How information architecture and content strategy must work together
Published April 23, 2026 • 5 minute read
By Austin Govella, digital strategist (and former information architect)
Since 1998, Austin has applied his information architecture skills for organizations big and small all across the globe. He co-authored Information Architecture: Blueprints for the web, 2nd edition with Christina Wodtke.
Key takeaway: Fail to collaborate on content inventories, content models, or block diagrams, and you will deliver disjointed experiences for users, and difficult to manage sites for content authors.
While information architecture and content strategy focus on different parts of the user experience, they can conflict with each other and work against one another. When content strategy and information don't align, teams deliver disjointed experiences for users, and difficult to manage sites for content authors.
If you work on a small team where you play both roles, then don't worry about conflicts, but if one person works on information architecture and a second person works on content strategy, you need to collaborate on three activities:
content inventories
content models
block diagrams
Here's how to work together with a content strategist to deliver user experiences that succeed.
IAs and content strategists both create content inventories
When you do information architecture, you ask "what stuff do we have?" Content strategy starts with that same question. A content inventory answers that question. Content inventories list all of the content (and functionality) at play in a site or system, and both IAs and content strategists leverage content inventories as starting points for their work.
Information architecture takes the content inventory and performs an audit to understand how to organize the content. IA also uses content inventories to understand how to label and tag content and what navigation you might need to move through the content.
Content strategy uses content inventories to plan content creation, content lifecycle (create, review, archive, delete), and content governance. Content strategy may also identify ways to label and tag content as well as where it should live. Content governance can govern labels and tags and location.
It doesn't matter who inventories the content. However, it makes sense for the content strategist to create the content inventory. IAs and content strategists should share the content inventory and work alongside each other in the same document.
For each piece of content, the IA should note where it will live on the site, what template it should use, any tags associated with the page, and its final URL. The content strategist should audit the content and identify what content to keep, update, or retire.
On some projects, the IA and the content strategist will each manage their own content inventories. Inevitably, the two inventories drift apart and don't remain in sync. The content strategist may rely on content the IA has removed. The IA may reference a page title the content strategist has changed.
You should work together in the same file. You each capture data in different columns and share the file.
IAs and content strategists both create content models
A content model defines the structure of a piece of content. For example, a blog post has title, date, author, category, tags, and related posts. Both IAs and content strategists use content models in their work.
Content strategists use content models to define content lifecycle and content governance. The content model defines who owns each field, who can edit each field, and who must approve changes. The content model also specifies which fields trigger review cycles (an expiration date, a legal review flag, a last-modified timestamp). Content strategists use those fields to build publishing workflows in the CMS.
Information architects need content models to design page structure and site navigation. The content model tells the IA what attributes can exist on a page. Those attributes also form the basis for navigation labels, filter facets, and taxonomy terms. The IA uses those relationships to design contextual navigation, cross-linking logic, and site hierarchy. Lastly, the fields defined in a content model become the metadata fields the search system indexes.
As the content strategist audits the content, they should document content models for each type of content they encounter. Once you draft the base content model, the IA can architect pages, design navigation systems, and plan how search will work.
However, like the content inventory, the content strategist does not own the content model. The IA and content strategist must share content models. Although the content strategist documents the current content models, the IA may add or remove content fields to support the user's experience. The IA must discuss these changes with the content strategist and come to a consensus about how to proceed.
Meanwhile, the content strategist should expand the content model to define governance and plan publishing workflows.
If the IA and the content strategist do not collaborate on content models, the experience will break. The IA could design faceted navigation that relies on metadata that content authors will never populate. Similarly, the content strategist could base publishing workflows off of fields the IA has removed.
IAs and content strategists both create block diagrams
A block diagram shows content zones on a single page without specifying actual content, layout detail, or visual design. Block diagrams answer the question: what types of content live on this page, and in what layout? Block diagrams take content models and lay them out on a page.
Information architects draft block diagrams to rough out page architecture and make sure each page has a home for all relevant content attributes.
Content strategists draft block diagrams to plan what content appears where to make sure the content communicates the right message.
For more functional pages, the information architect should draft the block diagrams as they define the page architecture and lay the foundation for more high fidelity wireframes and mockups.
However, for pages where messaging is critical, content strategists should draft the block diagrams, as the content strategist will also have the messaging framework in mind, and can make sure the right messages appear at the right time. Both the IA and the content strategist should review every block diagram to make sure each one supports the user's journey.
When the IA and content strategist don't review all block diagrams, messaging pages will miss key functionality and functional pages will miss key messaging opportunities. The IA may miss opportunities for contextual cross-linking that enhances the user's journey. Functional pages will miss critical moments where users need to hear a specific message.
Collaborate on these three artifacts or ship broken experiences
Fail to collaborate on content inventories, content models, or block diagrams, and you will deliver disjointed experiences for users, and difficult to manage sites for content authors.
Use this advice to identify who owns what part of the process, and collaborate on the final outputs. This close collaboration ensures you deliver user experiences tha work for both users and site owners.