Agenda for the in-person workshop
The architecture of content
Learn how to create an architecture of informative objects, rather than a site full of individual documents.
This non-technical introduction to
information architecture takes a creator's point of view, so if you write,
edit, or work within a content management team, you will find this
workshop helps you recognize patterns in your content, and formalize those
structures as hierarchies of objects, so that you can get the full
benefits of content management.
When you say goodbye to documents, and hello to objects, you give
your web visitors the ability to interact with even the smallest chunk of
your material. Your customers become more efficient in browsing,
searching, and scanning a page.
And you can offer them content customized for their group's
interests, jobs, or products. You can even provide true personalization,
serving up content that is relevant to each individual, filtering out what
is not.
And because you are updating objects, rather than revising an
entire document, you can make more of your content up to date.
In this workshop, then, you'll learn how to create consistent structures
for your content so that users can find exactly what they want, learn
quickly, and act efficiently-buying, voting, learning, or entering a
conversation with your team. You'll learn how to define a new informative
object, or pattern, and how to lead your team through the process of
converting from a document orientation to the wonderful world of objects.
Should I take this workshop?
Yes, if…
No, if
Our participants come from various backgrounds, according to a survey of
recent attendees:
Payoff: You'll find you can move content onto the web more quickly,
editing legacy documents to fit into the new structure, getting rid of
unnecessary, poorly conceived, or chaotic content. Result: your users will
find the content easy to browse, search, and personalize, and once they
discover the content they want, they will understand its structure, absorb
the point, and put it to work.
How it works
You learn by doing a lot of challenges after brief lectures,
focused discussions, and group critiques of the structure on current Web
sites.
Drawing on contemporary research into Web usability, reading
comprehension, and user psychology, our extensive handout provides you
with practical guidelines that you can follow on the job.
You get detailed advice, diagrams, before-and-after examples, and
practical challenges. And the handouts work, later, as a reference
when you need to look up a tactic.
There are two versions of this workshop. The in-person workshop runs
three
full days. Online, the workshop takes six weeks.
Just for you: If you want a whole team to take the class, we can customize
the examples and challenges so that they closely parallel the content your
people are already creating. That kind of customization helps participants
make the connection between the general guidelines and their own work.
By the end of the course, you'll be able to:
When you follow this approach, you and your team will be able to
Agenda for the in-person
workshop
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Agenda for the online workshop
Week 1: Overview of Information Architecture
Week 2: Making your structure browsable
Week 3: Preparing for successful searching, customizing, and personalizing
Week 4: Making reference information easy to explore
Week 5: Enabling actions through processes, and step-by-step procedures
Week 6: Preparing your steam, planning your workflow
Comments from participants (anonymous evaluations at UCSC)
Your instructor
Dr. Jonathan Price teaches information architecture, web writing, content
management, XML, and technical writing at the University of California,
Santa Cruz, the University of New Mexico, the Society for Technical
Communication, and many major corporations. Jonathan and his wife Lisa are
writers and editors for sites such as AOL, Disney, Hewlett Packard,
Intuit, and KBKids. Lisa and Jonathan have written The Best of Online
Shopping, and Hot Text: Web Writing that Works.
Schedule and locations
In-person: To be scheduled, Spring 2004, University of California, Santa Cruz, course meeting in Cupertino, CA
Online: JER Online Workshops, open registration
Attention, Corporate Managers!
If you have a group of people who are all working on information architecture from the content side, we can customize the course, so that it reflects common problems that your people face. Examples seem familiar; exercises resemble their day-to-day work. Result: they can see, immediately, how the course can help them do their jobs.
Resources on web writing that works
Guidelines like those in the course