Rethinking information architecture and navigation for Virgin Media Ireland
Information architecture | Navigation | Stakeholder workshops | Tree-testing | Analytics review | Competitor review
The site structure and navigation of the Virgin Media Ireland website remained fundamentally unchanged since its inception in 2016. However, years of iterations and tweaks has resulted in the navigation being disjointed and hard to use. With the website proposition being refreshed, the IA and navigation had to reflect these changes. As part of this programme of work, I implemented a new site structure to support the refreshed website proposition.
The project
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Virgin Media Ireland's website was the result of a large re-design in 2016. With the website proposition being updated to better align with their new customer value proposition, the website was undergoing an optimisation programme to improve their support and sales offerings.
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I led the information architecture and navigation re-design project, working closely with senior stakeholders to re-think their website's inherent structure and navigation.
My approach
Site-wide content audit
A full content audit to four levels, coding the site's IA and content types (including dead pages and and polyhierarchies)
Competitor/
comparator review
I conducted a competitor review of all major UK broadband providers (both authenticated and unauthetnticated states)
Analytics review
Track online behaviour using Hotjar (heat maps, click behaviour) and Google Analytics (path analysis, page views, bounce-rate)
Stakeholder workshops
Tree-testing
I led two stakeholder workshops to review and current IA, co-design solutions and establish buy-in from senior stakeholders
We developed two new site structures and tested them (Optimal workshop) with over 500 participants, providing iterations based on the results.
Reviewing the current IA
Content audit
For me, all large IA optimisation projects must start with a detailed evaluation of current taxonomy, content types and site structure. By creating a content matrix (excel sheet, sitemap), I was able to map all the key site pages to 5 levels. By coding the pages based on content type, and highlighting inconsistencies and polyhierarchies, we were able to get a clear understanding of how the site's IA currently works. A content matrix is also an invaluable tool for developers and content designers once we start communicating proposed changes.
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Web analytics
Once I had mapped out the current site structure and content types, I started to use web-traffic analytics to see how users are actually behaving on the website in the real world. Two tools are essential here - Google analytics and Hotjar. Using Google analytics, I was able to understand user behaviour flows through path analysis. This allowed me to define core journeys and identify drop off points that could suggest weaknesses in the IA. Hotjar heatmaps and session recordings allowed me to see where users are clicking (and how they're navigating), ultimately demonstrating whether users are behaving in a way we expect for our current IA​
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Competitor review
Our content audit and traffic analysis started to give us a better idea of how the current IA is designed, and how our users are actually behaving on the site. This was developed into a report to highlight themes and areas of improvement that we could test with users in proposed re-design solutions. A competitor analysis was also conducted to understand if there were any IA patterns that were widely adopted by other websites. This exercise is also useful for demonstrating the feasibility of alternative solutions to stakeholders, before we commit to any design decisions internally.
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Stakeholder workshops
Stakeholder workshops are an essential part of any large-scale IA redesign. As content on a site is often owned by many different teams (whether it be sales, support, product etc.), and proposed redesign can become incredibly political. Further, stakeholders can provide insight into the design decisions that lead to certain sections and content on the website. Primarily, stakeholder workshops are run for establishing buy-in. All parts of an organisation should contribute to a new IA vision.
Kick-off workshop
I led a kick-off workshop to introduce key stakeholders and teams from across the business to the project. Information architecture isn't always a simple concept to understand for people new to the discipline. The kick-off workshop is an opportunity to explain what IA is, and what is the value of improving it.
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Before the workshop, I sent out a digital pack to briefly explain the purpose of the workshop, and familiarise attendees to Miro, the digital whiteboard platform we were using.
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In this 3 hour online workshop, we covered three key areas:
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The priority business goals and the needs of your users that will underpin the IA/navigation
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How your website navigation and site structure is working currently
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Alternative (competitor) approaches to navigation and site structure
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Breaking out into 2 groups, we covered a number of exercises to understand Virgin Media Ireland's key goals and value propositions, identified weaknesses and strengths in the current IA through a review of core user journeys, and conducted a card sort to help attendees think about alternative groupings and taxonomies on the site. ​
Co-design workshop
After the kick-off workshop, I used the insight gathered to design four high level alternative IA's for the website. These were taken into a second 'co-design' workshop, where team members from across Virgin Media Ireland reviewed the alternatives, accessed their feasibility and discussed strengths and weaknesses. We then developed a second iteration of the IA together to take into user research.
Testing our solutions with users
Following our co-design workshop, I ran a tree-test survey to evaluate the performance of a proposed IA solution. The new IA concept was designed for both the authenticated and the unauthenticated journeys, which was evaluated through tree-testing methods. The tree-test survey was completed by over 500 primary (or joint) broadband decision makers from the UK.
The tree-test study
To evaluate the proposed solution, I ran a tree-test survey with relevant user groups on Optimal Workshop. Participants were recruited using a trusted 3rd party recruitment agency, and had to be broadband decision makers in their household. We also captured other relevant information (such as current provider, products used and purchase decision-making behaviour). Over 500 participants were recruited for this study.
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We explored success rates and user expectations using a set 28 randomised tasks. The tasks are designed to probe a set of common user journeys that encompass research, buy, account management, upgrade and support related tasks.
Analysis
Users were shown 15 tasks each, taken randomly from the full set, in such a way that all tasks will get equal number of responses overall.
I evaluated success rate, directness, time taken and navigation behaviour across all 28 tasks, grouped based on task type (for example, purchase). ​
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I set a success criteria bracket based on industry standards for IA evaluation. I then condensed the findings into a report, highlighting overall success, success based on task, and opportunities for improvement.
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Presenting the findings
After analysing the findings, I created a research report alongside a set of recommendations for further optimisation. The findings were presented to key stakeholders engaged in the project throughout (including all attendees of the workshops) before a discussion was held to establish next steps.
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Following the presentation, a final iteration was designed, signed off and presented to technical leads to plan an implementation strategy.
The final product
Old site
New site
For me this project really demonstrated the power of collaborative design in information architecture. Websites can be political, especially in large commercial organisations with lots of different project teams involved in curating web content. By engaging stakeholders from across the business, you can streamline design decisions, and importantly, implement solutions.
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The new IA is live, check it out - www.virginmedia.ie