In the second installment of my Information Architecture Deliverables series, I’m going to talk about one of my favorite (and one of the most tricky) deliverables: the page description diagram. In case you’re not familiar, a page description diagram is a text-based list that explains the importance of content that appears on various pages of a website. Here’s a sample of what one looks like.
One of the main reasons why I love pdd’s is that they effectively remove visual design and layout-based discussions (which should be reserved for the visual design phase of the work) from the IA process. Presenting and discussing only content forces a client to focus on choosing what is and isn’t really important on a given page, helping to communicate their core message.
That said, I’ve found that there are two scenarios in which Page Description Diagrams might not be the best choice. The first occurs with clients who really don’t want to get involved with anything unless it’s visual. For instance, I recently worked with an architecture firm who told me up front that their group was very visual, and that text-only deliverables weren’t going to enable them to provide valuable feedback. For this client, I chose a more visual-based deliverable.
The second scenario occurs when we’re working with web applications or more interactive-type sites, where discussing interactions is key. Interactions are more difficult to portray textually, so Page Description Diagrams often leave important questions unanswered and aren’t the most appropriate for these types of projects.
Aside from these two examples, Page Description Diagrams are an ideal deliverable—especially for content-heavy sites. They’re a great way for the information architect to focus in on the content and its overall importance per page, rather than visual design and layout only.
If you’re not architecting a site with heavy interactivity, I’d highly recommend them as a great way of getting everyone involved and on the same page during the site building process.
This article was originally posted to the Blue Flavor blog, so please direct your comments and discussion over there and we’ll talk.