One of the most interesting things about complex apps is that the navigation itself can be designed to support users’ mental model of the entire experience, thereby increasing engagement and decreasing potential user frustration.

复杂应用程序最有趣的事情之一是导航本身可以设计为支持用户整个体验的心理模型，从而增加参与度并减少潜在的用户沮丧感。

Let me explain.

让我解释。

信息架构就是您的应用 (Information Architecture IS your app)

Navigation is the core of your app’s Information Architecture. And IA, despite what you might think, is extremely sexy.

导航是应用程序信息体系结构的核心。 不管您怎么想， IA 都非常性感 。

Well-thought-through IA solves many many problems including, for the sake of this article:

经过深思熟虑的IA解决了许多问题，就本文而言，包括：

• How users understand the purpose of your app and what it can do
  用户如何理解您的应用程序的目的及其用途
• How they perceive what they might want to do with it and when
  他们如何看待他们可能想要做什么以及何时
• How quickly and easily they can complete those tasks
  他们完成这些任务的速度和便捷程度
• How flexible a single design is — or how complicated it needs to become to meet their needs
  单个设计的灵活性-或满足其需求需要变得多么复杂
• Whether they will bother with it at all in the long run
  从长远来看，他们是否会为此烦恼

In short, it holds your entire app together. And the more complex the set of functionality, the more you need it.

简而言之，它将整个应用程序整合在一起。 功能集越复杂，您就越需要它。

示例：电子学习应用 (Example: eLearning app)

Here’s an example from a relatively complex eLearning app I worked on.

这是我工作过的一个相对复杂的电子学习应用程序的示例。

When I joined the project, there were no requirements and no IA work at all. The less said about that the better, but needless to say, looking at the initial prototype it was hard to even work out what the app was for, because the CTAs in the primary nav linked to random collections of content and activities.

当我加入该项目时，没有任何要求，也没有IA工作。 说得越少越好，但不用说，看看初始原型，甚至很难弄清楚该应用程序的用途，因为主要导航中的CTA与内容和活动的随机集合相关。

However, once the requirements, acceptance criteria and functionality plan was in place, we revisited the IA.

但是，一旦要求，验收标准和功能计划到位，我们就会重新审查IA。

关键任务和功能 (Key tasks and functionality)

For this eLearning app, there was the following basic functionality (in no particular order..yet):

对于此电子学习应用程序，具有以下基本功能(尚无特殊顺序。)

• Lists of tasks and activities
  任务和活动清单
• A library of content and inspiration
  内容和灵感库
• A user account
  用户帐号
• User performance data exposed to the user as “achievements”
  作为“成就”向用户展示的用户绩效数据
• The ability to complete a task or series of tasks.
  完成一项或多项任务的能力。

Pretty basic stuff for an eLearning app, and yet we were totally failing at communicating the app’s primary purpose and tools.

电子学习应用程序的基本知识，但是我们在交流应用程序的主要目的和工具方面完全失败了。

了解用户的心理模型 (Understanding users’ mental model)

In this case of eLearning, we are lucky that there is a lot of eLearning-specific UX content and research out there.

在这种情况下，我们很幸运，这里有很多特定于电子学习的UX内容，并在那里进行了研究。

This formed the basis of the mental model we constructed for this app. Combined, of course, with primary research into the core audience and usability testing as we iterated.

这构成了我们为此应用程序构建的心理模型的基础。 当然，与迭代过程中对核心受众的初步研究和可用性测试相结合。

As expected, users come to the app with the expectation of being able to perform various tasks:

正如预期的那样，用户来到该应用程序时期望能够执行各种任务：

1. Complete a quick daily learning exercise
   完成快速的日常学习练习
2. Review progress
   审查进度
3. Access additional content/inspiration
   访问其他内容/灵感
4. View or amend their account.
   查看或修改他们的帐户。

What is obvious when looking at these is that they each come with different “asks” from the user in terms of time, focus and attention.

当查看这些内容时，很明显的是，它们在时间，重点和注意力方面都带有不同的“要求”。

This was reflected in the research and in the subequent mental models created.

这反映在研究和随后建立的心理模型中。

There are a number of things we can take from this.

