Workshops

Information architecture: Theory and practice

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Information architecture is all about organising information and providing methods for people to find and use it, usually via navigation. It relates primarily to websites, web applications, intranets, file and document management systems.

The workshop

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.

During the workshop, you’ll learn:

  • 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, categorisation, metadata & labelling
  • IA patterns – structures for different types of sites
  • Designing navigation & page layouts
  • Putting it together in an IA project
  • Current issues in IA

At the end of the workshop, you will understand:

  • How to design sites that help users find what they want
  • What organisational scheme or schemes are best for your content
  • How to conduct user research that helps develop your information architecture
  • How to conduct a card sorting exercise
  • How core IA theories, such as metadata, classification, and categorisation affect your site’s success
  • How to conduct a content analysis and develop a solid IA structure
  • How to design effective navigation and page layouts

The workshop will combine discussion, questions and hands-on activities. Extensive notes and resources will be provided for further personal exploration.

User experience design

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

This full day workshop will provide you with a thorough overview and understanding of user experience design. It will cover a range of fundamental UX skills that can be applied to all types of project – websites, web applications, traditional applications and mobile. It will be theoretical and practical and allow you to immediately apply ideas to your projects.

This workshop will cover:

  • What user experience design is and why it is important to do it in a deliberate way (i.e. people will have an experience no matter what – you want them to have a particular type of experience)
  • Understanding people: conducting user research and usability testing
  • Communicating about people (personas and other methods)
  • Deciding what to design (scenarios, business needs, mental modelling)
  • Sketching and iterative design
  • Creating prototypes to communicate design
  • Making sure what gets built is right

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 objectives

After the workshop, the participants will have:

  • An understanding of how to learn about people and communicate about them to others
  • Core design principles that can be used for any project and any technology
  • Understanding of how to apply principles to a real project
  • Hands‐on experience with key techniques
  • Shared skills with other practitioners

Information architecture

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Information architecture is all about organising information and providing methods for people to find and use it, usually via navigation. It relates primarily to websites, web applications, intranets, file and document management systems.

The workshop

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.

During the workshop, you’ll learn:

  • 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, categorisation, metadata & labelling
  • IA patterns – structures for different types of sites
  • Designing navigation & page layouts
  • Putting it together in an IA project
  • Current issues in IA

At the end of the workshop, you will understand:

  • how to design sites that help users find what they want
  • what organisational scheme or schemes are best for your content
  • how to conduct user research that helps develop your information architecture
  • how to conduct a card sorting exercise
  • how core IA theories, such as metadata, classification, and categorisation affect your site’s success
  • how to conduct a content analysis and develop a solid IA structure
  • how to design effective navigation and page layouts

The workshop will combine discussion, questions and hands-on activities. Extensive notes and resources will be provided for further personal exploration.

Information architecture

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Information architecture is all about organising information and providing methods for people to find and use it, usually via navigation. It relates primarily to websites, web applications, intranets, file and document management systems.

The workshop

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.

During the workshop, you’ll learn:

  • 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, categorisation, metadata & labelling
  • IA patterns – structures for different types of sites
  • Designing navigation & page layouts
  • Putting it together in an IA project
  • Current issues in IA

At the end of the workshop, you will understand:

  • how to design sites that help users find what they want
  • what organisational scheme or schemes are best for your content
  • how to conduct user research that helps develop your information architecture
  • how to conduct a card sorting exercise
  • how core IA theories, such as metadata, classification, and categorisation affect your site’s success
  • how to conduct a content analysis and develop a solid IA structure
  • how to design effective navigation and page layouts

The workshop will combine discussion, questions and hands-on activities. Extensive notes and resources will be provided for further personal exploration.

Information architecture

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Information architecture is all about organising information and providing methods for people to find and use it, usually via navigation. It relates primarily to websites, web applications, intranets, file and document management systems.

The workshop

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.

During the workshop, you’ll learn:

  • 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, categorisation, metadata & labelling
  • IA patterns – structures for different types of sites
  • Designing navigation & page layouts
  • Putting it together in an IA project
  • Current issues in IA

At the end of the workshop, you will understand:

  • how to design sites that help users find what they want
  • what organisational scheme or schemes are best for your content
  • how to conduct user research that helps develop your information architecture
  • how to conduct a card sorting exercise
  • how core IA theories, such as metadata, classification, and categorisation affect your site’s success
  • how to conduct a content analysis and develop a solid IA structure
  • how to design effective navigation and page layouts

The workshop will combine discussion, questions and hands-on activities. Extensive notes and resources will be provided for further personal exploration.

