How the information architecture has evolved

In our previous post about the IA during the alpha phase, we outlined the proposed site structure based on the user research during the discovery stage. Let’s take a moment to see how that as evolved in response to user and stakeholder needs as well as actually creating the content.  

The core area of competitors, skills and countries is still there. We’ve create a two-level navigation to make the most of this structure.  

On smaller screens this becomes a menu button with an overlay menu.

But the distinction between the two levels is maintained.

Your hosts and get involved are still on the top menu. News and press has simply become “News”. FAQs and the scroll story “Why WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 Matters” are no longer on the top navigation. Though important, they didn’t seem to fit on the top navigation in the long term. 

Two new sections are “What’s on” and “sponsors”. Lots of evidence pointed to the need for some kind of schedule as well as an area for the results once the competition is over. This section began as “schedule and results”, then it became “schedule” with “results” to be shown when available. But “schedule” was felt to be a bit serious and formal for a young audience, evoking timetables rather than excitement and fun. It also didn’t feel right for the other activities around the competition such as the conference. Events, we felt, was too ambiguous, especially since the whole thing is an event. So we went with “what’s on”. “Sponsors” is also on the top navigation. 

“Sponsors” is an important section even though it doesn’t have much content compared to other sections and being on the top navigation does not necessarily equal increased exposure (the previous competition site had “partners” as one of five of the top navigation yet that section 0.6% of unique page views).

Our proposed approach to sponsors and partners is to integrate them throughout the site: in the middle of the home layout, become a sponsor in “get involved”, sponsors on the skills layouts, etc. But given its importance, this section will also be on the top navigation. 

That rounds off our update on the IA. We don’t expect the top navigation to change, but these notes were correct for May 2016. 

We hope you found this information useful. If you have any comments or feedback, please let us know using the link at the top of the page.