Architecture, Accessibility & Usability

Site architecture is more than simply creating a site map. Site Architecture involves identifying the relationships between the information on a site to the natural interconnections.

The goal is not to create a set of information silos within the site that site visitors explore without any clear path from one to another. A better user experience is created by dynamically integrating these silos of information to enable visitors to explore related information from across these silos with minimal clicks.

We call this idea Context Personalization and it is a powerful tool for improving the user experience on your site, increasing site stickiness and building relationships with site visitors, and reinforcing your brand experience.

The result of this process, in addition to a traditional tree-style site map, is a multi-dimensional content architecture that ties together the myriad of content information that is available throughout the site.

An Integrated Content Model allows visitors with different goals to find related content easily. The visitor can enter at any point and find information based on their situation instead of forcing them through a single path.

Information Architecture is the single most important step in constructing a Website or Intranet. It is absolutely critical that the information be presented to users so that it reflects their objectives in a clear and concise manner.

The Information Architecture process includes:

• Goals & Objectives
  The first step of Content Architecture is to define the goals for the users and organization.
• Target Audience
  Using the research data, and the common user goals it identifies, the next step is to more thoroughly define the target audience, focusing heavily on being able to describe:
  • What does this user seek on the Website/Intranet?
  • What actions do we wish them to take on the Website/Intranet?
  • What motivates the persona to take that action?
  • What novelty or stimulation can motivate this persona?
  • What new knowledge can satisfy this persona?
• Hierarchy
  There are several schemes that can be used to organization information into clear hierarchies. Examples include location, task, audience or process stage.
• Card Sorting
  Once possible hierarchy schemes have been defined, a card sorting exercise is conducted. During this process, the following tasks are performed:
  • A review of industry best practices
  • Placement of additional content and areas for growth
  • Identification of content that can be deleted, must be rewritten or is missing from the site
  • Preliminary definition of SmartPanels (or similar) that relate information automatically in context
  • Verification of the structure with the user tasks
  It is critical to work through every level of the Website/Intranet, since a "high level architecture" without this foresight often fails once the content placement begins.
• Supplemental Departmental Meetings
  Our usability experts and/or project managers can meet with key departments to verify the proposed architecture, usually in one hour sessions. Key departments typically include key service lines, HR, Marketing/PR, and foundation. Your organization is responsible for coordinating these meetings during the Information Architecture process.
• Labeling
  A key step often overlooked is the actual words used for the primary and secondary navigation elements. The research performed earlier is very useful in determining the words that are in the mind of the employees when they visit your Website/Intranet. The selection of these words is critically important - our research has shown that choosing certain words on key areas can increase task completion by 300%.
• Taxonomy & Categorization of Metadata
  Taxonomy, sometimes called "meta data", is the categorization step of defining attributes for your site's information. If you utilize Geonetric's VitalSite platform, the categorization is the foundation for SmartPanels that dynamically relate information on the fly.

Geonetric will work with your team during the Information Architecture process to determine your site categorization schemes given the data your site currently has and is slated to have.

Usability

You know everything that's right with your site, but your customers know everything that's wrong. The trapdoors and quirks you've learned to overlook quickly become their headaches and frustrations.

After a Usability Analysis, you'll know exactly how your site's usability and customer experience stacks up, you'll have recommendations on short-term fixes you can implement right now, and you'll get a roadmap for longer-term fixes that will require a more in-depth redesign.

Ideally, we prefer to do usability testing during the development of a new site design or architecture. Post or pre launch evaluations are definitely beneficial, but we always want to focus on having every dollar on every project 'well spent'.

The Geonetric usability team reviews sites using 2 methodologies:

• Optimal User Experience Evaluation
  The Optimal User Experience Evaluation consists of analyzing each key page of your site based on the 3 core aspects of Geonetric's design principles. It requires systematic methods to create a unique online environment that generates a process for converting site visitors to health consumers with your organization.
  
  > Read more about the Optimal User Experience Evaluation Process
  
  
• Heuristic Evaluation
  Heuristic evaluation is a variation of usability inspection where usability specialists judge whether each element of a user interface follows established usability principles.

Section 508 Compliance

In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Inaccessible technology interferes with an individual's ability to obtain and use information quickly and easily.

Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. The law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology.

Under Section 508 (29 U.S.C.794d), agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others.

Geonetric implements a rigorous testing and development process* to ensure your site is compliant, including:

• Compliant use of Flash and other animation
• Appropriate code and image tagging
• Use of W3C standard HTML within publicly accessible pages
• Screen reader compatibility compliance
• Color-blind testing

A set of resident experts on staff are trained to design fully accessible Websites, video and multimedia. We also provide continuing education both internally and through our webinar series on Section 508 compliance.

*The choice to comply with Section 508 regulations must be made prior to the start of the development phase of the project.

Section 508 implementation is critical in this era of reliance on information technology:

• In the first quarter of 2000, more than five million Americans joined the online world--roughly 55,000 new users each day
• Every 24 hours, the Web increases by more than 3.2 million new pages and more than 715,000 images
• The number of electronic mailboxes worldwide reached almost 570 million in 1999
• About 54 million Americans have a disability

Learn more information about Section 508 at: www.section508.gov