What is information architecture, and where do we encounter it in everyday life? That’s what this article explores — including why it’s crucial when building and maintaining your website or online store.
You’re probably already familiar with the principles of information architecture. Let’s start with a classic everyday example.
Information architecture in daily life
Let’s start at the supermarket.
You’re probably reading this because you want to optimize your website or webshop.
So why start with a supermarket example?
After all, physical stores are heading for extinction, right?
Well, because supermarkets are one of the most optimized environments in the world when it comes to information architecture. In other words: it’s a perfect example to show how much impact this work can have.
Imagine your local supermarket is being remodeled. You used to be able to find everything blindfolded with heavy metal blasting through your headphones.
Cauliflower, milk, yeast.
You found it all in seconds.
But now they’ve changed everything.
And they had the nerve to move the chocolate.
[Insert a string of humanity’s worst curses here]
The signage hasn’t been updated either. No help there.
You scan the aisles. One has breakfast cereal. The next one bread.
Finally — a candy aisle. And a little further down, the chocolate. Mission accomplished. That wasn’t so hard after all.
Why?
Because the products are grouped logically. All the chocolate is in one place, divided into dark, white, and sugar-free. All under the sensible umbrella: sweets.
Logical categorization and recognizable structure make it easy to navigate.
Your users would rather give up than struggle to find something on your site
No matter whether you’re dealing with a website, intranet, online store, or something else entirely — organizing your content is essential.
Sure, you could just dump a page full of tiny blue links on your homepage. That way, everything is technically accessible (see: http://www.lingscars.com/). But showing all your content at once has major downsides. Most importantly, it’s overwhelming — and when people get overwhelmed, they give up.
In short: your brain burns energy making decisions. If a choice feels too hard, we’d rather quit and try somewhere else (read: your competitor).
So you have to prioritize, filter, and highlight content.
Categorization and prioritization go hand in hand. And no matter what people say — some content is more important than others.
See your site through your users’ eyes
The key to making this work is understanding how your users think they should navigate your site.
There are many ways to group products and content.
Back to the supermarket.
They could group items by color — putting cucumbers, sponges, and Tuborg together with other green things.
But that would be terrible. That’s not how people think when navigating a store.
Information architecture isn’t just about categorization. It’s about doing it in a way that makes sense to your users.
Guide your users along the path they expect
Once you’ve nailed your categorization, you need to support the architecture with what we call wayfinding.
In supermarkets, we use signs, aisles, and maybe a sombrero to guide people past the nachos and salsa.
On the web, we use navigation elements: menus, buttons, and links.
So to sum up, information architecture is about:
- Organizing content
- Describing content clearly and accurately
- Making it easy for users to find what they’re looking for
Where do we see information architecture?
It’s mostly discussed in the context of websites, online stores, and intranets. But the principles apply anywhere you want to organize information or elements for people to use.
Just think back to the supermarket example. Or how book lovers organize their collections — alphabetically, by genre, or (gasp) by color.
For now, we’ll focus on websites, intranets, and webshops.
Why is information architecture important?
Humans naturally want to group and categorize the world around them. We define ourselves in relation to others — we seek to answer the question: which group do I belong to?
Even if you hate being boxed in, we all do it. Even those who oppose “labeling” are creating a group identity.
Having categories helps us make sense of a complex world — it’s how our brains avoid overload.
You already have a structure — but are you aware of it?
It’s the same with websites. As soon as you start publishing articles or selling products, you’re grouping things — whether you’re aware of it or not.
Information architecture exists whether or not you actively manage it. Hint: it works a lot better when you do.
This might sound theoretical, but the point is simple: if your site has content, it’s already organized in some way — even if unconsciously.
And it’s much more effective when you actively create a clear, meaningful structure. That makes it easier for visitors to navigate — to find what they’re looking for. A specific product, a helpful article, your contact info — whatever it is.
It’s about making knowledge and information accessible
The amount of available content is exploding. It’s physically impossible to consume more than a fraction of it. And the more we all create, the harder it gets to find what we actually need.
Good information architecture helps people find what they’re looking for — fast. And it helps them ignore the rest without worry.
You have the chance to create great experiences on your webshop. Make it so easy for me to find a gas spring for my Renault Scenic that I smile when I hit “Buy.” Not just because it was easy to find — but because it was easy to make the right choice.
Not bad, right?
But it’s harder than it sounds. Because when you organize content, you’ll run into challenges like:
- There are always multiple ways to group your content.
- Users arrive with different needs.
- Users have different ideas of what logically fits together.
- Some users know your content inside and out. Others know nothing.
(A plumber may call it a faucet; I just call it a tap.)
So no, this guide can’t say: “Use this exact structure and everything will be perfect.”
That’s not how it works.
There are best practices. Things you can trust as a strong starting point.
But you can’t rely on that alone.
Information architecture isn’t just about drawing lines between parts of your site.
It’s about:
- Knowing your audience
- Understanding your content deeply
- User-testing everything
- Experimenting and improving
- Always trying to make it a little better next time
You need to make your content feel logical to your core audience. Group things in a way that makes sense to them. Describe everything in language they understand.
If you’re lucky, you think exactly like your customers. If you’re like most people — you don’t. That’s the expert’s trap. Read more on the curse of knowledge.
What do you need to build good information architecture?
You need to understand three fundamental things:
- People: What do you want them to do? How do they think? What do they already know?
- Content: What do you have? What should you have? What do you need?
- Context: What are your business goals? Who else needs to be involved? What are your limitations?
If you’re missing any of these, you’ll run into problems:
- If you don’t understand your users, you can’t group content meaningfully.
- If you don’t know your content, you can’t build good categories now or for the future.
- If you don’t understand your context, your structure won’t support your goals. And in a webshop, that’s a problem if your structure doesn’t help people put things in their cart.