Who’s this workshop for?

This workshop is most suited to people who have responsibility for large web sites, including information architects, product managers, website producers, communication managers, marketing managers, business analysts and graphic designers. It is also suited to people who are new to the field and would like to know more about information architecture work.

This workshop is taught will be at the level of an ‘advanced intro’, covering the basics and also allowing exploration of key challenges and issues.

Information architecture

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

Information architecture is all about organising information and providing methods for people to find and use it, usually via navigation. It relates primarily to websites, web applications, intranets, file and document management systems.

The workshop

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.

During the workshop, you’ll learn:

  • 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, categorisation, metadata & labelling
  • IA patterns – structures for different types of sites
  • Designing navigation & page layouts
  • Putting it together in an IA project
  • Current issues in IA

At the end of the workshop, you will understand:

  • how to design sites that help users find what they want
  • what organisational scheme or schemes are best for your content
  • how to conduct user research that helps develop your information architecture
  • how to conduct a card sorting exercise
  • how core IA theories, such as metadata, classification, and categorisation affect your site’s success
  • how to conduct a content analysis and develop a solid IA structure
  • how to design effective navigation and page layouts

The workshop will combine discussion, questions and hands-on activities. Extensive notes and resources will be provided for further personal exploration.

Who’s this workshop for?

This workshop is most suited to people who have responsibility for large web sites, including information architects, product managers, website producers, communication managers, marketing managers, business analysts and graphic designers. It is also suited to people who are new to the field and would like to know more about information architecture work.

This workshop is taught will be at the level of an ‘advanced intro’, covering the basics and also allowing exploration of key challenges and issues.

When & where

This workshop will be presented in three locations:

  • 22 November 2010: Canberra, Hotel Realm
  • 23 November 2010: Sydney, The Portside Centre
  • 25 November 2010: Brisbane, The Sebel Suites Brisbane

All workshops run 9am-5.30pm.

Designing for people

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

This full-day workshop teaches a set of fundamental principles about humans, useful for all types of design work – information architecture, interaction design, visual design and even industrial design.

In the workshop we’ll look at:

  • How our visual system works
  • Visual and cognitive attention, and how to grab them
  • Limitations of memory and how it affects our designs
  • Types of errors that people will make, why they make them, and how we can design for them
  • How people make decisions, and how we can design for more informed decisions
  • Socialness and how to design social interfaces
  • Learning about people via user research
  • Checking what we’ve designed to make sure it works (usability testing)

This will be a very practical workshop. To learn about the human attributes we’ll play games, look at fun examples of human behaviour, discuss the implications for design and sketch example interfaces. For user research and usability testing, we’ll discuss the principles and run a mini research session and usability test. You’ll leave with tons of practical skills to use on your next project.

You’ll also leave with a detailed workshop booklet, containing slides, additional explanation and follow-up reading.

Information architecture: Theory & practice

Monday, May 25th, 2009

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.

This workshop will cover:

  • 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, categorisation, metadata & labelling
  • IA patterns – structures for different types of sites
  • Designing navigation & page layouts
  • Putting it together in an IA project
  • Current issues in IA

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.

Information architecture: Just the essentials

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

This half-day workshop will cover the essential aspects of Information Architecture. No filler, no fluff, just pure IA:

  • How classification and categorisation work in our brain, and why it matters
  • How to identify potential organisation methods for your content
  • When organisation schemes such as geography, task, audience and subject work best (and tricks to make them work)
  • How to design an organisation scheme that works for your users
  • The best navigation approach for your content

This won’t be a dry, theoretical workshop. We’ll talk and play some games. You’ll go away with a better understanding of the essentials of information architecture, techniques to use on your next project and a comprehensive list of resources for follow-up reading.

Information architecture: Theory & practice

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

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.

This workshop will cover:

  • 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 patterns – structures for different types of sites
  • Designing navigation & page layouts
  • Putting it together in an IA project
  • Current issues in IA

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.