[Web4lib] ASIST Webinar - Intro to Information Architecture

[Richard Hill]

[Apologies for cross-posting]

 

Date:  Friday, January 14, 2011, 1:30-2:30pm (EST)

 

Registration: $20 ASIS&T Members / $49 Non-Members

 

Description:  In this virtual seminar, you'll learn all about 

information architecture - what it is, why it's so important to do 

well and the major things to do and not to do.

 

We'll discuss:

 

- how people look for information and what they need to do with it 

when they find it

- different ways you can organize information and when they are 

suitable

 

- exactly how (processes) you can figure out the best ways to organize 

your content

- the tricky issue of what to call things

- other key IA tips

It's all based on Donna's experience designing information 

architecture, navigation and content for a wide range of information 

systems (usually big ones) such as government and corporate websites, 

intranets and document management systems.

To register please go to the ASIS&T website

http://www.asis.org/Conferences/webinars/2011/intro-to-ia.html 

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Presenter

 

Donna Spencer

Donna's a freelance information architect, interaction designer and 

writer. That's a fancy way of saying she plans how to present the 

things you see on your computer screen, so that they're easy to 

understand, engaging and compelling. Things like the navigation, 

forms, categories and words on intranets, websites, web applications 

and business systems.

 

Most of the projects Donna works on are large, messy monsters, like 

government websites and intranets, internal business applications and 

web applications. But she still gets to work on something small and 

cool too. So she's completely aware of the challenges of long-term, 

ongoing projects and short-burst, agile projects. She's also an old 

hand at sketching screens, drawing wireframes and building prototypes.

 

But whatever sort of job Donna's working on, there's one common 

requirement. She has to comprehensively understand the needs of the 

people who will use it. Only then can she make the system as usable as 

possible. Luckily, she's also quite fond of people, so doing user 

research and running usability tests is a pleasure, not a pain.

 

Not surprisingly, given Donna's obsession with usability and fondness 

of people, she's also quite the teacher. She's a very experienced 

speaker and regularly holds workshops and speaks at local and 

international conferences, on the topics of information architecture, 

interaction design, the web, writing and more. She even runs a user 

experience conference (UX Australia).

 

Donna's been doing this since 2002. She's worked on the boards of the 

Information Architecture Institute (international), Web Industry 

Professionals Association (WIPA) and has judged many web awards. She's 

also written three books - on card sorting, web writing and now 

information architecture