Why website Information Architecture can be a metaphor for Digital Transformation at scale…
I’ve been thinking about Information Architecture (IA) recently and it’s seeped into my thinking re standards, design manuals and service standards for health (which is most of my day job), and about how you can use IA as a metaphor for digital transformation at scale — which is ultimately what standards and a service manual are aiming to support.
IA as a metaphor for strategic transformation
If you think of the metaphor of IA as the structure of a house (as many people do) — and then you take Le Corbusier’s view that “a house is a machine for living in” you might think of a health service as a compassionate machine for (efficiently) making people better.
(I know, machine doesn’t sound right there, but it allows me to talk in a systems thinking way…)
So, to build on that metaphor…
- If you build a house it assumes certain things — for example that you need pipes and wires for water, gas and electricity. For health think standard ways of ‘piping in and out’ data in standard formats e.g. personal health records, and standard ways of logging in (5 lever mortice locks…)
- That house needs standard sizes for its pipes and fittings — whether it’s BSI, imperial or metric. This will ensure you have a regular supply of components that fit– nuts, bolts, pipes, wiring. For builders merchants, think service manual and design system that give health ready patterns and components
- There are building regs — standards that you build to, will be assessed against, and that will make sure you don’t get electrocuted or find your roof falls in on you. Which is why we need a digital standard for health services that assures services are clinically safe and accessible to all.
- You want your builders to be trained to the same standards — so not City & Guilds or modern apprenticeships but recognised digital roles (Delivery, Product, Design, Content, User Researcher etc) and training schemes available in Agile, Scrum and User Centred Design. There’s not much better than the GDS Digital Academy and the DDAT profession outline roles to use or follow.
- You want transferable skills so people can move between teams — and whether you’re a main supplier (in the NHS) or a subcontractor, there are common ways of working so people can transfer in, and when commissioners are buying teams they know what to expect, how they’ll work, and an idea of what will be delivered when.
If you’re transforming at scale you’ll need:
- A guiding star for what good looks like in terms of a health standard
- A recognisable set of standard components that work (and are accessible), and help join things up across team, programme and organisation boundaries.
- A set of skills that, if you use them, it is mostly likely you will build services that meet user need.
- A training culture that fosters and grows those skills.
- An assessment process that guarantees quality, particularly where work is ‘subcontracted’
So from musing about IA, to musing about the underlying factors of digital transformation.
I also have thoughts about ‘Why website Information Architecture is the ultimate Digital team sport’ .
