Results of testing information architecture

I emailed three people with the list of elements that I wanted to include on the site. They responded with their groupings, and with the names of the groupings that they thought best represented the associated content.

User 1
group 1: 'information'
guidelines
policies and procedures
docs to help with process

group 2: 'faqs'
what is mentoring
what makes a good mentor?

group 3: 'about this site'
aims and objectives
description of site
contact us

group 4: 'interact with others'
registration
notice board
find a mentor
become a mentor


User 2

group 1: 'resources'
guidelines
policies and procedures
docs to help with process
what is mentoring
what makes a good mentor?

group 2: 'about us'
aims and objectives
description of site
contact us

group 3: 'registration'
registration

group 4: 'meet your mentor'
notice board
find a mentor
become a mentor

User 3
group 1: 'resources'
guidelines
policies and procedures
docs to help with process

group 2: 'information about mentoring'
what is mentoring
what makes a good mentor?
aims and objectives
description of site
contact us

group 3: 'register and find a mentor'
registration
notice board
find a mentor
become a mentor

Two important comments arose from their comments:
registration is important for becoming a mentor or mentee: therefore, 'become a mentor' should be subsumed under the registration category
the 'aims and objectives' are really the same thing as the 'description of site' - this would just be double up of content so 'description os site' should go


The users had trouble combinging and naming some of the categories. For example, User 3's 'register and find a mentor' category doesn't really capture the full range of elements in that category. Also, because of the [relatively small] size of the site, I don't think it would be a problem to break it up and have most levels accessible from the home page (i.e. 2 levels of navigation max).

Considering these recommendations, I have come up with the following groupings:

Group 1: 'Resources'
guidelines
policies and procedures
docs to help with process

Group 2: 'About us'
aims and objectives

Group 3: 'Contact Us'
contact information

Group 4: 'Noticeboard'
noticeboard with job listings etc.

Group 5: 'find a mentor'
search function

Group 6: 'become a mentor'
registration function