---
title: "Information architecture"
description: "Information architecture is how a site or app's content is grouped, named and ordered so people find what they came for. What it covers, with an example."
canonical: "https://goodtogrid.com/glossary/information-architecture"
updated: "2026-10-02"
---

# Information architecture

> Information architecture is how a site or app's content is grouped, named and ordered so people find what they came for. What it covers, with an example.

URL: https://goodtogrid.com/glossary/information-architecture · Glossary · Updated: 2026-10-02

Before anything is drawn, someone decides where each piece of content lives and what it's called. Get that right and navigation mostly designs itself.

- **Term:** Information architecture
- **Backed by:** 2 case studies · 2 for clients
- **Updated:** 2026-10-02

## What “Information architecture” means

The structure behind a site or app: how its content is grouped, labelled and ordered, and the paths people take through it to find what they came for.

## In practice

We start from the questions people bring, not from the content's current order. On KYZN Preschool the content lived in a curriculum deck, ordered for a presenter. We threw the slide order away and gave every piece of content a home based on the question it answers, such as what a day looks like for a three-year-old.

Apps get the same treatment, organised around tasks instead of questions. Rekamedika is designed around the clinic day, so records follow the order a visit happens.

Good information architecture is mostly invisible. People find things and don't notice why.

## Related work

- **[KYZN Preschool](https://goodtogrid.com/work/kyzn-preschool)** — Website for a preschool with campuses in Kuningan and BSD. _Client project · Education · Website · 2026_
- **[Rekamedika](https://goodtogrid.com/work/rekamedika)** — Electronic medical records system for clinics. _Client project · Health · Web app · 2026_

## Frequently asked questions

### Is information architecture the same as a sitemap?

A sitemap is one output of it. The work is deciding the groups and names in the first place, usually from the questions people arrive with.

### Does an app need information architecture too?

Yes. In an app it decides the tabs, what sits behind each one, and what a person sees first when they open it.

### When does it happen in a project?

At the start of design, after the scope is agreed and before any screen is drawn. It's cheaper to move a section on a list than on a finished page.

## Read next

- [Website brief template](https://goodtogrid.com/resources/website-brief-template) (Resource) — The questions to answer before a website is designed, from audiences to who keeps it updated.
- [UI/UX design](https://goodtogrid.com/services/ui-ux-design) (Service) — Research, flows, prototypes and design systems, from the people who build them.
- [Web development](https://goodtogrid.com/services/web-development) (Service) — Marketing sites, web apps and dashboards, designed and built by the same team.
- [From slide deck to website](https://goodtogrid.com/blog/deck-to-website) (Note) — What we learned turning a preschool’s curriculum presentation into a site parents actually browse.

[Start a project](https://goodtogrid.com/start-new-project#brief) · [All glossary](https://goodtogrid.com/glossary)