Even at 3G speeds data retrieval on a mobile phone takes significantly longer than we are accustomed to on a desktop PC. It doesn’t take long for users to become frustrated with lengthy sequences of retrievals, and give up. So getting this right is extremely important. In the mobile context it is especially important to structure information as simply as possible. Placing the right information in the right place is an important part of providing a usable experience; getting it wrong means providing a poor experience.

On the other hand, a user presented with a clear goal and intelligent ways to reach it, may tolerate latency issues and the time taken to reach the goal. This is best done by setting user expectations. Every link should use clear labels to communicate to the user what to expect on the resulting page, thereby lowering the risk of click disappointment.

Keep It Simple

The best advice for creating a strong mobile information architecture is to keep it as simple as possible. The following two approaches work well when structuring your IA for mobile presentation:

• Limit choices. Take the content that’s relevant to a mobile user and discard the rest. This results in a simple and focused IA that cuts down the risk of the user getting lost. This approach works well with small, focused sites.
• Create a simple site drill-down architecture, nesting content into well-labeled categories. While this sounds straightforward, it’s necessary to plan carefully before taking this approach. A typical Web site has sub-pages – users follow a link to reach the sub-page. This is drilling down to find the information the user seeks on the Web site.

Drill-Down Recommendations

Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind when considering a drill-down approach for your site:

• Limit categories as much possible: Users become increasingly disoriented as they go deeper into a site. With a Mobile Web site, their tolerance often stops at about five levels – the fewer levels the better You should adjust this number upwards when targeting more capable devices.
• Attempt to limit links to ten per page unless you know that the device can present more information well: You should code your links with accesskeys, so that the user can use the phone keypad to navigate links. We recommend a assigning up to ten accesskeys to any page (0–9) to ensure compatibility with older devices. You should adjust this number upwards when targeting more capable devices that can display this information better.
• Provide at least one content item with each category page i.e. avoid empty links: Giving users at least one sample of the content within a category is a good way to make sure that users get to the right place. Consider placing a link to the featured content with a one or two sentence overview. The shorter, the better.
• Prioritize links by activity or popularity: This is often referred to as “deck placement.” Sorting links in order by frequency of access ensures that the most sought-after content appears first on the list. You improve a user’s chances of getting to the right destination.