---
type: Design Foundation
title: Information Architecture
description: User, task, content hierarchy, navigation, and first-screen clarity rules.
tags: [ia, navigation, content-hierarchy, user-task]
---

# Purpose

Use this concept before designing any page, app screen, dashboard, or graphic. IA decides what the design must communicate before the visual system decides how it looks.

# Required Questions

Answer these from evidence or assumptions:

- Who is the user?
- What task are they trying to complete?
- What is the page, screen, or asset's primary message?
- What should happen next?
- What navigation, reading path, or task flow supports that?
- What content is primary, secondary, and tertiary?

# Rules

- No UI surface should rely on decoration to explain its purpose.
- The first screen of a web page should identify the subject, relevance, and next action.
- Navigation labels use user language, not internal language.
- One page or screen should usually have one primary action.
- Related items sit together; unrelated groups need separation.
- Long forms, tables, onboarding, and dashboards need explicit state and recovery paths.

# Contract Fields

Record these in `DESIGN.md`:

- Core user tasks.
- Page or screen inventory.
- Navigation model.
- Content hierarchy.
- Primary CTA rules.
- Required states.

# Done Check

The IA pass is done when another agent can describe the user's path without reading the implementation.
