In Panama, the term “website usability”  don’t have too many sense to some websites owners.  So, I decide to help our clients every time we present the “Project Definition” phase I talk a little about Information Architecture (IA) and Usability.

If we want our customers to embrace IA, we must help them understand why we need it. IA is about selling ideas effectively, designing with accuracy, and working with complex interactivity to guide different potential customers through website experiences.

To help the customer embrace IA we can:

1. Make a questionnaire of requirements, goals and user paths. Some questions could be: What is the single purpose of the new site?, What are the secondary goals of the new site?, Who is your target audience?, What is a typical task the visitor might perform on the new site?, What do we want them to think and feel?, How will you measure the success of the redesigned site?

2. Show some examples or case of study (visually). You must have some good wireframes and visual designs that you can show to your client, this is very important to help them understand the process and the the value between a well organized website that take advantage of usability and just a pretty one.

3. Explain well what deliverables are. Let them know that the documents requires their input and approval. Examples of some deliverables are: Content Survey, Content Map, Site Map, Navigation Schema, Wireframes.  It’s important to tell the client, that we can’t go directly to the visual design without having the “sign-off” of the IA documents (the deliverables).

Read more about this topic “Educating the Client in IA” at a List Apart