Advanced IA - Principles & Practices
| Cost: | NZ$750 excluding GST. |
|---|---|
| When: | To be confirmed |
| Where: | To be confirmed |
| RSVP: | Simply email Kimberley if you'd like to attend, or have any questions. |
Description
This full day workshop extends your understanding of information architecture. It will cover advanced principles and explore ways of being more effective at information architecture.
The advanced IA principles covered will include:
- Categorisation and how it works in our brain
- Information seeking behaviours and how to design for them
- Designing for the ‘knowledge gap’ (when users need to learn, not just ‘find information’)
- Choices and how people make them
The advanced IA practices will include:
- Communicating IA, page layouts & interactions (primarily through documentation)
- Testing an information architecture
- Discussion of your project issues
As a way to improve your practice, we encourage you to share and get involved. In particular, we would like everyone attending to either:
- Bring an example (or examples) of documentation - something that worked well or that didn’t (but that you learned from)
- Prepare a question about an IA issue in your project we will share and discuss it during the workshop (feel free to contact Kimberley ahead of time if you want to discuss whether your issue is a good one to cover).
Learning objectives
After the workshop, the participants will have:
- A deeper understanding of issues that humans have when using information online
- Improved skills in communicating IA
- Hands-on experience with key techniques
- Shared skills with other practitioners
Who should attend?
IA practitioners with basic knowledge of and experience in IA projects, those in related fields who currently (or previously) work on IA proijects and would like to improve their IA skills.
RSVP
Simply email Kimberley if you'd like to attend.
About the presenter - Donna (Maurer) Spencer
Donna (Maurer) Spencer is a freelance information architect and interaction designer, a mentor, writer and trainer. She has 9 years experience working in-house and as a consultant doing both strategic and tactical design. She has designed large intranets & websites, e-commerce & search systems, complex business applications, a set of design patterns and a content management system.
She believes deeply in the value of user-centred design and uses a range of user-centred approaches on her projects - from quick analysis of existing research to deep ethnography. She also believes deeply in team-based and iterative design - continually surprising her colleagues by talking to people rather than computers and designing the old-fashioned way with pencil, sticky notes and much coloured paper.
Donna is an experienced speaker who has taught full-day workshops and presented sessions at many local and international conferences, on the topics of information architecture, interaction design and whatever else crosses her mind. She spends her remaining spare time weaving, gardening, working on IAI projects and wriiting a book on card sorting to be published soon by Rosenfeld Media.
What to wear
For your enjoyment all our workshops are designed to be as interactive and relaxed as possible, so please wear comfortable clothing. We are not always able to completely control air conditioning and room temperature, so wearing layers will be handy in case you are too hot or too cold.
Course cancellation
- A course may be cancelled or postponed by Optimal Usability either due to exceptional circumstances beyond our control (e.g. presenter illness) or should the minimum number of participants not be reached.
- It is recommended that if you are travelling from outside the city that refundable travel tickets and accommodation are booked. We cannot accept liability for non-refundable travel and accommodation in the case of cancellation or postponement.
- If a course is cancelled or postponed you will be advised and, on your instruction, the fee will either be refunded or transferred to an alternative workshop.
Participant withdrawals
- While you may send a substitution at any stage at no extra charge, we do ask that you notify of us of this within 48 hours of the workshop commencing.
- A 20% withdrawal fee will be charged if you withdraw between 15 and 5 working days before the start of the workshop.
- A 50% withdrawal fee will be charged if you withdraw between 5 working days and 48 hours before the start of the workshop.
- A 100% withdrawal fee will be charged if you withdraw less than 48 hours before the start of the workshop.
