Filed Under ‘information architecture’

January 5, 2012

Information Architecture for a Top Art and Architecture School

Cooper.edu Blueprint

The new Cooper.edu design

Behavior began the project by auditing the site’s existing content. A close review of the content showed that the antiquated site had many dead ends and unused pages.

Our small team validated the content audit by conducting a series of stakeholder interviews – over fifteen in total. We spoke with everyone who had an investment in the institution’s success: the President, Deans, administrators, in-house designers, librarians and public relations staff members.

In all our interviews we found that no one has time to generate content, and if they did they didn’t know how to publish it to the website. This was a significant challenge for our work given that there wouldn’t be a dedicated content manager for the new site. We also discovered that events and news play an important role in the institution’s involvement with its community. Every person we listened to reported the significance of events at Cooper as a way for the institution to celebrate knowledge and share world-class lectures with the city.

In response to our stakeholder findings, we planned for the information architecture and content strategy to include built-in algorithms for updating the site’s home page. By design, news and events are ever-changing content features on the home page, giving it a fresh look each time a visitor returns to the site. This concept cascades throughout the Cooper site, as news and events play a significant, graphical role on each school’s landing page.

Instead of mirroring the institution’s internal hierarchy, the new site provides a user-centered navigation scheme. The updated structure clarified the institution’s image as a student-focused community and enables all visitors to quickly access important content.

Please contact me for detailed work samples.
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January 5, 2012

Translating User Needs and Content for MoMA Learning

Homepage Wireframe

The education team was interested in revamping their teacher-specific print resources to make them accessible to any audience online. In Beth’s words, the new site “shouldn’t feel like you walked into the wrong bathroom.” It should be equally interesting and engaging for teachers, students, and modern art enthusiasts.

The education team started putting their ideas into wireframes and quickly realized each of the five team members had different ideas about what a new educational site could be. In our first meeting together I led the team through a series of workshop-style exercises to discover the ideas each person had in mind. In our very first conversation we discussed the project’s constraints – it turned out there were very few – and talked through a couple user scenarios. How would a high school student benefit from the site? How would a teacher use it? What would an enthusiast expect to find?

We started with a strong concept of understanding and addressing each user’s needs. The “wrong bathroom” concept was translated into information architecture throughout the site, starting with the search and browse functions. The site’s primary navigation supports targeted search behavior as well as less active browsing behavior.

Similarly, each page was designed to foster levels of engagement, keeping quick, unexpected content at the top to draw in a reader who may not know what she’s looking for. The site also boasts a comprehensive toolkit for teachers, who may be more focused in their visit and simply looking for the right resource.

Please contact me for detailed work samples.

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