Pre-conference workshop

Communicating Design: Making Your IA Documentation Clear and Actionable

Dan Brown

22/03/2007 (Thursday). Half day (pm)

Like a biological process, every design process has inputs and outputs. In a design process, inputs and outputs are documents, and they carry ideas from one part of the process to another. These ideas fuel the process, and allow participants to collaborate with each other effectively. Poor documentation usually leads to inefficient processes: When ideas are not communicated effectively, process participants may need to spend more time re-hashing the same old thing.

This workshop looks at what makes documents effective, how to tailor them to different audiences, and how to use them appropriately in design methodologies. Designed to be hands-on, this workshop gives participants time to explore two different essential information architecture documents in detail: wireframes and flowcharts.

This half-day workshop will focus on two key documents—wireframes and flowcharts. For each document, we will analyze the components and discuss strategies for improving them. Participants will work on hands-on exercises to take basic versions of the documents and enhance them. They will practice presenting the documents to each other.