Day 2 - Tuesday 4th October 2011 Adaptable Information Architecture: How To Say "No" To Your Next Redesign with Lou Rosenfeld

• Overview
• Workshop outline
• What you'll learn
• Who should attend
• Workshop schedule
• Testimonials

Overview

Your web site or intranet has major problems, and everyone knows it. Worse, it's been that way for a very, very long time.

Occasionally someone tries to do something about it. Senior leaders typically start with the insanely ambitious goal to "fix it once and for all". The result? They throw a few pieces of expensive technology at the problem, or they launch a huge redesign initiative that distracts everyone for a year or two and often results in minimal, cosmetic improvements.

You, however, will continue to be stuck dealing with the mess, condemned to repeat this painful cycle every few years. Unless you attend my workshop. I've been at this for over 15 years; I've seen (and will show you) more realistic and effective techniques for improving your site's performance that will cost far less than redesigns.

You can't make your site perfect, but you can make it much better: let me show you how to tune your information architecture.

Workshop outline

The day will include...

• A very quick overview of information architecture — so we're all on the same page
• Practical ways to prioritise your information architecture's challenges and keep it tuned
• A rich combination of lecture, discussion, and hands-on exercises
• A handout, including all the slides and a checklist of things you can do to tune your site's performance
• A copy of my new book, Site Search Analytics
• And huge savings from foregoing your next information architecture redesign in favour of a adaptable approach

What you'll learn

You'll learn:

• How to prioritise the IA challenges your organisation should be addressing, rather than wasting money on ambitious attempts to "boil the ocean"
• Practical steps you can take to tune and improve your site's:
  • Top-down navigation (e.g., main page, site index)
  • Contextual navigation (e.g., moving horizontally through the guts of your content)
  • Search performance (e.g., search results design, best bets)
• Ways to reframe and reposition "one-off" projects, such as content inventory, as ongoing processes
• How to analyse search data and develop content models—two areas of opportunity for improvement that many organisations overlook
• Talking points and approaches that can help change your leaders' minds about redesigns

Who should attend

Information architects, content strategists, user researchers, designers, UX team managers, and anyone who is responsible for managing and improving a large web site or intranet.

Schedule

The approximate schedule for day 2 is as follows.

Time	Activity
8.30-9.00	Arrive at the ICA for Registration
9.00-10.30	Adaptable Information Architecture (Part I)
10.30-11.00	Coffee and Biscuits
11.00-12.30	Adaptable Information Architecture (Part II)
12.30-1.30	Lunch (Catered)
1.00-2.30	Adaptable Information Architecture (Part III)
2.30-3.00	Coffee and Biscuits
3.00-4.00	Adaptable Information Architecture (Part IV)
4.00-5.00	Q&A
5.00	Home/Pub!

Testimonials

"...your workshop helped us use our search engine as a better resource. Before we were looking at our monthly logs and saying things like 'isn't that interesting.' Today, we are adding some custom results for specific searches, and we are thinking about changing the layout of our results page to improve our site's usability."

—Greg George, Information Architect, Georgia State University

"I had some understanding of reviewing top searches before this seminar but it brought to light many other areas I had not yet thought of. With the information from the workshop I have been able to take this to the next step in our agency."

—Stephanie Edwards, Web Production Manager, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

"Your workshop helped me to implement site search analytics, and gave valuable advice on which questions to ask."

—Tilman Becker, Manager Online Communications, LSG Sky Chefs

"The workshop helped me greatly by raising my awareness of the practice and the value of measuring what your visitors are looking for."

—Brent Hardinge, Web Designer