Case study:
Defining the information architecture for Atlassian Community
I developed the information architecture of the brand-new Atlassian Community site. Eighteen months after it launched, Atlassian Community boasted more traffic than all other Atlassian web properties combined.
What was the problem?
Atlassian needed to replace a homegrown Q&A site with one better suited to the scale of the company’s user base, its growing product portfolio, and the increasing need for search engine optimization (SEO).
As a result, Atlassian needed to create a new online community with a brand-new website. That website needed a flexible information architecture that met both business goals and user needs.
Who was involved?
DESIGN TEAM
UX designer/manager
UX researcher
John Collins (information architect, content designer)
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Software developer
Software developer
How was the problem solved?
The UX designer and I held a series of workshops in which we examined Atlassian product offerings, the direction the company was heading, and we started building out concepts that would form into the information architecture.
The UX researcher, UX designer, and I conducted research and early signal testing with prominent contributors to the community’s predecessor, Atlassian Answers.
I pored through tag data from Atlassian Answers to identify patterns in content and user tagging behavior. Then, the UX designer and I developed the three main content types: questions, discussions, and articles.
I designed an information architecture with the UX designer that was fairly flat, focusing on products and deployments (e.g. Cloud or Server) in something called “collections.” Collections were driven by taxonomy using a tagging mechanism from our third-party community platform.
I identified the initial set of collections and which tags applied to each. Additional taxonomy and “folksonomy” provided means for further aggregating content.
What was the outcome of this project?
Atlassian Community launched to the public on April 3, 2017.
By October 2018, Atlassian Community got more traffic than all other Atlassian web properties combined.
Competencies demonstrated
Strategic planning
Gathered and analyzed usage data from Atlassian Answers to inform decisions about information architectured.
Considered information architecture options and selected a solution that best met the combination of company strategy, user needs, and platform capabilities.
Guiding interactions
Led workshops for design team and stakeholders.
Clarified and checked for understanding to make sure that developers built what was needed.
Driving for results
Designed a solution that better met customer needs and delivered new capabilities to customers.
Scoped work to be realistic and manageable.
Delivered timely solutions.
Applied reasoning
Evaluated multiple data points, feedback from users, system capabilities, Atlassian Strategy, and more to select the best path forward.
Crafted a solution that would meet immediate needs, yet left room to scale and change as time progressed.
User focus
Created designs informed by user research and user data.
Decisions were focused on helping users get answers to their questions, either by them asking questions that would be answered or by finding existing answers to the question.
Teamwork
Worked closely with the other members of the design team.
Built relationships and trust with developers.
Brought stakeholders into design discussions as the community team was staffed.