Information architecture, the structure under every navigation, named the way users actually think.
Most products end up with the navigation engineers chose because nobody owned the taxonomy. We do information architecture as a real design discipline: card sorting with real users, tree testing the proposed structure, naming nouns the way the audience already uses them.
What we build
Card sorting with target users
Open card sorting to surface how users group concepts in their own words; closed card sorting to validate a proposed taxonomy. Real users, real categories, not 'the founders thought this made sense'.
Tree testing for the navigation that ships
Before the navigation lands in design, we tree-test the proposed structure with target users. They find what they're looking for, or they don't. Iterate the tree; the UI design follows.
Taxonomy named in the audience's vocabulary
If users say 'projects', the navigation says 'projects', not 'workspaces'. If they say 'invoices' and we said 'billing', we change it. The product borrows the audience's words, not the other way around.
Sitemap as a living artifact
The information architecture lives as a real document the team updates. Adding a new section is a sitemap decision, then a navigation update, then design, in that order, not the reverse.
URL structure that matches the IA
URLs ladder to the taxonomy. `/projects/[id]/tasks/[id]` says what it is. Search engines, deep links, and bookmarks all benefit; users get a predictable mental model.
Search backed by the same taxonomy
Product search uses the same controlled vocabulary as the navigation. Synonyms mapped where users use multiple words for the same thing. The search bar isn't a separate world from the menu.
Where this fits
Your product has grown features faster than the navigation could keep up and the menu reads as a feature wall.
Your team is debating naming for a major new section and you have no anchor on what users would call it.
Your search and your navigation are using different vocabularies and users find different things in each.
Tech stack
- Card Sorting
- Tree Testing
- Sitemaps
- Taxonomy
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