Use information-architecture

Design the information architecture for a product or site

Design the information architecture for a product or site — a content inventory grouped by how users think, labels in their words, a navigation model split into global, local and utility nav, an indented sitemap plus a Mermaid diagram, a label rationale table, the findability risks, and the card-sort or tree-test plan that would validate it.

Reach for it when the user wants a sitemap, IA, navigation structure, menu design, "reorganise our help centre", "where should this page live", or says users "can't find anything".

Install it

npx skilldrop-cli install information-architecture                 # Claude Code, your user folder
npx skilldrop-cli install information-architecture --project       # Claude Code, this repo
npx skilldrop-cli install information-architecture --ide cursor    # or kiro, codex, antigravity, copilot

It is part of the Experience design pack: --pack experience-design installs it with its neighbours.

Ask for it

Say it the way you would to a colleague. Requests like these route to it:

• "Design the sitemap and navigation for our new customer portal"
• "Users say they can't find anything in our help centre — restructure it"
• "We're merging two products into one app; what should the main menu look like?"
• "Where should the new invoicing feature live in our nav, and how would we test that?"

Requests like these belong to a different skill, so it shouldn't answer them:

• "Map the customer's journey from signing up to their first payroll run, with emotions and pain points"
• "Write a content spec for our pricing page: what questions it must answer and in what order"
• "Write the button labels, error messages and empty states for the invite-a-teammate flow"

If another skill answers instead, ask for this one by name: "use information-architecture".

Check what you get

A good result:

• The inventory exists and comes first. Every item in the sitemap traces to an inventory row; every cut is listed, not silently dropped.
• One organising scheme per level, named. Mixed schemes are flagged with the reason.
• Labels are user words with a recorded reason. Every global and local label appears in the rationale table with its evidence tag.
• Global nav has 5–7 items; utility items are not in it.
• Top tasks are one click from the landing page and depth is 3 levels or fewer for weekly tasks, or the exception is stated.
• The tree and the Mermaid diagram match node for node, and the Mermaid renders.
• Findability risks are named with severity and a mitigation.
• The validation plan has tasks written without label words, correct destinations, a threshold, and what result would change the design.
• Nothing is invented. Content items, audiences and evidence not in the input are tagged [inferred] or [assumption].

See a worked example

• payroll app nav

Use something else when

• The steps and emotions of one persona reaching an outcome — that's user-journey-map
• What one page should say and in what order — that's content-design
• The exact wording of menu items, buttons and errors across a flow — that's ux-writing
• The requirements and scope of a new feature — that's prd-draft

Next

• SKILL.md, the instructions the agent reads
• Its page on the site
• Related: content-design, prd-draft, user-journey-map, ux-writing

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