Information Architecture: Theory & Practice
Full Day Workshop, presented by Donna Spencer.
This full day workshop will provide you with a thorough overview and understanding of information architecture theory & practice. It will cover a wide range of IA issues, including an understanding of how it fits into a project, fundamental skills & knowledge required for IA work and current IA issues. It will be theoretical and practical and allow you to immediately apply ideas to your projects.
Workshop outline
- What information architecture is and how it relates to other user experience disciplines
- Core IA techniques - analysing content, conducting user research, card sorting and more
- Core IA theories - classification, categorization, metadata & labeling
- IA structures - hierarchies, database and other structures
- Designing navigation & page layouts
- Putting it together in an IA project
The workshop will be at the level of an ‘advanced intro’, covering the basics and also allowing exploration of key challenges and issues. The format is a combination of short lectures, group discussion and hands-on activities. Extensive notes and resources will be provided for further personal exploration.
Learning outcomes
After the workshop, the participants will have:
- An understanding of fundamental IA concepts and issues
- An understanding of processes and techniques often used in an IA project
- Hands-on experience with key techniques
- Shared skills with other practitioners
Target audience
- Beginners to IA
- People working in related roles who need to know about IA
- Intermediate IAs who have never had formal introduction to the fundamentals.
Donna Spencer
Donna (Maurer) Spencer is a freelance information architect, mentor, writer and trainer. She has 8 years experience working in-house and as a consultant doing strategic and tactical design. She has designed large intranets & websites, ecommerce & search systems, business applications, design patterns and a CMS. Donna is an experienced speaker who has taught workshops and presented sessions at local and international conferences, on information architecture, interaction design and whatever else crosses her mind. She spends her (little) remaining time on the board of IAI and writing a book on card sorting. Sometimes she even gets time to weave and sew.