1. Information Architecture
& Content Strategy
November 7, 2012
Deloitte Digital Andy Fitzgerald

2. Information Architecture &
Content Strategy
Context: why now?
Information Architecture & Content Strategy defined
IA & CS integration with current processes
IA & CS in action
What next: participating, getting involved & learning more

3. Context

4. Übermind

5. Showtime Anytime
showtime tablet image

7. Current Process
Some wins:
Translation, not “porting”
Targeting consistent brand experience, as opposed to
identical visual/interaction experience
Remaining challenges:
Work is informed by technology-specific organization
Adaptation work must be repeated for each new platform
Each design is ultimately not forward compatible

8. Information architecture
& content strategy

9. “Architecture enables environments for
inhabitation; information architecture enables
environments for understanding.”
–Jorge Arango, “Architectures”

10. Information architecture happens
by design or by default.

11. Context
Content Users
Adapted from Information Architecture for the World Wide Web,
by Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville

12. Information Architecture
IA is the structural design of information systems,
interactive services, and user experiences.
IA accounts for the organization, search, and
navigation systems that help people to complete tasks,
find what they need, and understand what they’ve found.
Adapted from Information Architecture for the World Wide Web,
by Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville

13. Information Architecture
Taxonomies & ontologies
Controlled vocabularies
Navigation maps
Metadata maps
Search functionality specifications
Use cases
User flows
Strategy reports

14. Information Architecture
Builds bridges between:
Users & content
Strategy & tactics
Platforms & channels
Research & practice

15. Content Strategy
CS is the practice of planning for the creation, delivery,
and governance of useful, usable content.
CS tasks create a quantitative and qualitative
assessment of site or application content in order to
identify surplus and gaps and to plan for the site or
application’s future needs.
Adapted from Content Strategy for the Web,
by Kristina Halvorson

16. Content Strategy
Content audits & inventories
Metadata framework assessments
Gap analyses
Page tables
Content style guides
Process workflow diagrams

17. Content Strategy
Identify and plan for content that:
Supports key business objectives
Supports users in completing tasks
Supports consistent brand messaging
Supports consistent user experience across multiple
contexts & devices

18. What vs. How
Together, Information Architecture and Content Strategy
describe “what.”
Once an agreed-upon understanding of “what” is
established, subsequent design phases (interaction design,
visual design) can move on to “how” with a clear sense of
the goals and priorities of the underlying value proposition.

19. Integration

20. 2011 UX Process

21. Revised UX Process

22. Proposed UX Process

23. Proposed UX Process
Integrates research into Identifies content &
entire design process capability gaps early on
Clarifies project goals Simplifies interaction
Creates a scalable IA design decisions
foundation Creates accountability

24. Proposed UX Process
Working deeper in the value stack
Focusing more on activities, less on artifacts

25. Pace Layering

26. Pace Layering
As applied to information design:
content & value proposition are “slow-moving” layers
navigation schema, interaction models & device
deployment are “fast-moving” layers
Understanding the role of each layer allows us to:
purposefully adjust individual components
pivot instead of react when confronted with new
contexts, constraints & opportunities

27. Focus on Activities over Artifacts
Cross-disciplinary discovery & ideation
Project-tailored tasks
Heuristics-based analysis
Emphasis on problem solving
Deliverables as the result of activities

28. Design activities