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Information Architecture
Navigation
One major point of frustration for users is navigating across
one Sprint website to another. By pulling all internet groups
across the enterprise together, we collaboratively designed
a common navigation to persist across all sites. Through
extensive usability research and prototype testing, the team
selected a navigation system to address the highest level
options,
allowing the customer to self-select a persona group - Personal
or Business.
Figure
2 - Global Navigation across all major Sprint websites
The primary benefit of this design versus product categories
is that these personas never change, even when the company
adds or removes offerings from it's lineup. The navigation
elements serve as "safe places" to start over,
and are not intended to serve as a truly global architecture.
Impact
to existing site structures and financial cost of implementation
were considered, and kept to a minimum.
Domain Names and naming Strategy
With over 1,000 domain names owned by the company, there is
a critical need for clear and logical naming. I have implemented
a simple domain name strategy to achieve a flat heirarchy,
for
example:
http://www.sprint.com/longdistance/
instead of
http://www.sprintlongdistance.com
or
http://shop.sprint.com/residential/voiceservices/longDistance/plans/allPlans/allPlans.jsp
This reduces the amount of guessing for the customer, and lowers
domain acquisition and renewal costs for the company. All
advertising is required to promote simplified address, and
helps to reinforce brand awareness in the marketplace through
repetition of Sprint.com.
Breadth versus Depth
A broad information structure allows addition of content in
a scalable manner, without running out of homes for content.
Figure 3 - Breadth versus Depth
Figure 4 - About Sprint corporate site architecture.
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