We are no longer accepting registrations for this summer workshop. The next workshop begins in summer of 2010.

Intended Audience  ·   Why is IA Important?  ·   Benefits  ·   Schedule  ·   Faculty  ·   Sponsor  ·   Registration  ·   Graduate Nonmatriculated (GNM) Status  ·   Venue  ·   Travel and Lodging  ·   Tax Credits  ·   Accommodations for Disabilities  ·   Questions

This five-day intensive course covers the key elements of Information Architecture:

1. Understanding your users’ information needs
2. Building architectural frameworks to store information effectively
3. Proper organizing and labeling of information for improved navigation and search
4. Perceiving opportunities where information architecture can increase business value

Each of these four elements will be explored through lectures, interactive exercises and discussion led by University faculty and industry experts. If you work with information and need to connect it to users, this course provides the foundation necessary for success, whether you’re designing a small Web site on a limited budget or trying to run an enterprise portal.

Topics:

• Defining and practicing information architecture
• Information organization—including labeling, categorization and taxonomies
• Searching and browsing
• Understanding users—their information needs and behavior
• Content management
• Evangelizing information architecture
• The future of information architecture

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The institute is intended for professionals working in situations requiring a solid knowledge of the foundational structures and techniques used in information architecture, in corporate, educational, government or nonprofit organizations. The workshop will provide theoretical and practical knowledge that can be used by project managers, taxonomists, Web designers and anyone who needs to successfully design large information structures to meet user needs and business requirements.

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Information architecture (IA) is the art and science of organizing and labeling Web sites, software, intranets, and online communities to support usability and findability. Good information architecture results in:

• Products that are easier to use
• Information that is easier to find and understand
• Increased efficiency for product users
• Higher customer satisfaction (which can lead to higher sales)
• Product differentiation in this highly commoditized world

Creating effective information architecture that leads to these benefits requires researching user needs, developing solutions that focus on intuitive information access, and testing these solutions with users. This puts the user at the core of the development process, and leads to products and services that customers find easy to use. Most development teams already have members who focus on business and technology; information architects focus on benefiting the user, which leads to increased business success.

Information architecture grew from the need to organize the massive amounts of information found in computer software, CD-ROMs and the Internet. Information architecture uses concepts from established disciplines such as library science, user-centered design and human-computer interaction, combining them in new ways to solve problems. As users are presented increasingly more complex information systems, the practice of information architecture becomes a crucial component of developing successful products.

IA can increase the value of:

• Education (related products, etc)
• Brand (identity, reputation, trust)
• Customer satisfaction (return on investment, positive word of mouth)

IA can reduce the cost of:

• Finding (time, frustration)
• Not finding (bad decisions, alternate channels)
• Construction (staff, technology, planning, bugs)
• Maintenance (content management, redesigns)
• Training (employees, turnover)
• Navigation (the time it takes to do frequent tasks)

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• Designed and presented by faculty from the UW Information School in collaboration with practitioners from organizations that are leaders in information architecture.

• Participants gain theoretical and practical knowledge useful to project managers, taxonomists, Web designers and anyone who needs to successfully design large information structures to meet user needs and business requirements.

• Enables participants to experience a variety of architectural frameworks through interactive exercises using UW computers or their own laptops.

• For participants enrolled in a graduate program at UW, the course provides three hours of graduate credit.

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The full schedule for the Information Architecture Summer Institute can be downloaded here in PDF format.

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Michael Crandall
Senior Lecturer and Chair, Masters of Science in Information Management program, The Information School, University of Washington

Michael Crandall is a senior lecturer in the iSchool, and current chair of the Master's of Science in Information Management program. Previously, he was technology manager for the U.S. Library program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he worked on such projects as helping to develop WebJunction, a public-access computing portal and placing Internet connections and computers in 14,000 public libraries throughout the United States. Prior to the foundation, Crandall worked on search technology and knowledge organization for the intranet at Microsoft (MSWeb) and on information architecture and online library services at Boeing. He has served on the Dublin Core Metadata Board of Trustees since its inception in 2001, and is active in ASIS&T. He is interested in public-access computing, ICT in developing countries, metadata and knowledge organization, social dimensions of knowledge transfer and large-scale information systems.

Samantha Starmer
Manager - Online Projects, Systems and Information Architecture Recreational Equipment Inc., (REI)

Over the last 10 years, Samantha Starmer has worked on a wide variety of user experience and information architecture projects while at Amazon.com, SchemaLogic and Microsoft. She now is a manager at REI.com, leading the teams who run information architecture, project management and systems. She holds a Master's of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Washington and a certificate in Content Management. Starmer has also served on the board of Content Management Professionals and the Information Architecture Institute.

David Ballantine
Director of User Experience, DNA Seattle

David Ballantine is the Director of User Experience at DNA Seattle, where he brings more than 13 years of experience and expertise in user experience, interaction design and information architecture. Previously Dave has been the Digital Strategy Director at Publicis in the West, a User Experience Lead at Razorfish and has held various design roles at several local businesses and start-ups. Dave holds a Masters of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Washington, with a focus on information retrieval and content management. Dave is a member of several professional associations, including, ASIS&T, CMPros, Information Architecture Institute and ACM SigCHI.

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The Information Architecture Institute is a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to advancing and promoting information architecture. Founded in 2002, the institute has over 800 members in 40 countries. For more information, visit: IAInstitute.org.

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