There is an enormous amount of information on the internet. Every page you load is crammed with it. With so much information around, it’s incredibly important to remember that for human minds to be able to actually process and make sense of it, considered, strategic, ordered information architecture is needed.

‍

Information architecture is everywhere digitally, but where does it actually live? IA sits in behind all of the digital interfaces we humans use (and even out in the real world). It ideally has been considered, researched, and implemented with humans in mind, though as we all know, this isn’t always the case.  

‍

Information architecture always has a role to play, and here we’ll focus on 4 key digital spaces where information architecture is most prominent, and likely most familiar.

‍

1. Websites
2. Apps
3. Company intranet
4. Social media software

‍

To find out more about putting information architecture into action check out our blog.

‍

1. Websites 🌐

‍

‍

Information architecture for websites can often be confused with navigation. While site navigation is super important, (think of it as the ‘skin’ that sits above the information), that’s only part of the story. Great website architecture considers and organizes user requirements, organizing the content and structure of the website with labels, search and navigation that simply makes sense and is easy to use. Done well, it will  feel simple and straightforward, guiding users through smoothly.

‍

Hubspot has a great article on IA for websites and how they can be structured. From a complex library system, to travel booking systems. Each has its own needs and can be quite deep in layers of information. The trick is to create a website structure, based on user needs, that makes sense of the piles of information and a simple navigation that sits above, making the journey to task completion as quick as possible. Working together they make any user experience feel quick, simple, and intuitive! 

‍

2. Apps 📱

‍

‍

An organization's app acts as the first point of contact. It needs to be super simple, clean, and quick to interact with. A well thought out, thorough, researched, and organized information architecture plays a big part in this.

‍

Information architecture for mobile use has a different set of rules than websites. The key consideration here is around the ease of use across a smaller screen. Navigation that makes sense for a laptop or desktop computer can be clunky in a mobile app.

‍

An app's interface needs to have fewer options, and fewer clicks to complete the task. Researching and designing an app’s IA with just the right amount of information is key. Some retail apps are simplified websites, whereas other apps exist on their own merits, with no need for a website.

‍

Bringing it back to the humans that will interact with the app is key to creating a product that delivers on user requirements and increases interaction. 

‍

3. Intranet 🖥

‍

‍

An organizational intranet is possibly less of a priority than a website or an app but is vitally important to the success of an organization. And in these times of remote or hybrid working, intranets have proven to be more valuable than ever. An intranet is more than where to stick newsletters for staff, it is an interface that can make or break the productivity or even the wellbeing of an organization. 

‍

Access to files, information, messaging platforms, and corporate requirements wherever and whenever people are working is more important than ever.  A well researched and designed information architecture can build an intranet that meets users’ requirements, increase communication and interaction and ultimately boost productivity. 

‍

Conducting UX research with staff on what they need to access, when, and how will help inform the intranet IA far more intuitively. The information available (and needed) can be huge, keeping it simple and human focused is key.

‍

Have you ever thought about how poor internal information architecture might be hurting your business?

‍

4. Social media 🤳

‍

‍

Social media software is complex in terms of ecosystem and display of information. Each social media platform has developed over time, think back to Facebook and how it looked when it initially launched. And through the uptake of users, gathering of information over time, and continual research and testing, it has evolved into what we see today. And will continue to evolve with users’ needs.

‍

Every user has a different experience based on the individuals, groups, organizations and even retailers that they choose to interact with (or haven’t chosen via advertising). The piles of information that sit behind and are brought to the interface for an individual through their choice, associations, labels, tags, interests, age, etc will present them with a unique feed. 

‍

The interface of a social media platform needs to be considered, tested, tested again, and occasionally tested or changed once launched as the interaction of users is vitally important.

‍

The information architecture sitting behind is huge in order to enable the agility to pull the right information forward in a dynamic and coherent way. Continuously learning, testing and requesting interaction from users through options to ‘hide’ posts that aren’t appropriate or respond to direct queries about what they do and don’t want to see are just some instances of continuous user research.

‍

Social media continues to be a sophisticated information architecture that is constantly updating and changing with user needs.

‍

Wrap Up 🫔

‍

Information architecture lives wherever there is information needing to be found by humans. Successful information architecture is sorted, organized and labeled in a way that is simple, intuitive, and considered. Making interaction and life simple, which in a world where there are an increasing number of websites, apps, and tools to choose from – intuitive information architecture has never been more important for your business and your customers.

Return on investment (ROI) is often the term on everyone’s lips when starting a big project or even when reviewing a website. It’s especially popular with those that hold the purse strings.  As UX researchers it is important to consider the ROI of the work we do and understand how to measure this. 

