[Sigia-l] Teaching IA

[Eric Reiss]

Hi James,

Like Chris Chandler, I’m also fond of “post-its and paper” sitemap
generation. I’m a firm believer in learning by doing. The method
works well with groups of about 6-10. More than that and you don’t
have enough time for individual coaching.

What I do is give the group 10 minutes to come up with the theme of a
site that is their very own. One where they make all the decisions.
They also need to write down their personal goals in creating the
site, who their target audience is going to be, and what these
visitors are going to expect.

10 minutes of hectic activity. Then each of the participants is given
an opportunity to tell the rest of the group what their project is
all about.

The next 15 minutes is spent chunking information. It’s important
here to make sure people chunk and don’t start organizing. You want
them to get as many ideas/subjects on post-its as possible.

The third session, also 15 minutes, is where they get to arrange the
post-its, weed out, add on. BTW, I go around coaching during all of
the 15 minute sessions to keep people on track, though without
telling them exactly what to do or not to do.

Finally, I review best-practice checklists, to which the group has
been exposed earlier in the day, and give them a final 15 minutes to
refine and make adjustments.

Up until this point, the workshop takes an hour. I then give each
participant 5 minutes to present their projects.

Surprisingly, each time I’ve conducted one of these sessions, one or
two of the participants actually go home and build their sites.

If you have too many people, or don’t have enough time, a card sort
can be both educational and entertaining. At the second IA Summit in
San Francisco, Peter Morville and Samantha Bailey (then Argus) did a
fabulous card-sort as part of their pre-conference seminar on
taxonomies. You might ask them for pointers.

Finally, if you’re not doing anything else on February 27 and happen
to be in Austin, TX, Chris Chandler (Disney), Matt Fetchko
(CitiGroup), Lynn Boyden (UCLA), and myself will be holding the First
Annual IA Slam – intensive, competitive, hands-on IA with a deadline
from hell. See www.asis.org for details.

Hope this helps,
Eric


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eric reiss
principal
e-reiss aps
copenhagen, denmark
http://www.e-reiss.com
office: (+45) 39 29 67 77
mobile: (+45) 20 12 88 44

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