Most of us are familiar with browsing the web or searching a website for information. But we don’t often think about the site’s layout until we are lost and left wondering how we ended up on a page in the first place. Yet this is exactly why information architecture is so important. Information architecture, or IA for short, is all about organizing and structuring the navigation for a digital product. Where there is good IA, users can easily search and navigate seamlessly without struggle.

While many sites have caught up with the times and have learned to structure content effectively, there are still plenty of websites out there that are sure to make you cringe. For most of us, going to our town’s municipal site is a good place to start because they are usually notorious for containing vast amounts of information but lack the proper organization needed for a large site.

Choosing a Site

For me, my neighboring town of Ridgefield has a site just like this. Their site felt clunky and disorganized yet contained so many tabs on the homepage and an overwhelming amount of related links throughout the pages. After only a few minutes of clicking around, I knew Ridgefield, CT would benefit from new structuring and a rebuilding of their website.

Creating the Site Map

My first step in creating better information architecture for Ridgefield’s municipal site was to map out its current structure. For this I created a visual site map. I started at the homepage and clicked on each button in the top navigation to see where it would lead. Some had direct links to other pages on the site while other buttons had a drop down with categories and lists to choose from. Going through most of these options, I discovered that there were many more pages of content than I anticipated, and it was very unclear where exactly I was within the site.

After confusing myself enough, I decided to view the site map link they had on the home screen. This is when I discovered that most of the links I was clicking on were only a small portion of content that was on the site. The links on the top of the homepage were mostly just quick links and probably visited frequently. The actual site was organized differently, and I was able to gather a few tiers of content which I felt needed a restructuring. Unfortunately, the site was so large that I was unable to map the entire thing, but most of the main navigation bar was documented in my site map. Below you can see that each tier and/or page type has been assigned a specific color to make the site map easier to read.

Findings & Issues

As you can see on the right side of the site map, a good half of the website’s content is found through the link directory page. From this page, every link leads to some type of form or PDF that opens in the browser window. I thought this was confusing and it felt like a lazy way to organize this information. To me, it made more sense to put these PDFs with their respective department page. That way the users can find the necessary information and the related forms all in one place. 

I also found that the community button in the main navigation was severely unorganized and just had a list of topics. I instantly knew that this column would need better organizing and some pages could probably even be shared with the calendar and visitor pages. Since it can be important for websites to show information in multiple locations, I knew this would be an opportunity to duplicate some of these pages for visitors and residents.

Lastly, in the government links page and within the lower tier of boards, commissions, and committees page, I felt the structuring of these categories could be better. For me, browsing through so many different committees felt tedious, especially when the town is growing, and more and more committees will probably be created and added here. There had to be a better way to separate the public services departments from say board of select person. They shouldn’t all just be under boards, commissions, and committees. There should be smaller yet more descriptive groups within this category. This became my main priority when building the new site since each click should get users closer to the page they are looking for, rather than bombarding them with endless choices.

Building a New Site Map

As you can see below, my next step was to create a new site map. The new map included the issues I mentioned above with a few other changes added in. The new site ultimately allows for a better searching and browsing experience.

The first change I made in this process was updating the header navigation to different tabs I felt would be clicked on more, like a contact us button. I then moved on to the new departments tab to create two new categories under it to separate public services from the local government groups. Once I was able to restructure the new groups I was able to bring some PDF pages to their respective content pages.

I also understood that some pages should still lead to PDFs, but that they would be better off if they were classified, getting rid of the link directory. So under applications and documents there are new categories for these PDFs and forms.

Towards the end, I decided that some re-naming would help clarify where the user is headed. For example, instead of government as a main navigation tab, I changed it to departments.

Finally, restructuring the community page, I realized this category would also benefit from a new name. I called it public resources. From there, I was then able to create three distinct pages: town information, community resources, and latest news. This way it wasn’t just a random list of pages; every page now had a place.

Reflecting

With this new proposed plan to redesign Ridgefield’s site, I am pleased to see how easy it was to simplify it. Once I was able to understand how it was currently laid out, I easily found solutions for a once cluttered IA. I think the new classifications will help all user’s find what they are looking for within a few clicks. Instead of having to decide between finding a form or finding the departments information, users will be able to find both on one page. With better classification, the site will be able to add content easily over time, and users will know where to look. Truly a best of both worlds’ scenario.