Single Session Workshop (Virtual)

Information Architecture Essentials

This workshop is sold out.

More of our lives are happening online every day. We interact and transact through digital systems on a growing variety of devices. More understandable and coherent systems = better experiences. As a result, information architecture (IA) is more important than ever.

In this fast-paced workshop, you will:

Understand the primary goals of information architecture
Learn how people find and understand information
Learn to define conceptual models
Master necessary IA components
Identify essential IA collaboration skills
Learn how to communicate IA concepts
Discover how architectures evolve over time

Structure

This workshop has been a staple of the IA Conference for the past three years. Now, it’s been wholly restructured for effective remote instruction.

The online workshop consists of three components:

Pre-recorded video lectures, which you can view on your own before real-time group activities
Real-time hands-on group exercises via Zoom
Asynchronous Q&A sessions via Discord

Lectures consist of our parts:

Introduction to information architecture
Conceptual modeling
Basic IA components
Basic IA skills

This new structure maximizes learning by making the most of our time together and makes it easier for distributed teams with busy schedules to participate.

From Strategy to Structure (and Back Again)

As a digital designer, you must think beyond the user interface to the underlying structures that give your systems coherence. These structures should serve the needs of your users, your organization, and society. To do so, you must understand your organization’s strategic directions. This fast-paced workshop introduces strategic thinking for designers.

Designing for a New World Using Systems Thinking

Now more than ever, we are seeing how the systems underlying society affect the people living within them. As designers, we have an opportunity to impact positive change. Learn to see the big picture and tackle big, messy problems by cultivating a systems thinking lens into your UX and IA practices. What is systems thinking? Why is it important? Engage in practical hands-on activities that you can bring back to your projects and learn how to create change through design by uncovering relevant relationships beyond what is on the surface.

Hear from and share with colleagues barriers, opportunities, and ideas for activating change.

Introduction to Ontology Concepts and Modeling

This workshop is sold out.

Are you interested in learning more about ontologies but don’t know where to begin?

Our “Introduction to Ontology Concepts and Modeling” workshop comprises a three-hour introduction aimed at IAs who are interested in ontologies and would like to learn the basics, including:

Complex knowledge organization schemes and concept structures
Basics of ontological relationships
Information on existing ontologies for re-use
The difference between upper and lower ontologies
Basic ontology concepts like RDF and semantic triples
Software systems and components
Ontology modeling exercises

The session will be recorded and made available to registered attendees.

Product Management for Information Architects

IA experience is wonderful preparation for product management, but the role of a product manager involves mastering additional skills related to software development, engineering, technical architecture, finding product-market fit, going to market, funnel optimization, revenue modeling, experimenting with hypotheses, managing products through lifecycles, sunsetting features, saying no to stakeholders, getting teams into alignment, and more.

In this workshop, Christian will explain how IA skills provide a great foundation for product management work, and then provide the basics and pointers for how to develop the complementary skills (such as those mentioned above) to qualify for product leadership roles.