It blows my mind how many web sites are designed and built without considering information architecture. We don’t let a project get to our creative team without an information architect (IA) building a few wireframes first.

Maybe it’s one part of our “secret sauce” (this is one of my favorite new sayings) but it should be a necessary part of every web design process. The IA is “the one” that ties together the strategy, business requirements, user requirements, and messaging. The IA considers a layout from the user’s perspective, ensures the site is easy to use, brings the most important features to the front, and aligns the marketing goals with the web site goals. An IA is highly strategic, is intuitive, and has a strong knack for common sense. My favorite book on the subject is Steve Krug’s book, “Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability”.

At Sandstorm, everyone in the creative department has to read it as part of their onboarding process. And we’ve added to the developers as well so we are all speaking the same language. Information architecture for us here at Sandstorm is just a part of who we are.

We are hiring! (Oh, I just LOVE saying that!) It’s one of my favorite things to do. We are looking for an information architect that is a whiz at wireframing, understands the user experience, and can take strategic business decisions and turn them into intuitive interfaces. So that’s our minimum requirement. Other pluses are whatever else you bring to the table – you tell us! Have design or photoshop skills? Great! Have experience in development? Cool. Love to conduct user research and usability tests – you’re our next Sandstormer. Can’t wait to meet you!

You’re ready to conduct a formal usability study and have some of your customers or potential prospects available to participate in this study (5-6 users is fine, but don’t forget the gratuity). These one-on-one sessions start out with a single user interacting with a web site or wire frame completing a set of tasks, and then a moderator asking them follow-up questions regarding the experience. These sessions usually involve a quiet room, a camera and tracking software to watch a user’s expressions and their navigational habits. After the study, the data is analyzed and a formal usability report with key findings and recommendations is written.

The goal of any usability test is to figure out what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and learn what your users want. So what are you waiting for?

When you are talking about informal usability testing, it doesn’t have to be complicated nor time intensive. Think simple, think as Homer Simpson would say “duh?”. When you take a look at the web site navigation and the initial web design concepts, think about the questions you have about what something means or what the section is about – and you can see if others run into the same questions. It’s simple, it’s quick and it’s a good start to get out the easy problems (mostly terminology). Then you can dive deeper into more formal usability testing to really get ahead of your competition.