IA for an NGO

The Forum for Global Health Protection came to Dynamic Diagrams to design its website presence. I served as the project lead, business analyst, and information architect. One challenge of the project was serving as a consultant to some very smart people with fine credentials who knew little about the world of websites. Another challenge was designing such a large and rich data set in a findable fashion so that researchers and health providers solving world health crises would never miss a needle in the haystack.

 

I researched the client's specific area, studied similar online health databases, and interviewed stakeholders and representative end-users. The first deliverable was a report on the proposed information architecture for the website. To protect the interests of the client, I am not able to make the full report available. Here is a screenshot, including the table of contents:

The report included a beautiful isometric representation done by the project's information designer, Kim Looney. My work involved defining the site's information architecture, as represented by the left-to-right sloping axis in the diagram. I also defined and described how the site's main content types could be viewed from any of the content's major facets: the threat's name (e.g., Bird Flu), the region (e.g., East Asia), or the field of study (e.g., Epidemiology). My work understanding the client's area and listening carefully for requirements, along with Kim's clear and precise visual representation, helped the client understand the possibilities for the websites and how all their information could be made findable and helpful.