Artificial intelligence and information architecture in the genetic and genealogical services Ancestry and MyHeritage

One excellent example of websites where the combination of artificial intelligence and information architecture is particularly important to users are genetic and genealogy services, especially the world’s largest ones, i.e., the American Ancestry and the Israeli MyHeritage. These websites use artificial intelligence to process genetic information in order to present the user (customer) with, among other things, their ethnic origin or genetic characteristics, and to match them with other users of the website, and information architecture is particularly important in reading and searching data, including searching for ancestors or relatives in the huge genealogical databases available to both services. Therefore, it is important for the user that artificial intelligence works properly, but also that the information architecture is correctly designed. The main objective of the paper is to present my own assessment of the functionality of Ancestry and MyHeritage. The paper will cover the characteristics of artificial intelligence and the main components of information architecture in the analyzed services in terms of four systems: organization, labeling, navigation, and search, as well as the identification of areas for improvement or options worth implementing. The study included a comparative analysis of the websites and a qualitative-heuristic assessment of their information architecture.