The focus of part ⅔ of ‘Let’s learn UX’ webinar series by UXShots in partnership with Prathidhwani Technical Forum was User-Centred Analysis (UCA) and Information Architecture (IA)

By definition, User-Centered Analysis and design is the mindset of placing the person using the product at the centre of the design process rather than the product itself. What it boils down to is always thinking from the user’s perspective and striving to research, design, and build solutions that never make the user think about what they need to do next.

In the session, after a brief take on the various processes involved in UCA, a deeper dive was taken into two steps involved in UCA: building personas and conducting field study research. 

The key takeaways in the detailed journey were addressing the points on how we bring a user into the picture and how we build an effective persona. And then, how we validated the assumptions we have and get more insights about them through two research methods, namely user interviews and surveys. The discussion also included an analysis of how user interviews and surveys are done and how effectively they can be done.

The second session talked about IA or Information Architecture, which is the art and science of organising information in a structured, logical, and intuitive way. Users are on the internet to either provide information or to gain information. So it falls on the UX Designer to create products that are organised in such a way that it meets the users’ mental models and expectations. There are many deliverables within the field of IA but the session focused on sitemaps. Sitemaps are a blueprint of the navigation structure of an app/website. We delved deep into how to create a sitemap, how to test it, and how to validate our assumptions with users. We discussed in detail about card sorting, reverse card sorting, and how they can be used to create a good sitemap. 

It was a wonderful experience talking to UX enthusiasts about the different deliverables and how they are closely related to each other. We had lots of fun conducting this webinar and we look forward to the final part of the webinar series on 26 Sept 2020 which will cover wireframes, UX tools, and UX audits.