How we test IA / Taxonomy
We developed this methodology in the late 90's when Procter & Gamble was working with the fledgling online grocery industry to try and figure out how to organize 25,000 sku's in an online grocery site. Since then we have done these projects with dozens of sites that are trying to solve the same problem - how to organize and name content so that site visitors can intuitively find it.
Methodology
We use a modified version of a market research Focus Group discussion. It's kind of a card sort exercise on steroids. During the sessions, participants complete a variety of individual and group exercises. These exercises are performed to gather feedback on how each individual would want the web site content hierarchy to be presented. The individual exercise feed the group discussions and we reach consensus on the names and number of high level categories, sub-categories, and placement of individual items. We run the initial 3 sessions using one set of procedures and then reverse engineer the process for the last 2 focus sessions to corroborate findings. Our customers love watching these sessions!
Project Structure for IA / Taxonomy Study
- Number of Users per Group: 6 - 8
- Number of Groups: 5 focus groups over 3 days
- Recommended Stage in Development Cycle: Anytime group feedback on, or validation of, information organization of a site is desired. This methodology is most valuable when performed in parallel with product or website design, but can be performed at any stage or development.
IA /Taxonomy Study Deliverables
- A Report which includes an Executive Summary, breakout of major discussion topics, final recommended category structure, survey results (if applicable)
- Transcripts
- Digital video recordings and session transcripts of each focus session (in WMV format)
Contact Us for more information about Information Architecture and Taxonomy.