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Content location and structure

Content structure and location relies heavily on the principles of Information architecture (IA). IA is the structure, organization, and labelling of information. The IA defines the relationships between sections of content, with the goal of helping users complete tasks in an effective and efficient way. Content structure and location can be done at the level of an individual page all the way up to the entire Canada.ca website, and focuses on where the content fits within the website. In this activity, you will build on the content inventory and research from previous activities to create a future-state content inventory, with the option to run user testing on the proposed IA for the future-state content structure.

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When to use

Content location and structure is done after initial user research and before content design, once we have an idea of the user's mental models and their ideal journey. This activity relies heavily on the work done during the content inventory activity. Once you have an idea of the current state of the existing IA, this activity should be used to restructure the IA using testing and best practices.

Who is involved

Lead

Conceptual designer, content designer, information architect.

Others who may help

The person leading the assessment may also seek input from other disciplines, including UX researchers, interaction designers, data and usability analytics team, content subject matter experts.

How to do it

There are 6 steps in this activity.

  1. Understand the discipline of IA

    Review the 8 IA principles. These will help you understand the foundations of IA to build user-friendly pages and content. These are that must be adhered to at all times, regardless of the page type.

  2. Review research and determine the goal of the content

    Review the research conducted in the discover phase of the project.

    A key activity to review is a user journey map. The IA for a page, section and site should follow the ideal user pathway. Your first step is to understand what we already know about this content.

    Other activities or information that are important to review are:

    With this review, you should also understand the goal, or purpose, of this content.

  3. Understand the existing content ecosystem

    Before looking at the content in detail, you need to look at it from a high level. Questions to help understand the current content ecosystem:

    • How does this content fit into the existing IA?
    • How will this content affect content that is existing? This includes navigation, links, parent pages, similar topics and pages, etc.
    • How many pages does this content need to be?
    • How will this impact content in the future?
    • How important is this content in relation to other similar pages and/or topics? How will those pages be impacted?

  4. Structure the content

    Once you understand the content goal, user goal and pathway, and the supporting research, you can start to structure the content. You’ll take a look at the content both at a high level and in more detail.

    This is where you’ll start drafting your deliverable, which is typically done in a spreadsheet. You can review the current state content inventory created in the discovery phase, to create the future state content inventory. You can use the same content inventory spreadsheet to note the future state, or create a new deliverable.

    Ideally the future state content inventory will indicate what needs to happen with the existing content:

    • What is being deleted?
    • What needs to be updated?
    • What needs to be archived but still available online for historical purposes?
    • What can be kept as is?
    • Are things being moved around or restructured?
    • What can be combined together?
    • Are new pages being added in?
    • What are the best templates to use?
    • What headings will you be using in the content to be meaningful when viewed in Google search engine results?

  5. Test your structure with users

    Once you have an idea of how the content could fit into the current content ecosystem, you can test the location and the structure of content with end users.

    If you are considering usability testing, reach out to the Digital Design and Production Directorate to request a consultation with a UX researcher as early as possible.

    Types of tests you could perform:

    • Card sort
    • Tree test
    • Unmoderated or moderated testing

  6. Use test results to refine structure into a deliverable

    After testing your content organization and structure, review the findings in detail. Based on your understanding of the user journey, the previous research, and the new research findings, update the content location and structure accordingly. There may be very few things to change, or there may be a lot to change. Either is okay based on the information you have available to you.

Next steps

Once you have determined content location and structure, you can move on to wireframing.

Deliverables and artifacts

When you’re done, you should have:

  • Spreadsheet showing the levels and hierarchy of content
  • User testing results (if applicable)

Tools and templates

  • Optimal Workshop software for card sorting and tree testing
  • See content inventory tab in product log template

Reference material

This activity is part of the:

Go to all the phases of the user-centred design process.

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