Information architecture (IA) involves structuring, organising, navigating, labelling and indexing information on intranets and websites to assist organisations in achieving their information needs. It is used to decide how a site should be structured, what kind of content it should host, and how to accommodate its future growth. IA is the foundation of good website or intranet design as it ensures the site will meet business and user needs and defines the backbone of an information system.

However, many organisation’s websites and intranets were established several years ago, and may have been designed in an ad-hoc way, since grown very large and difficult to manage, and no longer accurately reflect the organisation’s current goals, priorities, purpose, or functions. As a result, organisations are finding that IA issues aren’t only important in design, but also when revamping, redesigning and upgrading their information systems, and are looking to IA to help them to locate the information they need, make better choices and complete information tasks more rapidly and accurately.
This two-day interactive workshop will provide a thorough overview and understanding about how to effectively use information architecture to make your intranet or website as effective as possible. It will cover a wide range of information architecture issues such as the following:

• What information architecture is and how it can facilitate user experience
• Analysing and sorting content
• Carrying out user research: surveys, focus groups and card sorting
• Classifying, sorting and labelling within your information system
• Using wireframes and site maps: the ‘bread and butter’ tools of IA
• Navigating, indexing and designing page layouts
• Effectively carrying out your IA project: tips, tools, techniques and processes