How is Vantage different from ChatGPT or Claude?

ChatGPT and Claude are great for one-off generation. Vantage is a full workspace. It connects your tools, tracks dependencies across projects, catches conflicts between products, and surfaces what needs your attention every morning. It also remembers every past decision, so a new PM can query across all projects and get cited answers in seconds.

Do I have to switch away from Notion or Linear?

No. You keep all your tools. Vantage connects to them and builds intelligence on top. When you're ready, you can push tickets to Linear or Jira. But the value starts before you create anything — just by connecting your tools and seeing what the intelligence layer surfaces.

What happens on day one?

You connect your tools — GitHub, Linear, Slack — 2 minutes each. Vantage indexes your existing data overnight. By the next morning, you see your first decision queue: what's stale, what conflicts, what changed. No manual setup. No templates to fill out.

What if I only manage one project?

Vantage works for single projects, but it shines when you manage 3–5 or more. Conflict detection, cross-project memory, and the decision queue are most valuable when you have multiple projects that need to stay in sync. If you manage one project, start with the free tier and see if the cited query engine alone saves you time.

All data encrypted in transit and at rest. We never train on your data — the AI providers we use are contractually barred from it. You can disconnect any integration or delete your account at any time. Pursuing SOC 2 Type II.

How does Vantage keep documents and tickets up to date?

When context shifts, you add the new information and Vantage rebuilds every connected deliverable. Documents, prototypes, and tickets all update. You review the changes, accept or reject each one, and approve. Nothing updates silently, and every change is traceable.

How do I get started?

Sign up free at app.vantageos.tech. Connect your tools, and generate your first grounded document within minutes. No credit card required. Upgrade when you need more projects or features.

How is information architecture different from navigation design?

IA defines the structure and relationships between content: what exists and how it is organized. Navigation design defines the UI mechanisms for moving through that structure: tabs, sidebars, breadcrumbs, menus. IA is the blueprint; navigation design is the implementation.

Should a PM or a UX designer create the IA?

Both should collaborate. PMs define the content requirements and user goals that drive the IA. UX designers translate those into navigable structures using IA best practices. The IA review session with both PM and designer is where product strategy meets user experience.

Is Vantage free to try?

Yes. Vantage offers a free tier with 1 project and 5 AI queries per month.

How-To2026-08-2310 min read

How to Create an Information Architecture Diagram in Figma

Information architecture defines how your product organizes, labels, and navigates information. Before designing screens, a clear IA diagram answers the fundamental structural questions: what are the top-level categories, how do they relate, and where does each piece of content live?

This guide covers creating IA diagrams in Figma that serve as the structural backbone for your product design, linked directly to the screens they define.

Step-by-step guide

Create an IA page in your Figma design file

Add a new page called Information Architecture to your product design file. Creating the IA in the same file as your screens allows Figma prototype linking to connect IA nodes to actual screen designs. Set up an 8pt grid and create a large frame (3000x2000) to give the diagram room.

Start with the top-level navigation nodes

Place the product name at the top-center. Below it, create one rectangle for each top-level navigation item: Dashboard, Projects, Settings, Help, Profile. Use a consistent rectangle size (200x48px at 1x scale). Apply a distinct fill color per hierarchy level: dark for level 1, medium for level 2, light for level 3.

Expand each node into its sub-categories

For each level-1 node, draw its children below it: Dashboard breaks into Overview, My Projects, Team Activity. Use vertical lines and horizontal brackets to show parent-child relationships. Apply Auto Layout (Shift+A on Mac) on each parent container to keep children evenly spaced as you add or remove nodes.

Add content types and page templates as labels

For leaf nodes (pages with no children), add a small label below the node indicating the content type: List, Detail, Form, Modal, Dashboard. This tells designers which screen template applies. Use consistent Figma text styles to distinguish content type labels from node labels.

Mark shared components and cross-links

Some elements appear in multiple places: global search, notification center, user profile. Mark these with a dashed border and a note Global Component. Use Figma connector arrows with dashed stroke to show cross-links between sections, such as a Project Detail page linking to Ticket Detail in another section.

Annotate navigation patterns

Add Figma text annotations explaining the navigation mechanism per level: Top-level is persistent sidebar, Level 2 is tab navigation within page, Level 3 is inline expansion. These annotations translate directly into frontend navigation component requirements for engineering.

Link IA nodes to screen designs using components

Convert each IA node to a Figma Component (Cmd+Alt+K). In the component master, add a Link property pointing to the corresponding screen frame. When you share the IA, each node is clickable and jumps to the screen design. This creates a live, navigable site map from the IA diagram.

Common mistakes

Confusing IA with a sitemap

A sitemap lists all pages. An IA diagram shows structural relationships, hierarchy, and navigation patterns between content areas. IA answers how does this relate to that rather than just what pages exist.

Creating IA after the screens are designed

IA should be the first design artifact. If you design screens before defining the IA, you get disconnected screens that each make local sense but create a confusing overall structure.

No hierarchy distinction

Using the same shape and color for all hierarchy levels makes the diagram unreadable. Use size, color, and indentation to visually communicate hierarchy. Level 1 items should look visually heavier than level 3 items.

Tips

Use FigJam for the initial IA brainstorm, then migrate the finalized structure to Figma for the precise diagram

Run a card sorting exercise with users before finalizing the IA to validate your category labels

Version the IA diagram by duplicating the page each time you make major structural changes

Conduct a tree testing session using Optimal Workshop Treejack to validate navigation findability before building

How Vantage helps

Vantage connects product requirements to technical structure. When you import a Figma IA diagram as context in Vantage, the AI references the navigation structure when generating PRDs and tickets. Navigation architecture decisions translate directly into frontend component requirements in the generated ticket set.