keywords, people still need to know those keywords. Let's take the term [WebPart] from SharePoint. Someone unfamiliar with SharePoint framework could call it: [Widget], [App], [Component], [Tool] ... Now try searching Google for something you'd typically find if used the correct term versus the wrong term - the result may vary significantly. The same applies in the context of your intranet search.

Having the right intranet IA and contextual search, like in the example above, is more efficient than a global search that searches everything and finds nothing.

Additionally, have you ever found something with the correct name, but the content is entirely not what you'd expect? My favourite one is when you search for a logo or marketing collateral and find variations of "unapproved" logos or out of date PowerPoint slide decks. Figuring out the reliability of the search is not always easy.

In this case, with intranet IA you can build a structure that will help users find the content from reliable sources as opposed to rogue versions or out of date information.

How to Build Great Intranet IA

Building an intranet IA can sound daunting because there is so much to consider. However, provided you have the right process, it's pretty easy to get the outputs you're looking for. We always use a structured workshop format to help build an intranet IA, and it works well, keeping everyone engaged. After all, intranet IA design workshops can be 1.5 hours long and sometimes may have more than 15 participants.

SharePoint architecture example and a process for an intranet content design

Here is the high-level flow of a typical Intranet IA workshop:

Preparing

1. Set up a workshop team. Having the right people in the room is essential, but it's not always the easiest thing to accomplish.

2. Ask participants to come prepared with ideas about the content they want on the intranet. If the company has an intranet already, this is always easier since they have some ideas of what they had previously.

3. Bring plenty of sticky notes, permanent markers, and a whiteboard marker. Ideally, you'll have a room with at least one whiteboard large enough to hold all of the sticky notes. One person typically generates about 15 to 30 sticky notes, so plan a large enough space if you have 15 or so people come into the workshop.

Intranet IA Workshop

1. Explain the purpose and the process to participants.
   

2. Ask participants to take 5 minutes to write one content idea per sticky without interacting with other participants.
   
   Some participants will be very detailed and will generate 20 or more stickies, and others may write down just five or so. If anyone has questions, they can ask those for clarity. At this point, no one needs to structure the content of the parent-child relationship; this will be done later.
   

3. When the time's up, ask each participant to come to the whiteboard and take 3 min to read out their stickies and put them up on the board.
   
   We usually ask the first two volunteers for this part since some people are less confident in catching up with the exercise flow.
   

4. Now that everyone has shared their content ideas, we need to eliminate duplicates and group them into content categories. This is a group exercise. Allocate 5-10 minutes for this round.
   
   For smaller groups of < 5 people, everyone can work as a group. For larger groups of 6 people, break them up into teams focusing on a particular area. For example, the HR team working together, etc.
   
   If you have several groups, allocate another couple of minutes so that each group explains their content grouping to others.
   
   As a result, you'll have clusters of content ideas.
   

5. Now, you're ready to build a draft hierarchy. Allocate another 5-10 minutes where participants will build relationships between groups and label each group of content with a label that can be used to reference this particular content group.
   

6. Last 5-10 minutes, participants solidify labels for all the content groups, which will produce a structure similar to this:

Sample Intranet Information Architecture

After the Intranet IA Workshop

You will end up with a lot of stickies; take photos of clusters. For larger groups, we take pictures as things are grouped after each exercise since stickies sometime fall off, and you lose bits of information. Once you've got photos, you can use any mind map tool such as MindMap or Mind Manager to enter the data into the tool.

Share the diagram with others, so they see the product of their hard work. This can evolve further but should serve as an excellent basis for your Intranet IA.

Test Your Intranet Information Architecture

When we work on the intranet IA in a group of 6 or 8 workshop participants and then test the structure with a larger group, say 30 or so test participants, we see at least two or more flaws in the hierarchy tree. In other words, two or more branches are not intuitive to navigate. How do we know that?

We tested our tree to measure directness, accuracy, and how long it took to navigate.

It’s not uncommon for your intranet IA to have flaws since the design team of 8 people locked in a room for 2 hours develops a bias. Some people have preferences and choose a particular route, which may not be the most intuitive to others.

Testing your intranet IA tree allows you to iron out key issues before you deploy the site saving your users hundreds of hours in the future.

Intranet Information Architecture: In summary

Building good IA for an intranet is as essential for the success of the project as having the content. After all, if people can't find the content, it's as if it doesn't exist in the first place. Knowing how to get the right inputs to your IA comes down to interactive IA workshops, which help to get feedback while keeping people engaged.

Leave your comments on what are some of the things you're curious about, and we'll try to get an expert insight on the topic.

Yaroslav Pentsarskyy is a Director of Product at Origami. Yaroslav has been awarded as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for 8 years in a row and has authored and published 4 intranet books.
Yaroslav is also a frequent presenter at industry conferences and events, such as the Microsoft SharePoint Conference and Microsoft Ignite.

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