An Information Architect?

An Information Architect specifies the structure of a web site, how pages cluster into logical groups, and how parts of a site are found through use of intuitive navigation systems.

Of key concern is how tasks are achieved quickly and easily through simple user journeys.

Information Architects also organise business information, for customers. How product catalogues are organised, and how product pages on the site describe and 'sell' a product. They work very closely with creative designers to get the user experience 'right'.

A Cognitive Engineer?

A Cognitive Engineer will specify a web site's Information Architecture 'for performance'.

Through diagnosis and prescription, a Cognitive Engineer will aim to make the site's actual performance meet desired business performance.

Improvement or uplift may take place iteratively, in "cycles of design".

Performance modelling, via web site analytics and user testing assists to support the diagnosis of problems and prescription of Performance-based solutions.

A Site Map?

The site map is what you start with during diagnosis. It shows how the site is structured logically, the scope of the customer's navigation problem, and 'what you have put where'. User journeys take place "over" the site map, and so it reflects complexity and the number of clicks to get from A to B.

The Site map is used to support prescriptions for how the site will grow in the future.

In design, it shows the scope of the design solution, and illustrates what page templates are used at different levels.

A User Journey?

Analysis of user journeys is desk-based research to find out what customers need to do to achieve business tasks. Buy a product. Book an appointment. Request a sample.

The analysis is guided by the site map, and can frequently turn up some shocking results!

The analysis will show which pages are visited, what information needs to be digested by the user, and what 'Calls to Action' should be invoked.

A Conversion Funnel?

By tagging up a site's pages, and Calls to Action within a page (such as buttons), software will track user behaviour on a site.

How often a page is visited, for how long, how popular one path to a page was, versus another.

The conversion funnel – from a ‘Go to Checkout’ button, through to the ‘Order confirmation page – will show where you are losing customers, and support diagnosis of what is going wrong at each step.

Analytics provides important performance data for Cognitive Engineering.

A Persona?

Knowing who your customers are is crucial when designing usable software.

Marketing segmentation should describe the main customer groups - what they buy, their interests, attributes and dispositions - and where opportunities for growth lie. Design then centres on a few of these groups.

A "Persona" is a profile or sketch of a fictional customer (or user), one that reflects a target segment. Personas try to get under the skin of that customer segment, and help designers focus during design on the user's key goals, abilities and limitations.

A Process Flow?

Process flows show how customer interaction with controls on the web site (buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes etc.) will change the page, change the state of a task, and what is displayed back to the user on the screen.

You need a process flow to specify page behaviour under different circumstances.

Process flows are important in the design of dynamic (tailored) user experiences, helpful error messaging, and hiding unnecessary information or distracting journeys.

A Wireframe?

Wireframes specify the main structure of a page, the navigation, key content areas, Calls to Action and journeys being offered to the customer. A site's design is made up of a number of Wireframes, often templates that can be re-used for different pages in different parts of the site.

Wireframes are where page design starts (before expensive creative treatment), and should summarise how the user will get around a site and achieve their main tasks.

Wireframes can be tested early and cheaply, to find out if the design is usable, and conversion acceptable, before a site is built.

An Information Architect?

An Information Architect specifies the structure of a web site, how pages cluster into logical groups, and how parts of a site are found through use of intuitive navigation systems.

Of key concern is how tasks are achieved quickly and easily through simple user journeys.

Information Architects also organise business information, for customers. How product catalogues are organised, and how product pages on the site describe and 'sell' a product. They work very closely with creative designers to get the user experience 'right'.

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