Information architecture inventiveness

Documenting guidelines for content, components, and patterns on the Design System site invited me to think creatively about the IA. We had to consider our audiences (designers, engineers, PMs) and our platforms (iOS, Android, desktop and mobile web) at every step. The IA questions I engaged with had to do with:

• Findability – Where would users look for this?

• Coherence – Does it make sense that these are together? Does this reflect how it’s built in code? Does this align with how designers and engineers understand it?

• Scalability – If we continue growing the site, will this choice continue to make sense?

Here are some questions I took the lead in resolving:

• Is the Bulk Actions bar a pattern or a component?

• Are Icons a component or a foundation?

• Should “Help documentation” content guidelines be a playbook or exist as a separate L1 category?

• Should this group of similar but not identical components across platforms be clumped onto a single page or treated separately?

Here are some artifacts showing my IA work.