information-architecture
This skill helps design the foundational structure of websites and digital products by defining sitemaps, navigation systems, URL patterns, content types, and taxonomies. Use it when planning a new site from scratch, restructuring existing sites, creating navigation menus, establishing URL conventions, building taxonomy systems, or auditing current information architecture problems. It applies across marketing sites, products, knowledge bases, e-commerce platforms, and editorial content.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/rampstackco/claude-skills /tmp/information-architecture && cp -r /tmp/information-architecture/dist/pi/.agents/skills/information-architecture ~/.claude/skills/information-architectureSKILL.md
# Information Architecture Design the structure that holds the content. Stack-agnostic. Applies to marketing sites, product surfaces, knowledge bases, e-commerce, and editorial content. A well-designed IA makes the rest of the project easier. A poorly-designed IA forces every downstream decision to fight the structure. --- ## When to use - Designing a new site or major section from scratch - Restructuring an existing site - Adding a new content type or category - Designing site navigation or menu systems - Defining URL structure and slug patterns - Building taxonomies or tag systems - Auditing an existing IA for problems ## When NOT to use - Single-page design (use `design-standards`) - Content production (use `content-and-copy`) - SEO-driven content planning (use `seo-keyword`) - Initial brand and audience discovery (use `brand-discovery`) --- ## Required inputs - The site or product scope - The audience and what they're trying to do - The content that exists or is planned - Any constraints (parent IA, regulatory, technical) If audience is unclear, run `brand-discovery` first. If content scope is unclear, run `content-strategy` first. --- ## The framework: 6 layers Information architecture has six layers. Each builds on the one below. ### 1. Mental models Before structure, understand how the audience thinks about the domain. - What concepts do they group together naturally? - What words do they use? (Often different from what the company uses.) - What is the dominant frame of reference? (By task? By role? By topic? By time?) - What do they expect to find where, based on conventions in similar products? **Methods:** - **Card sorting** (open or closed): Give the audience the content items, ask them to group them. Open card sorts surface natural groupings. Closed card sorts validate proposed groupings. - **Tree testing:** Give a proposed structure, ask users to find specific items. Surfaces where the structure breaks down. - **First-click testing:** Given a goal, where do users click first? If first clicks are wrong, the labels and structure are wrong. ### 2. Sitemap The map of all pages and how they relate. **Sitemap deliverables:** - A hierarchy diagram showing parent-child relationships - Indication of page types (static, dynamic, listing, detail) - Cross-references showing how pages relate beyond the hierarchy - Sometimes a separate user-flow overlay for key journeys **Sitemap types:** - **Hub-and-spoke** (cornerstone content + supporting content): Common for content marketing - **Tree** (strict hierarchy, every page has one parent): Common for product documentation - **Faceted** (content lives in many overlapping categories): Common for e-commerce - **Flat** (everything reachable from the home): Common for small sites Most sites blend types. Pick the dominant pattern and document the exceptions. ### 3. URL structure URLs are part of the IA. They are user-facing, indexed by search engines, and shape how content is referenced. **URL principles:** - Reflect the content hierarchy - Lowercase, hyphen-separated - Predictable (same pattern across same content type) - Stable (URLs don't change without redirects) - Short (under 60 characters where possible) - Descriptive (slug indicates the content) - Free of dates unless time-bound - Free of session IDs and tracking parameters in canonical form **Common patterns:** ``` / home /[section] section landing /[section]/[subsection] subsection landing /[section]/[subsection]/[item] detail page /blog blog index /blog/[slug] blog post /blog/category/[category] category index /blog/tag/[tag] tag index /products product catalog /products/[category] category page /products/[category]/[product] product detail ``` Pick a pattern and stick to it. Inconsistent URL patterns confuse users, crawlers, and analytics. ### 4. Navigation The chrome that gets users where they need to go. **Primary navigation:** - The top-level structure of the site - Should reflect what the audience cares about, not what the org chart looks like - 5 to 7 items maximum (more becomes cognitively heavy) - Each label is recognizable in 2 to 3 words - Order matters (left/first gets the most attention) **Secondary navigation:** - Within-section navigation - Often shown as sidebars, sub-menus, or in-page tabs - Supports the primary nav, doesn't duplicate it **Utility navigation:** - Account, search, login, support - Visually subordinate to primary nav - Often top-right (LTR languages) **Breadcrumbs:** - For nested hierarchies (3+ levels deep) - Always linked except the current page - Match the URL hierarchy or the conceptual hierarchy - Marked up with BreadcrumbList schema **Footer navigation:** - Comprehensive; sometimes includes everything - Organized by category for findability - Includes secondary content (privacy, terms, contact) ### 5. Taxonomy and metadata The classification system applied to content. **Categories:** - A small, controlled list (typically 5 to 15) - Mutually exclusive ideal (one item, one category) - Used for structural navigation **Tags:** - A larger, often growing list (50+) - Multi-assignment (one item, many tags) - Used for cross-cutting connections, related-content, and long-tail discovery **Metadata fields:** - Author, date, content type, audience segment - Whatever is useful for filtering, sorting, and surfacing **Common failures:** - Categories that overlap (item could go in 3 different categories) - Tags that are unmaintained (sprawl into thousands, become useless) - Metadata fields that get filled inconsistently - Different content types using different taxonomies for the same thing (chaos) ### 6. Labeling What you call things. **Label principles:** - Audience language, not internal language - Spec
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