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Information architecture and naming
Organizes navigation and terminology around user tasks so people can predict where information and actions belong.
information-architecture-naming
Team members using this skill
When is it useful?
Use when menus mirror database tables or similar actions have inconsistent names.
What does it help you do?
- Groups destinations by user goals rather than internal structure.
- Uses consistent labels and clear page and navigation orientation.
- Coordinates equivalent terminology across supported languages.
Try asking this
Rename and regroup account settings so billing contacts, team members and invoices are easy to distinguish. Ask where a user would change the invoice recipient versus invite a teammate. Provide distinct navigation labels and matching page titles in each language.
Detailed documentation
Read the skill’s original instructions, examples and checks in their authored language.
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Information Architecture & Naming
Users should never have to reverse-engineer the engineering team's database schema or microservice boundaries to find a feature or understand a button label (Steve Krug & Jakob Nielsen).
Workflow
- Align navigation with user tasks, not backend tables:
- Audit top-level navigation, tabs, and sidebars:
- Do menu items reflect the user's workflow and mental model, or do they mirror internal database entities (
"ExecutionAttempts","NodePortBindings","TenantConfigBlobs")? - Check for overlapping menu buckets where a user cannot predict whether an item lives under Settings, Preferences, Configuration, or Workspace.
- Do menu items reflect the user's workflow and mental model, or do they mirror internal database entities (
- Consolidate fragmented views that belong to the same user job into a single coherent workspace with clear sub-sections.
- Audit top-level navigation, tabs, and sidebars:
- Enforce clear, consistent, self-explanatory naming:
- One concept = one term across the entire product: Never call the same entity a Project in the sidebar, a Workspace in the header, and a Repository in the modal.
- Verb + Noun for actions: Replace vague labels (
"Process","Execute","Submit","Manage","OK") with specific action labels ("Start run","Approve changes","Revoke API key"). - Never replace critical labels with mystery icons: Icon-only buttons are acceptable only for universal actions (
Close X,Search) with accessiblearia-labeland tooltip; domain actions require visible text labels.
- Establish clear spatial and visual orientation:
- At any moment, the user must be able to answer three questions at a glance:
- Where am I? (Active navigation state, clear page title, workspace/project context indicator.)
- What state is this item in? (Visible status badge, e.g.,
Draft,Running,Waiting for approval.) - What can I do next? (Clearly prioritized primary and secondary actions.)
- At any moment, the user must be able to answer three questions at a glance:
- Coordinate localized terminology:
- Ensure simplified, concrete terminology stays consistent across all supported languages and the project glossary.
Included files 1
SKILL.md
