Effective Information Architecture for Intranet Success

Intranet Information Architecture Part II & III
Card Sorting and Tree Testing
http://bonzai-intranet.com/

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@michalpisarek
michal@bonzai-intranet.com
Michal Pisarek
• Director of Product at Bonzai Intranet
• 6x Microsoft SharePoint MVP
• International Intranet and SharePoint Speaker
Director of Product at Bonzai Intranet

INTRANET INNOVATION
AWARDS
What we’re all about
Dynamic Owl are
Thought Leaders in:
• Beautiful and functional Intranets
based on organization business
needs
• Promoting innovation,
engagement and collaboration in
organizations using
best of breed technology
• Intranets based on SharePoint
and Office 365 that embraced by
all levels an organizations
• Recently acquired by Skyvera from ESW
• Microsoft Gold Partner
• End-to-end SharePoint Implementations
• 3x Microsoft SharePoint MVP’s on staff
• Branham ICT Companies to watch 2nd place 2015
• Commended entry Intranet Innovation Awards 2015
Bonzai Intranet IA Part II & III www.bonzai-intranet.com

The Intranet Platform of Choice for 2018
http://bonzai-intranet.com/Bonzai Intranet IA Part II & III
Why is Bonzai an Award-Winning Intranet?
The Bonzai platform offered a fully
responsive design, with ongoing software
upgrades…a friendly UI for content editing,
standard page layouts and templates, and
additional features— such as megamenu
navigation.”
-2018 Top 10 Intranet Design Award,
Nielsen Norman Group
Bonzai is an intranet accelerator solution
for both Office 365 and SharePoint… with
ready made designs, web parts and
workflows to enable the creation of
bespoke intranets.”
-2018 Intranet Choice North America,
ClearBox Consulting
Bonzai’s commitment to our mutual
customers’ success through creative
solutions, professional engagement and
ensuring that benefits can be realized in
the customer’s organization is to be
commended.”
-2016 Solution Innovation Award,
Nintex
Noted intranet platform for both "How to
deliver a SaaS-based Intranet after
deploying Office 365"and “What SharePoint
Is Missing and Which Third-Party Products
Can Help.”
-Gartner Inc, world leading research
& advisory company
SaaS-Based Intranet
Solution for Office 365
2016 Solution Innovation
Award North America
2017 Top Rated Intranet
North America
2018 Credit Union Website
Diamond Award
2015 Intranet
Innovation Award

Our Mission
To help organizations communicate,
collaborate and engage with the
SharePoint and Office 365 platform.

Our 2018 Series Overview
How to create an award
winning Intranet
Part 1
Intranet
Governance
Part 10
Intranet Content
Planning (Part II)
Part 4
Intranet Content
Planning (Part I)
Part 3
Visual
Design
Part 9
Communication and
Change Management
Part 12
Training
Part 11
Information
Architecture (Part I)
Part 6
Defining an Intranet
Team
Part 2
Organizational & User
Requirements
Part 5
Information
Architecture (Part III)
Part 8
Information
Architecture (Part II)
Part 7
Bonzai Intranet IA Part II & III

Today's Agenda
Information
Architecture Recap
Card Sorting Tree Testing

Information Architecture Recap
20162013

“Information Architecture is the art
and science of structuring, labelling
and categorizing content.”
Bonzai Intranet Introduction http://bonzai-intranet.com/http://bonzai-intranet.com/Bonzai Intranet IA Part II & III

Components of Information Architecture
Bonzai Intranet Introduction http://bonzai-intranet.com/http://bonzai-intranet.com/Bonzai Intranet IA Part II & III
Site Structure Tags & Categories
(Metadata)
Landing Pages
+ +

Best Practice Site Structure
Groups and Sub-Groups of Content
Overview of Bonzai 1.5 http://bonzai-intranet.com/
Intranet
My Working Life
Benefits
Compensation
Expenses
How We Work
Policies
Procedures
Forms
Who We Are
Vision & Values
Strategy
Board Members
What’s Going On
News
Events
Spotlight
Shared Services
or Departments
Finance
HR
IT
Lines of Business
Products
Services
Projects

Keep it clear and
simple. Don’t make
users guess!
Bonzai Intranet Introduction http://bonzai-intranet.com/
IA Best Practices
Simple but effective guiding principles
Label clearly: Do not use tag lines or current company tag
lines too prominently.
Use short names: People do not read they scan.
Organize by type not ownership: Org structures change,
type of information does not.
Mutual exclusivity: Do not confuse users with similar labels.
Provide multiple pathways to content: Information seeking
is dependent on the user and the task they are trying to
complete.
Millers Magic Number: If you have too many items in your
navigation people wont remember all the navigation nodes.