‍

We’ve lined up 5 key ways to measure ROI for UX research to help you get the conversation underway with stakeholders so you can show real and tangible benefits to your organization. 

‍

‍

1. Meet and exceed user expectations

‍

Put simply, a product that meets and exceeds user expectations leads to increased revenue. When potential buyers are able to find and purchase what they’re looking for, easily, they’ll complete their purchase, and are far more likely to come back. The simple fact that users can finish their task will increase sales and improve overall customer satisfaction which has an influence on their loyalty. Repeat business means repeat sales. Means increased revenue.

‍

Creating, developing and maintaining a usable website is more important than you might think. And this is measurable! Tracking and analyzing website performance prior to the UX research and after can be insightful and directly influenced by changes made based on UX research.

‍

Measurable: review the website (product) performance prior to UX research and after changes have been made. The increase in clicks, completed tasks and/or baskets will tell the story.

‍

‍

2. Reduce development time

‍

UX research done at the initial stages of a project can lead to a reduction in development time of by 33% to 50%! And reduced time developing, means reduced costs (people and overheads) and a speedier to market date. What’s not to love? 

‍

Measurable: This one is a little more tricky as you have saved time (and cost) up front. Aiding in speed to market and performance prior to execution. Internal stakeholder research may be of value post the live date to understand how the project went.

‍

‍

3. Ongoing development costs

‍

And the double hitter? Creating a product that has the user in mind up front, reduces the need to rehash or revisit as quickly. Reducing ongoing costs. Early UX research can help with the detection of errors early on in the development process. Fixing errors after development costs a company up to 100 times more than dealing with the same error before development.

‍

Measureable: Again, as UX research has saved time and money up front this one can be difficult to track. Though depending on your organization and previous projects you could conduct internal research to understand how the project compares and the time and cost savings.

‍

‍

4. Meeting user requirements

‍

Did you know that 70% of projects fail due to the lack of user acceptance? This is often because project managers fail to understand the user requirements properly. Thanks to UX research early on, gaining insights into users and only spending time developing the functions users actually want, saving time and reducing development costs. Make sure you get confirmation on those requirements by iterative testing. As always, fail early, fail often. Robust testing up front means that in the end, you’ll have a product that will meet the needs of the user.

‍

Measurable: Where is the product currently? How does it perform? Set a benchmark up front and review post UX research. The deliverables should make the ROI obvious.

‍

‍

5. Investing in UX research leads to an essential competitive advantage.

‍

Thanks to UX research you can find out exactly what your customers want, need and expect from you. This gives you a competitive advantage over other companies in your market. But you should be aware that more and more companies are investing in UX while customers are ever more demanding, their expectations continue to grow and they don’t tolerate bad experiences. And going elsewhere is an easy decision to make.

‍

Measurable: Murky this one, but no less important. Knowing, understanding and responding to competitors can help keep you in the lead, and developing products that meet and exceed those user expectations.

‍

‍

Wrap up

‍

Showing the ROI on the work we do is an essential part of getting key stakeholders on board with our research. It can be challenging to talk the same language, ultimately we all want the same outcome…a product that works well for our users, and delivers additional revenue.

‍

For some continued reading (or watching in this case), Anna Bek, Product and Delivery Manager at Xplor explored the same concept of "How to measure experience" during her UX New Zealand 2020 – watch it here as she shares a perspective on UX ROI.

As the fourth issue of CRUX goes to press the demand for usability continues to grow, along with the rise of the digital experience economy.  Sharing a sense of community among UXers is more important than ever.  That’s why we’re so proud to bring you our latest issue of CRUX, celebrating people and perspectives from the UX community.

‍

CRUX #4 has a great line-up of contributors, all experts in their fields who jumped at the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas with us - and of course more importantly - you.  

‍

This issue we’ve focussed on collaboration and invited our contributors to bring their thoughts and ideas on communication and teamwork to the table.  They’ve come up with some compelling reading that inspires, surprises and at times challenges current thinking and offers fresh perspectives. 

‍

Some highlights from this issue

‍

• Seasoned researcher Josh Morales from Hotjar tackles the challenge of presenting research effectively with a smart yet simple framework.

‍

"In a word: your findings virtually do not exist if you don’t communicate them well."

‍

• Designer Jordan Bowman of UX Tools ponders the problem of cognitive bias and highlights the key things to look out for.

‍

“Designers are just as vulnerable to the blindspots and errors of cognitive bias as the people who use our products. After all, we're humans,too.”

