IA Validation
Test the organisation of content on your website, in the absence of any design cues, to evaluate ease of navigating your content
Usually undertaken following card sorting, or to test an existing or draft Information Architecture (IA), IA validation is a task based exploration of the effectiveness of your content’s organisation and labelling.
Participants are given real life scenarios relating to your website or app. They are asked to make their way through the IA until they reach the point where they would expect to find content related to each scenario.
This exercise explores the IA in isolation from the design of an interface. Removal of any visual design and interaction design elements, provides a true test of the terminology and content categorisation employed by the IA.
Drawing upon their experience of working through the IA, participants are able provide feedback on terminology and structure.
Moderated IA validation
A moderated IA Validation is typically completed in a group setting. This approach provides qualitative insight into the effectiveness of the IA, as participants provide a rationale for the paths they chose in response to completing tasks. They can explain any ambiguity they experienced in labelling as well as any confusion related to the organisation of contents.
Online IA validation
Online IA Validation takes the form of an online survey, typically with a minimum of 50 participants.
As with the moderated IA Validation, this is a task-based research activity. The main difference is the number of participants allows for a quantitative analysis of the data relating to the performance of the IA, with fewer opportunities to provide qualitative feedback on the IA.
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The U1 Toolkit
To provide you with the clearest possible insights and help you deliver real outcomes, we tailor each project to include the right methods and activities from our extensive toolkit.