Site Structure Informs Navigation
• Site Structure DOES NOT
equal Intranet Navigation.
• Manually choose which
groups and sub-groups of
content appear in the
navigation.
• Introduce cross-links
where appropriate,
limiting the breadcrumb
trail from bouncing
around.
Landing Page Navigation
Intranet Navigation
• Rollup content on one
landing page from
another site and use
‘show more’ and links
to navigate elsewhere.
• May be used to provide
navigation to content
that is not linked in the
Global Navigation, such
as News Archives.

Information Architecture Activities

IA Activities
Content Audit
Card Sort
Site Structure
Draft
Tree Test
Site Structure
Overview of Bonzai 1.5 http://bonzai-intranet.com/http://bonzai-intranet.com/Bonzai Intranet IA Part II & III

Site Structure
Use the input from the card sort exercise to prepare a structure that is organized and well
thought out with the user in mind.
Provide a starting point for the organization of the intranet that allows for growth and
scalability.
Used as an input into Tree Testing to ensure that site structure decisions are sound.
Purpose

Card Sort Overview
Card sorting is a method to gather insights about how items are categorized
naturally in users’ mental model (how do users think about groups of
related content).
There are three types:
Closed Card Sort
• Items and Categories are pre-defined
Open Card Sort
• Categories are not pre-defined; Users name the categories as they sort the items
Hybrid Card Sort
• Some categories are predefined but users can also create their own

Card Sorting and Intranets
Navigation
Structures
FAQ or How
Do I
Categories
Search Scopes
Document
Type
Metadata
Site Structure

Purpose
Content Audit
To itemize all existing content to determine what needs to be kept, rewritten or deleted.
To itemize any net new content to be created for the new intranet.
To assign or re-assign ownership of content
To provide an input into the card sorting task that will be used to create the structure for
the new intranet.

Steps to Prepare for the Card Sort
Make sure you have completed your content audit and understand
high value content or tasks
Prepare 30 – 100 cards to use in the card sort exercise.
Decide on Top Level Categories that are appropriate to use if doing
a closed or hybrid card sort.
Prepare Email Communication to participants.

Card Sorting Reports – Cards Overview & Category
Shows you for each card the category that it was assigned to
Details the frequency (number of participants that placed each card into the category) and
the average position ( the average order position that each card was place)
If this is a closed card sort it allows you to see exactly where and how each card was placed in
each category

Results Matrix - Awesome

Tree Testing for Site Structure Validation
Used to evaluate the findability of topics in an Intranet.
Task based questions provide insight into a users way of thinking about the content.
Test navigation against a set of common user tasks.
Best way to determine if your navigation will actually work.
Purpose

Tree Testing Analysis
See how questions scored:
Analyze where users clicked:
Get feedback from participants:
Bonzai Intranet IA Part II & III http://bonzai-intranet.com/- Confidential -

Steps to Prepare for the Tree Test
Finalize your site structure (with input from the Card Sort!)
Review and Approve Tree Test Questions
• Try to cover the most common tasks and get a good coverage on your navigation
• We aim for between 10 – 15 questions
• Be very careful with how you word your questions
Determine any additional pre and post test questions you may want to ask
• This will allow you to capture additional information AND be able to filter data
• Consider capturing demographic information (location, job role, years or service) or feedback ( Can
you find content on the current Intranet? What do you think of this new structure)
Prepare Email Communication to participants.
• Who will be part of this? How many people do you want to send this to?
• Typical test takes between 10 – 20 minutes
Run and then Analyze

Summary Results
Overview of Bonzai 1.5 http://bonzai-intranet.com/Bonzai Intranet IA Part II & III http://bonzai-intranet.com/- Confidential -

Tasks Overall Results

Participants

Pie Tree

First Click Analysis

www.bonzai-intranet.com
@bonzaiintranet
sales@bonzai-intranet.com
+1 (604) 559 - 8070
675 W.Hastings,
Vancouver B.C. V6B 1N2
SharePoint Intranet with BusinessSense

Effective Information Architecture for Intranet Success

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