What Are IA and UX Improvements? How to Rethink Your Website Redesign for Better Results

When discussing a website redesign, most of the conversation tends to focus on surface-level design elements, such as the visual design or hero image. Of course, these are important elements.

However, there are plenty of cases where companies invest significant time and budget in a redesign only to find that “somehow, conversions haven’t increased” or that users say, “It’s harder to use than before” after the new site goes live.

The reason many redesigns fail to deliver the expected results often lies deeper than visual design.

In many cases, the underlying structure remains unchanged even after the site’s appearance has been revamped.

In the second part of our series, “Website Redesign in the Age of AI: Part 2,” we discussed defining the role of each touchpoint in terms of “who we want to move from what state to what state” and focusing investment on the bottlenecks that prevent that movement.

In this article, we explore two approaches to improving website structure and user experience: an Information Architecture Audit and an Expert Review. These approaches help create the foundation needed to move users from one state to another, helping them navigate a website without confusion and ultimately guiding them toward business outcomes.

Why Do So Many Redesigns Stop at Visual Design?

Website redesign projects often begin with a subjective sense that a site “looks outdated” or “is difficult to use on mobile.” That feeling itself is an important signal.

However, if the immediate conclusion is “let’s completely redesign the visuals,” there is a risk of overlooking the underlying problems.

Behind an outdated appearance, there are often hidden issues with information hierarchy and navigation. As a business grows, new pages are added one after another, menu items become inconsistent in scope, and information that should be reachable in three clicks may end up taking five.

Replacing only the visual design without addressing this underlying structure does not change the way users get lost. In fact, putting an old navigation structure beneath a new visual design can sometimes make the inconsistencies even more noticeable.

That is why the starting point for a redesign should be the “structure,” not the “design.” By assessing IA and UX, you can identify where users become confused and where they drop off. Skipping this step can have a significant impact on the return on your investment.

In one website improvement project carried out by Neuromagic, we organized the needs of the diverse personas visiting the client’s website and simplified the IA to create a navigation structure in which users could meet all their needs within two steps. As a result, page views increased by more than 50%, and ultimately, the number of users increased by more than 200%.

Improving IA is not about “adding” more information. It is about aligning the structure with users’ mental models—the way they naturally think about and look for information—and eliminating unnecessary friction. In other words, it is design through subtraction.

IA Audit: Visualizing Navigation and Hierarchy Issues

The first thing to examine in an IA assessment is the overall “map” of the site. Specifically, we review the current structure from perspectives such as:

• Depth of the hierarchy: How many clicks does it take to reach key information? Ideally, users should be able to reach it within two to three clicks.
• Granularity of categories: Are menu categories organized around visitors’ goals rather than the company’s internal structure?
• Duplicate and orphan pages: Are there multiple pages containing similar information? Conversely, are there pages that cannot be reached through any internal links?
• Consistency of labeling: Are different terms being used for information that essentially means the same thing?

These issues can be analyzed through both the sitemap and analytics data. Navigation flow analysis is particularly useful for identifying the pages users visit before leaving the site.

It is more common than you might expect for users to leave not because “the information isn’t there,” but because “the information is there, but they can’t find it.”

The important point here is that an IA Audit is not about reducing the number of pages. Its purpose is not to “cut” information, but to reorganize it around users’ goals.

If unnecessary pages are identified as a result, that is simply a byproduct of the process.

What to Look for in an Expert Review

If IA examines the “organization of information,” an Expert Review examines the “quality of the user experience.”

When you have operated your own website for a long time, it can be extremely difficult to objectively identify what is difficult to use or why users are not converting because of internal biases from the provider’s perspective.

This is where an Expert Review can be effective.

An Expert Review is a method in which UX professionals assess a website from multiple perspectives based on their experience and established usability principles, including insights from cognitive psychology, while considering the context of actual user behavior.

Typical areas of evaluation include:

• Visibility: Can users always understand where they are and what they can do next?
• Consistency: Are button styles, placement, terminology, and other elements consistent throughout the site?
• Error tolerance: When users make an input error or take an unintended action, can they recover easily without getting lost?
• Efficiency: Is the number of steps required to complete a desired action, such as making an inquiry or requesting information, minimized?
• Flexibility: Is the site easy to use for both first-time visitors and returning users?

One advantage of this approach is that it can identify a range of usability issues through expert evaluation without requiring a large-scale user testing program. It can serve as a relatively low-cost initial screening before moving on to more extensive user research.

Of course, user feedback should ultimately be incorporated into decision-making. However, addressing obvious usability issues through expert evaluation first allows subsequent research to focus on more fundamental questions.

Creating a Structure That Works for Both AI and Humans

Improving information architecture is not only about the human user experience. Pages with a logical heading structure and a clear focus for each section are also easier for generative AI to process when interpreting, summarizing, and citing their content.

Revisiting IA and UX can therefore serve as foundational work that improves both human usability and the likelihood of being surfaced and cited in AI-powered search.

In particular, the following structural improvements can benefit both:

• Headings (H1–H3) are correctly nested as a logical hierarchy.
• Each page clearly focuses on answering one specific question for a particular audience.
• Breadcrumbs, site search, and other mechanisms that communicate users’ current location are working effectively.
• Related pages are connected through contextual internal links.

In other words, implementing strong IA and UX that allows humans to understand information without confusion and recognize its value with minimal friction can also create a structure that generative AI can more easily interpret and cite—the foundation of GEO.

As this demonstrates, you do not always need to rebuild an entire website from scratch. Resolving structural issues can, on its own, lead to changes in bounce rates and the number of inquiries.

This approach also aligns with the idea of “How to Prioritize AI Search Improvements for an Existing Website Without Rebuilding It” which we discussed in our article on prioritizing AI-search improvements without a full website redesign.

A website that has been properly redesigned from its underlying IA and UX—the “structural framework”—can become a durable business asset that continues to work for both human users and AI-powered search.

Conclusion

If your website redesign discussion starts with “How should we change the design?”, it may be worth taking a step back.

Before investing a significant budget in a visual redesign, there is something else you should do first.

That is to objectively assess whether your existing website is truly structured in a way that is easy to understand for both human users and AI.

You do not necessarily need to rebuild everything from scratch.

Identifying bottlenecks—such as information hierarchy and navigation issues—and focusing your investment on improving and optimizing those areas can be a highly cost-effective approach to web strategy that connects directly to business challenges (R).

Why not start by gaining an expert perspective on the current state of your website?

Free Website IA Audit / Expert Review

At Neuromagic, we offer two professional assessment services that draw on our years of practical experience in service design to evaluate the information architecture and user experience of existing websites from multiple perspectives.

• Website Information Architecture Audit: We evaluate whether your website provides a navigation and hierarchy structure that minimizes confusion and allows users to reach the information they need within two steps, based on their mental models.
• Expert Review: UX professionals thoroughly identify design issues that create cognitive friction for users and bottlenecks that hinder trust-building (emotional R).

If you are wondering whether your website really needs a redesign or want to know where to invest in your current site for the greatest potential impact and cost-effectiveness, we would be happy to discuss your situation with you.

Neuromagic, with expertise spanning strategy through implementation, can support your next step.

▶ Apply for a Website Information Architecture Audit / Expert Review

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