Welcome to a workshop wonderland — Part one
If you’re seeking specialized training about information architecture and experience design, it doesn’t get any better than at the IAC. We’ve gathered talented and seasoned workshop leaders to help advance your skills. Our line-up of workshops is so stellar that we can’t fit them all into one post — but here is part one of our workshop run-down.
Workshops are an excellent, people-centered way to get work done. From a participatory session that replaces a standard meeting, to a full-blown, multi-day experience, workshops get teams and clients to explore options, analyze alternatives, and come to consensus. So you might like to add workshop design to your UX super powers through the Art and Science of Workshop Design @bernirizarry @stacysurla #IAC20
If you find yourself dreading a conversation with your boss? Your colleague? Your team? You’re not alone. IAs have tough conversations every day. Learn how to navigate (ha!) these tough conversations at #IAC20 with @brownorama in his workshop Managing Tough Conversations for Information Architects: How to have them, how to make them productive, and how to survive them
If you’re new to the field of IA then who better to learn from than one of the co-authors of the fourth edition of the polar bear book — the handbook to becoming an IA. Jorge Arango presents his Information architecture essentials workhop.
And for those working at a strategic level, we’ve got another Polar Bear author to share their expertise. Peter Morville will bring his workshop on planning for strategic design to New Orleans. Peter suggests that we need to let go of “the plan” and embrace a dynamic way of planning that’s social, tangible, agile, and reflective. We must engage our colleagues in business and technology to align use cases, prototypes, and roadmaps with culture, governance, and process. In order to design sustainable products, services, and experiences, we must also design the context. If you join his workshop, you’ll get to learn how.
If taxonomy, ontology and knowledge graphs are your thing, we have plenty for you…
With knowledge graphs bubbling up into popular and business consciousness it seems fitting to ask how this technology is relevant to the IA community (it is!) and provide an introduction to graph-curious IAs. That’s just what you’ll get in a half-day workshop from Bob Kasenchak and Ahren Lenhert.
We also have a full day workshop on Designing and Building Taxonomies for the Enterprise. This immersive workshop provides practical tactics for designing, building and maintaining taxonomies and ontologies. Based on hard-won lessons learned from work with everything from large fortune-50 enterprises to small ecommerce sites.
We’re delighted to be hosting another workshop from another author. In his workshop, Stephen P. Anderson will reveal the basic elements that make up every visual representation ever created. Much like there’s a grammar behind the written word, there is a similar grammar behind the visual display of information, that once understood enables you to create clear and concise visual representations of thought. Rather than fall back on the playbook of existing models, you can learn how to create your own visual models.
Carrie isn’t the only one excited about her day-long workshop. Learn to create dynamic and personalized experiences by designing from the bottom-up. Join @carriehd for the Applied Designing Content workshop at #IAC20. It just might change how you work.
And you can learn how to make sense of large content sets. It’s an essential skill for IAs, but most of us still use spreadsheets as little more than glorified tables. Learn the best practices to take your content inventories and audits to the next level in @andybywire’s hands-on session.
Or go from 0 to 60 in data analysis skills using Data Analysis Cookbooks. The focus for this workshop will not be to make everyone a data scientist in a day (obviously) but to empower participants to do more with data in less time, whether from qualitative user interviews, log files, or surveys. Participants will get introduced to Python, Pandas, MathPlotLib, and Jupyter Notebooks through a series of hands-on exercises that emphasize adaption of Cookbooks and recipes instead of custom code creation.
After a brillint talk at our EuroIA, Rachel Price brings us lessons from jazz that can help us become a more artful research facilitator. Practice improvising as a form of facilitation with @r_audrey at #IAC20
Or maybe you want to expand your listening, collaboration & creativity at IAC20 by joining @dafark8 in exploring Collaborative Improv and how we can all be more engaged!
Talking of listening. In her workshop on Courageous coaching and forthright feedback you can join @seejennydesign for a hands-on workshop learning and practicing crucial skills for leading IA and UX design teams. Many managers lack confidence in their coaching skills and feel uncomfortable giving constructive feedback to their direct reports. Whether due to a lack of training or hands-on experience, this is the part of managing that leaders often dread. In addition, coaching information architects, UX designers, and other design practitioners involves giving in-depth direction on particular skill sets which generalized leadership trainings don’t cover. Jenny’s workshop will give you the skills to succeed.
Register for IAC20 today and make the most of your time in New Orleans by adding one or two of these great workshops to your experience.
