Overview: Online Architecture
Probably the most common reason organisations contact me is to get help with their internal and external information architecture.
I usually find, however, that they first need to find a clear consensus on their communication strategy, content strategy and online strategy. Once that's done, I deliver a document which both you and your developers can understand, including some or all of the following:
- highly detailed sitemaps: internal intranets, external websites, knowledgebases, and the information flows between them
- mission statements for principal site chapters, features and content types
- business requirements for any revised or new features
- wireframes, allowing both you and your developers to envision how the result will look.
The aim is to deliver something detailed enough for professional developers and designers to give you a concrete quote, but not so technical that noone else understands what they're building.
I can then work with them to deliver it, or assemble a team and manage the site build for you.
Check out some of my firsts and best practices, or just get in touch.
More services: start with Communication strategy.
Relevant resources
www.niemanlab.org
“The website and the apps are based on the rhythm and structure of the newsletter now.”... daily briefing... published as an email newsletter, in Føljeton’s app, and on its website...features a mix of original reporting that focuses on a single topic each week ... cultural writing, an editorial, and curated links... (USD $7.55) per month... When …
www.buzzfeed.com
Clever. To build an app, Buzzfeed first built an enewsletter and tested that: "Designing and building an email newsletter takes a lot of work. But compared with launching a native app, a newsletter requires a much smaller investment of time and technology. As a lower-stakes product, we could launch it much more quickly than we could an app and …
thenextweb.com
"nearly 67 percent of emails were opened on a mobile device... it’s not that hard to create responsive emails. ... Here are 10 quick design hacks" - 10 design hacks for responsive emails that don’t suck
qz.com
Others have written on the return of the enewsletter, but I don't think anyone saw it as the home page: "Yes, the homepage is still dead, which is why our new front door is quite different from most. ... we are offering an efficient briefing on global business news, ... intended to be read straight through, like a well written memo from a trusted…
justcreative.com
"when an email newsletter, which looks look superb on desktop, fails to render properly on a mobile device, respondents either hit delete or unsubscribe." - Responsive Email Design: Benefits, How-To, Examples + More | JUST™ Creative