Information Design

Everyone is flocking to get up on the Web. But where does the crush of information leave bewildered users? Left to spend hours scrolling and clicking, wading through whatever is dished out along their way—inconsistent navigation schemes, slow-to-load or distracting graphics, dead-end pages, broken links, dull or uninformative messages—all in the hope of finding worthwhile information.

Clearly organized, consistent, and functional sites reap big rewards from both a user and business perspective. A great Web site is one that has been specifically planned, designed, tested, and promoted to connect the right user with the right message.

In this course, you'll learn the difference that information design can make. The information designer is someone who pre-plans information hierarchies and pathways, effectively "paving the roads" and putting up signage before the traffic arrives. The smoother the road and the clearer the signs, the better the traffic flow!

Instructor:
Bruce Bicknell is a writer, instructor, illustrator, animator, Web designer, video editor, and marketing pro ... get bio

Course Developers:
Leslie Dann is a multimedia and film producer ... get bio
Mary Jane Broadbent is a navigation ad communications designer ... get bio

Develop an understanding of the purpose of information design in the Web design process.

Analyze the user experience of a Web site including tasks, layout, and hierarchy, and identify the needs of different types of site user.

Plan a Web site project in consideration of a client brief and target audience's needs.

Analyze a creative brief and competitor sites to create a list of site features that meets the goals of a project.

Strategize navigational structures and determine appropriate relationships, labeling, and hierarchy of content.

Work together with visual designers to produce attractive, consistent, and functional Web pages and navigational structures.

Design professional-looking site maps and choose global and local navigation structures that are most relevant to site users.

Design professional-looking wireframes as blueprints of all major Web site pages, focusing on consistency and functionality.

Structure and document the information architecture for a complete Web site, from creative brief to final wireframe and site map presentation.

LESSON 1 Intro to Information Design The course begins with an overview of what an information designer does and why the Web provides unique challenges in communication. You'll understand the importance of the user experience and of user testing as well as methods of retrieving and using this information. In the exercise, you'll assess specific user types and user tasks in three different Web site designs.

LESSON 2 Web Site Scope and Objectives In Lesson Two, you'll learn how to identify information and client goals through wish lists, client dialog, competitor comparison, and the creative brief. Examples and tips will help you make the most out of meetings and work with the proper site goals from the very start of a project. In this lesson's exercise, you'll focus on the planning of a Web site with a client and uncover the goals of competing sites.

LESSON 3 Information Hierarchies Key to any Web site project is the organization of information, the primary role of the information design. In this lesson, you'll explore a number of methods of organizing a site based on its goals and types of pages. You'll also learn helpful methods of grouping content so that it's modular and ready for the next step of the information design process. In the exercise, you'll study a set of given client materials and determine the most effective way to organize them for the intended audience.

LESSON 4 Navigation Design and Site Mapping Without a clear and logical navigation scheme, users quickly lose their patience. In this lesson, you'll uncover a number of different methods for creating a navigation set-up relevant to your users and easy for them to follow. You'll also explore techniques for creating a site map which you'll apply in the exercise along with a navigation plan.

LESSON 5 Blueprinting a Web Interface For your creative and technology team members to create site pages, they'll need a visual breakdown of information and placement. The information designer supplies these documents, called wireframes, which are explored in depth in Lesson Five. In the exercise, you'll create wireframes for a number of pages of the site you've planned in previous lessons.

LESSON 6 Trends in Information Design The course wraps up with a close look at the future of the information design field, helping you decide how this area will fit into your Web career. You'll also explore a number of in-depth case studies that span several genres of site design. In the final exercise, you'll take on the task of architecting the information structure of a site from start to finish.

Tuition: $829 US