我们可以从中得到很多东西。

1. There are two short tasks — one low attention/focus (complete a quick and easy learning task) and one high attention/focus (manage my account). For these tasks users will want to get in and out of the app quickly.
   有两个简短的任务-一个低注意力/重点(完成一项快速简单的学习任务)和一个高注意力/重点(管理我的帐户)。 对于这些任务，用户将希望快速进入和退出应用程序。
2. There are two longer tasks which both have a medium level of attention. Users will spend slightly more time here and be in a medium level of focus.
   有两个较长的任务，都需要中等程度的关注。 用户将在这里花费更多的时间，并处于中等水平。

这意味着： (This means that:)

1. We need to make it super easy for users to complete a learning task with the minimal effort — open app, task is presented — complete task. And we need to make sure that users wanting to complete a quick task (learning or account) are not accidentally dropped into high dwell-time locations as this may cause frustration.
   我们需要使用户以最小的努力轻松完成学习任务-打开应用程序，提出任务-完成任务。 并且我们需要确保希望完成快速任务(学习或帐户)的用户不会意外掉入高停留时间的位置，因为这可能会导致沮丧。
2. Locations or moments where users want to spend more time should be more engaging and focus on a range of tasks, screens or interactions— not do one thing and go.
   用户想要花费更多时间的位置或时刻应该更具吸引力，并专注于一系列任务，屏幕或互动，而不是一劳永逸。

Therefore there was an argument for basing the primary navigation directly on the mental model. Which is what we did.

因此，有一个论点是将主要导航直接基于心理模型。 这是我们所做的。

Note: I am not including the full sitemap here for obvious confidentiality reasons, however it’s worth saying that although there are ways for the user to travel between sections of the app, it was designed so that each of the four areas could function and support a standalone task within the mental model.

注意：出于明显的机密性原因，我并未在此处包括完整的站点地图，但是值得一提的是，尽管用户可以通过多种方式在应用程序的各个部分之间旅行，但其设计目的是使四个区域中的每个区域都可以起作用并支持心理模型中的独立任务。

为什么这对用户有用 (Why this worked for users)

The main reason this worked was that the navigation was aligned to users’ understanding of eLearning apps and their mental model for this particular product. Every time they opened the app, it was able to quickly answer their need at that moment — and at any moment — with one single design.

起作用的主要原因是导航与用户对电子学习应用程序及其针对该特定产品的思维模型的理解保持一致。 每次他们打开该应用程序时，它都可以在一个时刻(任何时候)以单一设计快速满足他们的需求。

User picks up phone.

用户拿起电话。

User opens app with one task in mind.

用户打开应用程序时会记住一个任务。

It is simple to find the starting point to that task from the primary nav.

从主导航中找到该任务的起点很简单。

Upon task completion, if mindset changes, user can easily switch to alternative task.

任务完成后，如果心态发生变化，用户可以轻松切换到替代任务。

The IA strategy also respected their available time and focus and aligned itself to their needs.

IA的策略还尊重他们的可用时间和精力，并使其与他们的需求保持一致。

It respects the user.

它尊重用户。

There’s nothing worse that an app that keeps shouting at you to do something fun, when actually you really need to update your credit card details.

没有什么比这更糟糕的了，当您确实需要更新您的信用卡详细信息时，会不断向您大喊大叫做一些有趣的事情。

为什么这对产品团队有用 (Why this worked for the product team)

As an additional benefit, by quickly answering users needs, the app then has permission to invite the user to re-engage with the primary app purpose or action. In short, it utilises the Next Best Action framework.

另外一个好处是，通过快速回答用户的需求，该应用程序便具有邀请用户重新参与主要应用程序目的或操作的权限。 简而言之，它利用了Next Best Action框架 。

As you can see, understanding user needs and translating them through the IA into the primary navigation gives the app a solid task-based foundation that supports user and business needs.

如您所见，了解用户需求并将其通过IA转换为主要导航，为该应用程序提供了一个基于任务的坚实基础，可支持用户和业务需求。

It also ensures that there is a strong structure to contain any future content or functionality — it should (never assume) prevent product bloat — so long as there is, and continues to be, a strong understanding of and respect for users and their mental models.

它还可以确保有一个牢固的结构来包含将来的任何内容或功能-它应该(永远不会假设)防止产品膨胀-只要并继续对用户及其心理模型有深刻的理解和尊重。