Testing the IA
Information architecture, or the structure of the website, was now taking a back seat to search. We joked that the new GeorgiaGov would just have one big search field - no menu, no navigation.
Of course, we can’t do that. Yet.
We use menus to direct users toward a smaller universe that’s more directed toward their interest. From this second level, users can see popular topics in that area as well as the agencies that are associated with that area. We don’t try to direct them further or try to send them through a series of door. We go one level deep. That’s all.
We defined those areas based on user input, getting testers to organize the top 50 topics logically into categories. This test, called a card sort, allowed us to see state government from a citizen’s perspective. We knew how we would organize it; that’s not how a user organized it.
