Ayo's Notebook: Auditing an Existing Information Environment

Why Auditing?

Information overload is a real challenge in the world today. Poorly structured information, no matter the intent, is ultimately useless. It’s difficult to make sense of bad and disorganized information structures, and this is where auditing comes in. Auditing helps bring order to content chaos.

A Perspective Shift

Auditing is something I’ve always wanted to know how to do. It feels powerful to be able to go into a mess and come out on the other end with it looking much better than how you met it. The problem was it always seemed like a difficult task. To be left solely at the hands of seasoned professionals with years of experience in the double digits. This workshop completely changed that view.

Auditing like any task is not inherently difficult, it just requires structure. Once you follow a structured approach, auditing shifts to just another process. One that requires time and effort - challenging but achievable.

Core Takeaways of Effective Auditing

My main takeaway was the importance of a clear audit plan. A plan allows you to get unstuck and acts like a compass when you run into challenges. Establishing the plan before diving into the audit process is just as important as anything else you will be doing. Defining what will not be included in the audit helps you to highlight what is most valuable to the stakeholders of the project.

The role of Metadata in audits was also great to learn about. Metadata is “information about information” and that’s a great way to look at it. It helps you gain insights you might have previously not noticed. Learning to collect and interpret the right metadata is a strong foundation to handling a meaningful audit.

Challenges from the Workshop

Having a structured plan is vital, but while the workshop was on, I had some problems understanding metadata. Metadata helps guide your roadmap for audits. Think of it like the column headings in your spreadsheet, a definition of the data you collect. Choosing the right metadata is a skill as the insights gained help shape the bigger picture.

The more time you spend working on auditing projects, the better you get at knowing what metadata matters, structuring it effectively, and leveraging it to help drive your analysis.

Other challenging parts were Collection and Curation. Collection involves determining how data enters the audit process—for instance, how URLs are compiled into a spreadsheet. Curation focuses on organizing and presenting the data. Should it be structured in a spreadsheet, a whitepaper, or a diagram? The right format will depend on the audience and the goal of the audit.

Defining Moments

There were a few moments that stood out to me during the workshop:

• Defining the scope: Specifically including what won’t be included in an audit is as important as including what will be included. This key tip helps the auditor clarify what is most important and is a priority for the project stakeholders.

• Different formats for presenting audits: Learning the key formats audits can be presented in to cater to specific audiences was a key moment as well. Formats such as spreadsheets, whitepapers or diagrams are different paths you can take to pass across your point.

• METADATA!! - I’ve said more than enough on metadata at this point, but to harp on about it. Metadata shapes strategy, and having a firm understanding of it will grow your skills immeasurably.

The Process of Auditing

A method I use to verify my understanding of a topic is to create an analogy for it. When I think of auditing, it can be compared to cooking. Tasting a dish allows you to enjoy the flavor, but auditing is like combining ingredients to recreate the dish. It gives you a deeper understanding and appreciation of the whole thing. Auditing helps you understand underlying patterns and structures you might not have immediately noticed.

How can the workshop be improved?

The workshop was amazing, and profound if I’m being honest. It helped me a lot more than I thought possible. The only way I think it could be improved would be the inclusion of templates. Having a template for common audit scenarios such as when redesigning website navigation or auditing articles would have been great. I understand templates are not a one-size-fits-all solution to problems, but they are a useful starting point most times.

Moving forward

It feels like I’ve gained a new superpower. It was great to go through an experienced auditor’s workflow and see how it could be applied. This workshop has taken me to a new level of understanding of auditing. I’ve felt paralyzed whenever I considered starting an audit, but that feeling has changed.

I now understand the secret is to develop a plan. One that’s flexible enough to adapt, but will always provide me with a structure to follow. Breaking down and analyzing already existing structures can be fun, and I look forward to using this knowledge in the future to improve Information Architecture as we know it.

For a more detailed guide on auditing, read Abby’s The Sensemaker’s Guide to Auditing