‍

• UX consultant Eugenia Jongewaard from UX Tips talks about inclusive research and challenges UX researchers and designers to up their game.

‍

“As we live in a world of rapid digital transformation we can't continue to design in the same way we designed before. We should start designing for inclusion. For that to happen we need to shift our mindset towards inclusive research.”

‍

• And much, much more….

‍

A plug for the next issue

‍

Do you have a burning idea to share or a conversation you’re dying to kickstart that’s of interest to the world of UX?  Now’s your chance.  We’re already on the lookout for contributors for our first edition of CRUX for 2022.  To find out more please drop us a line

‍

But for now, get comfortable and settle in for a good read.  Welcome to CRUX #4.

Having access to the specialist subscription-based tools you need to do your work is a reasonable thing to expect. But what if you’re relying on someone else’s SaaS account to access what you need? Sounds like a good solution but think again. It’s risky - even fraught. Here are 3 good reasons to avoid shared login credentials and why you need your own.

‍

1. Safety first - sharing account login credentials is a risky business 🔐

‍

If you don’t know who’s signed up and using the subscriptions your organization pays for and holds, how can you protect their data once they’ve gone? As the account holder, you’re responsible for keeping the personal data of anyone accessing your subs safe and secure. That’s not only the right thing to do - it’s pretty important from a legal perspective too.

‍

In today’s data-driven world safeguards around privacy and security are essential. You only need to look at the fallout from serious data breaches around the world to see the damage they can do. There’s a myriad of privacy laws around personal data out there but they’re based on the universal principle of protecting personal data.  One of the better-known laws is GDPR the EU’s data protection law. 

‍

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulates and protects the processing of the personal information of EU citizens and residents by establishing rules on how organizations such as companies and governments can process this personal data. It’s important to note the GDPR applies to those handling the data whether they’re EU-based organizations or not.

‍

Avoid encouraging shared logins in your organization to ensure peace of mind that you’re doing everything you can to keep people’s personal data safe and secure - as well as keeping on the right side of the law.

‍

2. Ease of administration - save time and energy managing multiple users 🎯

‍

Having single logins rather than shared logins saves time and energy and makes the whole administration smoother and easier for everyone.

‍

For instance, maybe you need to delete data as part of honoring GDPR rules. This could be tricky and time consuming if there are multiple users on one email as a generic email isn’t specific to a person. 

‍

Generic email addresses also make it harder for SaaS providers to understand your account activity and implement the changes you want or need.  For example, customers often ask to retrieve information for account billing.   Having multiple employees using a single login can make this problematic.  It can be a real struggle to identify the right owners or users.  

‍

And if the ‘champion’ of the tool leaves your organization and you want to retrieve information on the account, your SaaS provider won't be able to do this without proof you’re the real owner of this account. 

‍

Another added benefit ,(which your IT & security team will thank you for), of having a personal login, is the way it makes setting up functionality such as single-sign-on (SSO) so easy. Given the way single sign-on works, shared emails just don’t cut it anymore. Also if your organization uses SSO it means you’ll be able to log into tools more quickly and easily.

‍

3. Product support - access it when you need it 🙏

‍

When things go wrong or you just need help using products or tools from your friendly SaaS it’s important for them and for you, that they’re in the best position to support you. Supporting people is a big part of the job and generic emails make it harder to connect with customers and create the people to people relationships that enable the best outcome when problems arise or training or help is needed.

‍

You may be surprised to hear what a blocker multiple users on a single email can be. For instance, generic email addresses can make it harder for us to get to the right person and communicate with you.  We won’t know if you have another email active in the system we can use to help you.

‍

Wrap up 🌯

‍

We’ve given you 3 good reasons not to account share - still, need convincing?  

‍

What about getting the right plan to meet your organization’s needs - so you don’t need to share in the first place? There could be all kinds of reasons why you’ve ended up having to account share: maybe a workmate signed up, shared it, and got you hooked too.  Or your organization has grown and you need more subs.  Whatever the reason there’s no need to account share - get in touch and sound us out to find a better, safer solution.    

If the title hasn’t already given it away, we’ve just launched the third issue of our UX magazine, CRUX. I say this every time, but it really only feels like yesterday that I was announcing the first and second issues. Soon we’ll be announcing issue 4!

‍

Looking back on CRUX #2 🪞👀🎀🦋

‍

Crafting a magazine is certainly fun, but that’s only half of it. Part of the enjoyment for us is tracking the readership growth over time. Yes, we’re nerds.

