Site maps are static but organizations are not. Things change. Company goals shift priority, conference schedules change, and news changes at least every quarter. Shouldn’t your web site accommodate such change?

I’m amazed at how often site maps and information design decisions are made within a static framework. I’ve seen folks work intensely on the organization of information without thinking about the context of time. This is particularly an issue with content managed sites because their framework is managed by a typically rigid set of technologies that assume your information architecture is static while your content is organic.

It is true that at a top level the main categories of site navigation should be solid. However the sub-navigation systems should be pretty fluid. You don’t know how many times I’ve run into organizations that could not post an emergency alert because it wasn’t accommodated in the original IA. There was no flexibility.

So next time you start working on information architecture consider these guidelines:

1. Work with the organization to determine top level content categories AND the frequency with which content changes (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually)
2. Accommodate emergency alerts on the homepage and news sections (do this in the wireframes and design comps also)
3. During a redesign, look at analytics over the course of a year to determine shifts in top content and why (company change, quarterly patterns, etc.)
4. Create an easy to update format of the site map and revisit it at least every other month

Content changes. Companies change. So should the information architecture that accommodates both.

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