Nielsen Full day training course offered at Usability Week Melbourne
Information Architecture: Day 1 (structure)
Organize and structure information to improve findability and discoverability
The Information Architecture (IA), or organization, of a website or application is critical, because it determines whether or not users are successful in finding desired information and completing tasks. This course introduces the core components of a good IA, as well as essential IA design methods and strategies.
Topics Covered
- How to explain why information architecture (IA) is important for your website or application, and how a good IA can save your company time and money during and after development
- ROI of information architecture
- Essential logic and concepts you need to build a useful, usable, and extensible information architecture
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Five components of information architecture
- Structure: Hierarchy, web, and linear
- Organization schemes: Topic, task, format, audience, alphabet, time, geographical, attributes, tags, and popularity
- Labels
- Search
- Logic: Taxonomy and metadata
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Documenting information architecture
- Content inventories
- Site maps
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Evaluating information architecture
- Identifying issues and potential solutions
- Measuring baseline performance
- Testing structure, schemes, and labels
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Designing information architecture
- Mental models
- Domain modeling and task flow sketching
- Card sorting
- Iterative testing
Format
This course is an interactive lecture. A series of in-depth exercises let you apply and practice new principles and techniques, while staying grounded in the research that supports them.
In groups, you will analyze a website’s information architecture by considering the site’s target audiences and top tasks, evaluating the organization scheme and existing structure, and documenting a new structure for the site.
The course also includes:
- Findings from our own usability studies, including eyetracking
- Videos from user testing showing people's behavior in response to a design
- Screenshots of designs that work and don’t work, and why
- Opportunities to ask questions and get answers
Companion Course
Information Architecture: Day 2 (navigation) is a companion course to Information Architecture: Day 1 (structure). Each course can be taken independently. Information Architecture: Day 2 (navigation) covers:
- Why some navigation designs work and others don’t
- Navigation evaluation checklist
- Framework to design your navigation
Instructor
Kathryn Whitenton
Kathryn Whitenton is a User Experience Specialist with the Nielsen Norman Group. She works with clients to evaluate the usability and information architecture of websites in a variety of industries including technology, telecommunications, and media, as well as corporate intranets. She has conducted usability research, eyetracking user research, and studies of users on mobile devices in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Her user studies have included general audiences as well as specific consumer types, business segments, children, and seniors. Read more about Kathryn
Kathryn Whitenton is a User Experience Specialist with the Nielsen Norman Group. She works with clients to evaluate the usability and information architecture of websites in a variety of industries including technology, telecommunications, and media, as well as corporate intranets. She has conducted usability research, eyetracking user research, and studies of users on mobile devices in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Her user studies have included general audiences as well as specific consumer types, business segments, children, and seniors. Read more about Kathryn