‍

Using the first issue as a baseline, we saw a definite improvement in the numbers of CRUX #2. The second issue also drove up readership of the first issue, which was pretty neat to see!

‍

As for readership time, the first issue saw an average time spent reading of 10 minutes, but we managed to blow past that with a read time of 15 minutes for issue #2! Numbers are obviously always important, our other important metrics include the number of shares, positive sentiment in qualitative feedback and future contributor engagement. These all increased with the second issue.

‍

What we’re trying to say is that as long as there's an appetite for CRUX, we’ll keep making it.

‍

Mirror image 🪞🕊️🤍✨

‍

CRUX is starting to become a bit of a reflection of the worlds of research and design at the time of publication. Specifically, a reflection of the unique problems that researchers and designers are trying to solve. That means people like you.

‍

It’s important to note that whenever we use labels like ‘researcher’ or ‘designer’, we really just mean ‘people who do the thing’. At least at Optimal Workshop, we all do research. It’s just part of our DNA.

‍

What you’ll find in CRUX #3 🪬🫧🫶🏻🤍

‍

With that in mind, we’ve got a number of interesting topics in this edition of CRUX:

‍

• Looking at the pyramid of trust and why you need to start thinking about the basic trust needs of users.
• Alia Fite from Figma talks about the best ways to evaluate design tools, including a number of actionable steps.
• Jennie Leng from Digital Arts Network (now Bendon, Australia and New Zealand) talks about design maturity and what this means in a business context.

‍

Want to contribute to CRUX?

‍

We want to create the best UX magazine – as long as people like you want to keep reading it. But we need your help! We’ve had a whole lot of great people contribute to CRUX #1, #2 and #3, but we know there are countless more people out there who don’t have a platform to share their voice.

‍

If you or someone you know wants to share their ideas with the UX and design communities, drop us a line here.

‍

But for now, please go and enjoy the third issue of CRUX! We work hard on it, and it’s all for you.

Time really does fly when you’re having fun. Rewind to November of last year (2020) and we’d just launched the first issue of our UX magazine, CRUX. If you haven’t read that inaugural edition, you can still find it right here. It’s digital, so there’s little chance of it disappearing. Anyway, I digress.

‍

I’m here (and very eager) to tell you that, as of today, we’ve just launched the second edition of CRUX! It’s an exciting day for all of us here at Optimal Workshop, as well as the fabulous bunch of intelligent, creative and amazing people from the research and design communities who helped us to put this issue together.

‍

Before we delve into what you can expect to see in this next issue, let’s recap on CRUX #1.

‍

Creating a UX magazine: A brief retrospective

‍

As you can probably guess, publishing a magazine is a bit of a labor of love. This is especially the case at Optimal Workshop where creating a magazine isn’t the only project we’ve got going on (we’re pretty busy down here in Wellington, New Zealand).

‍

But, we managed to get the first issue of CRUX out the door and by all accounts, it was a tremendous success. In the 30 days following the launch we had just over 1500 readers, with an average page per reader count of 27 (out of 34), and an average time spent reading of over 9mins. It has been viewed in over 62 countries worldwide. So, a success!

‍

Four people also spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day tucking into CRUX, with one reader based in Ireland managing to flick through 109 pages.

‍

With these results, your feedback (we appreciate it) and an appetite to create an even better second issue, we stuck our heads down and got to work. Now, CRUX #2 is here!

‍

What you’ll find in CRUX #2

‍

It’s important to keep pushing yourself. While the first issue of CRUX got a great reception, we knew that we could do even more if given the opportunity to publish a second issue. While we talked about the idea of each future issue focusing a different theme, we instead decided to keep the brief broad – we wanted diverse opinions from a range of contributors. We think that the end selection reflects this goal.

‍

Here are just a few of the topics that you can expect to find in this issue:

‍

• How user research helps product teams to move faster and work more effectively
• Tips for making your participant recruitment process more efficient
• The case for a new role in the world of UX
• Building great content design teams
• How to start your own UX practice
• What the future holds for conversational user experiences

‍

There’s all of the above and so much more to discover in CRUX #2, so go ahead and read. We’ll be waiting and we can’t wait to hear what you think.

‍

Put the word out: We want you!

‍

Finally, let’s talk about the future of CRUX. We want to keep creating the best UX magazine as long as people like you want to keep reading it. But we need your help. We’ve had a great bunch of people contribute to CRUX #1 and #2, but we know there are more people out there who don’t have a platform. If you, or someone you know, wants to share their ideas with the world, drop us a line directly here.

‍

But for now, go and have a read of CRUX #2. We worked hard on it – and it’s all for you.