A hands-on guide to becoming an information architect.
When web designers start a new project, one of the first challenges they face is how to organize the site. What content needs to be accommodated? What information is primary, and what’s secondary? What should the navigation look like? In this four-week design course, Brian Miller will give you a crash course on information architecture. He’ll take you through site map planning, wireframes, information hierarchy, and more. You’ll learn how to think about backgrounds, headers and footers, sidebars and features—everything that contributes to how intuitive a site is to navigate. You’ll see what works and why—and what to avoid. You’ll walk away with the ability to put yourself in the user’s shoes, and to think like an information architect.
Brian Miller is owner and design director of the Brian Miller Design Group, a small design firm in Norwalk, CT that specializes in branding for the Web and print. He is also the author of Above the Fold, My Design Shop’s number one selling book on Web design in 2011.
Workshop Length:
4 weeks
Tuition:
$199 ($179 for VIP)
Recommended Materials:
- Above the Fold by Brian Miller.
Start Date:
Objectives:
- Get a step-by-step introduction to information architecture
- Learn to how to plan and lay out site maps
- Gain a basic understating of information hierarchy and organization
- Learn how to think about website usability.
- Experienced print designers making the transition to web and interactive design
- Creative professionals with basic knowledge of web design
Outline:
- Overview
- In the beginning…
- Reading: What a Soda Machine Can Tell Us About Information Architecture, by Brian Miller
- Videos: David Sherwin on Information Architecture for Designers and Kelley McDonald on User Experience in the Google Era
- Assignment
- Getting Started
- SWOT Analysis
- Creative Briefs
- Content and Functional Requirements
- Taxonomy and Grouping
- Metaphors and Labeling
- Reading: Chapter 6, Above the Fold, by Brian Miller
- Video: Cameron Moll on Designing for the non-Desktop Web
- Assignment
- Understanding your audience
- User experience and wireframes
- Reading: Chapters 2 and 7, Above the Fold, by Brian Miller
- Video: Dr. Susan Weinschenk on the ROI of User Experience
- Assignment
- Reading: Chapter 1, Above the Fold, by Brian Miller
- Reading: Pinterest Founder Shares Design Philosophy
- Final Assignment