Boagworld: UX, Design Leadership, Marketing & Conversion Optimization · Paul Boag, Marcus Lillington

A Fast and Effective Way of Creating an Information Architecture

·1 hr 12 min·5 clips

Paul Boag explains why information architecture shouldn't be logical—it's about matching how people hold information in their heads.

The lesson opens with housekeeping. Paul sets it up as the fourth Lean UX lesson, made free by Balsamiq, and Marcus gently pokes at the idea of calling it a course at all. The banter is relaxed. Marcus says he has liked the interviews, while Paul suspects the draw is just getting to have a useful chat. Then they get into the work. The problem: how do you build an information architecture quickly without drifting away from users? Abbey Covert joins them, which pulls the conversation toward practical IA choices and the awkward gap between ideal process and real sites. Audience-based navigation gets a fair hearing. Paul and Marcus talk through the familiar university setup, where prospective students and alumni expect clear places to go. They do not throw the idea out. The warning is more precise: if the whole structure hangs on user groups, it can get messy, though secondary navigation and cross-linking can still do real work. Card sorting is where things get stickier. One method starts with the content already on the site, breaks it up, and tries to relabel or rearrange it. Paul does not love that. Existing content might miss what users came for, or carry a lot they do not need. He gives ground, a little. Listing content types helps. Treating the current inventory as truth gives old assumptions too much authority. Starting from top tasks and user needs sounds cleaner, though Paul admits the full scrap-it-and-start-again version can be fantasy. The ending loosens up nicely: Google Home tells a calendar-factory joke, Alexa is out of range, and nobody trusts themselves to remember the comparison next month.

As heard by us

A practical information-architecture discussion that stays grounded in real content and navigation problems.

The episode treats information architecture as a working problem, not an abstract ideal. Paul Boag and Marcus Lillington host the course, and Abbey Covert joins in to talk through user groups, secondary navigation, and university-style audience hubs.

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Why you'd press play

You want a faster way to shape a user-centric information architecture.

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