A library visitor chooses Reserve a room, sees the room rules and availability, and returns to the reservation from a clearly labeled confirmation page.
Chapter 01 / 14
Organize information around the task
Create names and routes that help people predict where to go.
Your goalChoose one task on a site you use. Write the person's goal, the first label they would select, the destination they expect, and a findability task that could test your prediction.
01 / Begin with the task
The principle
A person arrives with a goal, a phrase for that goal, and an expectation about where the answer belongs. Information architecture connects those three things to the site's content and actions.
- Information architecture
- The grouping, naming, and relationships that make content and actions findable.
- Navigation
- The visible routes people use to move through that structure.
- Wayfinding
- The cues that show a person's current location and available next routes.
Begin with the tasks people name in their own words. Group content by the decisions they make together, then label each group with language they recognize. A useful label predicts what appears after selection. A useful route gives the person a way back to the broader task.
A site map proposes a structure; a navigation design exposes selected parts of it. Test the proposal with realistic findability tasks. Observe the first category chosen, the route taken, and the point where a person changes course. Those observations show whether the structure and the visible cues support the task.
02 / Follow a method
Apply it in four steps
- List the top tasks and the words people use for them.
- Group related destinations and write predictive labels.
- Sketch a route to each task, including location and return cues.
- Test those routes with people using task prompts.
03 / Compare outcomes
Strong and weak execution
A library visitor sees Services, Facilities, and Community with overlapping room information, then opens several categories to locate the reservation action.
Why the outcome changes
The strong route uses the visitor's task as its label and preserves location after the reservation. The weak route asks the visitor to infer the site's internal categories. A findability test should begin from an ordinary library page and record the first label chosen, each detour, and the route to confirmation.
04 / Use the method
Practice on a real screen
Choose one task on a site you use. Write the person's goal, the first label they would select, the destination they expect, and a findability task that could test your prediction.
Review your work
- The task and starting point come from a plausible visitor goal.
- The label predicts the destination in the visitor's language.
- The test observes the route and the person's ability to return.
Keep your observation, interpretation, and proposed change together. Use the related patterns to inspect complete interaction states.