How offshore information architects add value to your business

Information architecture has become the cornerstone of every digital strategy. It is considered a cross-functional bridge between marketing, development, and information. 

Nowadays, information architecture is a solution that most businesses follow when looking for better ways to organize the information on their website. 

Businesses see information architects as valuable assets as they help them structure their content effectively and improve users’ accessibility. 

Businesses can get their information architecture needs to be done by professional teams at competitive rates through prominent outsourcing firms like MVP Asia Pacific.

What is information architecture?

At its most basic, information architecture (AI) refers to the process of organizing information to support usability, findability, and understandability. 

It involves creating a knowledge map for an entire website or application or for any product requiring a coherent organization of information.

According to Domo’s report, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created each day at a current pace. With the huge number of data available, users can be overwhelmed by the abundance of information. 

With information architecture in place, it can improve search performance and overall user experience.  

In addition, the IA process begins with research into existing content, site usage patterns, business goals, and audience needs. 

From there, it moves into organizing content hierarchically to achieve those goals while meeting the audience’s needs as best as possible.

3 elements of information architecture 

Here we have the three main components of information architecture: 

Context 

This is the most important element of IA. The context of information architecture is the user’s situation or how users interact with a product. 

Companies need to understand users’ behaviors and motivations so they can create an effective information architecture and provide a better user experience. 

Content 

Content refers to all individual pieces within a product, such as text, images, or videos.  This involves how information architects arrange these elements into meaningful groupings, whether it be through hierarchy or proximity. 

Users 

Information architects ensure that people can navigate the site easily without getting lost along the way. It should also be easy for them to reach any page they want within seconds.

Difference between IA and UX design

Information architecture (IA) and user experience (UX) design are often used interchangeably. 

IA is about the overall structure of a website or app, while the latter concerns how people interact with it. 

Information architecture focuses on how information can be organized and displayed effectively. User experience, on the other hand, ensures that users can find what they’re looking for in the most intuitive way possible. 

While both disciplines rely heavily on research, they take different approaches to solving similar problems.

What information architects do

Information architects work with their clients to define the organization’s goals for digital presence and use IA deliverables to build websites. 

Here are some important tasks of information architects: 

User research and analysis 

Conducting user research and analysis to understand how people use a product or service is among the essential tasks of information architects. 

They conduct surveys and usability tests to learn more about the users’ goals, needs, and motivations.

Taxonomies and metadata 

Information architects create taxonomies and metadata so that people can find the content they need without having to hunt for it manually.

These functions involve creating hierarchical tree structures or categorizing items according to their subject matter. 

Creating hierarchy and navigation

Another thing an information architect does when creating a site is to come up with a hierarchy of pages and sections. This means deciding which pages are the most important, down to the least important ones. 

Also, these experts map out how each section will lead into another section, so-called navigation, so users can navigate through the site easily.

Wireframing 

A wireframe is basically a blueprint for each page. Information architects often create wireframes for clients before developers begin coding their websites.

This allows developers to create programs that follow an information architect’s design specifications while making sure that they don’t stray too far from their original vision.

Prototyping 

Prototypes enable information architects to test ideas with real users before going into development. 

Information architects can use prototypes to work out how users will interact with the product, which helps them make changes early on in the design process. 

Find qualified information architects through MVP Asia Pacific

MVP Asia Pacific is a premier outsourcing provider of information architects and other seasoned professionals. It is dedicated to helping clients grow their businesses. 

With a proven track record in matching candidates to opportunities, MVP Asia Pacific can efficiently source and recruit top-tier IAs for companies. 

MVP Asia Pacific also offers a team of experienced consultants who are experts in various industries. 

Get in touch with MVP Asia Pacific for first-rate information architecture services!