Designing with Structured Data

IA Summit 2007 Pre-conference Workshop  

Friday March 23, 2007 
Flamingo Hotel 
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA 

As Web 2.0 becomes more than a buzzword, many information architects are being asked to not just organise the broad structure of the site and design page layouts. Increasingly, information architects are being asked to, and are getting interested in:

  • Designing the detailed structure of content for content management systems
  • Re-using content at different levels of detail and on different devices
  • Syndicating data via RSS and other feed mechanisms
  • Designing data to be shared using APIs and microformats
  • Designing sites and services using other people’s structured data
  • Designing rich, flexible interfaces to complex data

This type of work requires a different set of information architecture skills. It requires deeper content analysis, more data modelling and a better understanding of relevant technologies. It also needs a different way of communicating with stakeholders and team members.

This workshop provides IAs with the basis of understanding for designing and developing with structured data. It has four related modules across a full day:

  1. Analysis and design for good structures
    This module covers establishing a brief, content analysis, spotting patterns, identifying important content types, modelling them, techniques for collaborative design and how to get meaningful buy-in and sign-off.
  2. Developing and creating feeds for interaction
    This module covers an introduction to data feeds, where they fit with the rest of Web 2.0 and examples of feeds of data. It also examines a number of real APIs and how they are presented in interfaces.
  3. APIs and microformats
    Microformats is a set of HTML based formats for commonly used types of information on the web (e.g. hCard, hCalendar, hReview, hListing, hResume). APIs allow designers to share and use each other’s data. This module covers how they work, the benefits of using them and how to design for them.
  4. Putting it all together and breaking away from the web
    This module pulls the other elements together, showing how feeds, APIs, microformats and other structured data allow web pages (or parts of web pages) to be picked up and easily moved out to other devices and applications. It also examines the role of structured data as a key to developing flexible, device-independent solutions.

This Information Architecture Institute workshop will provide a blend of lecture, discussion and plenty of activity.

Karen Loasby

Karen will start the day with the foundation information needed to design with structured data and will include short exercises throughout.

Her session will cover the process of identifying structures in your content and ensuring you end up with an effective structure that is usable by your business.

  • establishing a brief
  • content analysis & spotting patterns - different techniques for different IAs (getting away from just spreadsheets)
  • how to identify the most important content types for your business and focusing on modelling them
  • techniques for collaborative design (with editorial staff, visual designers & beyond) - making it fun for everyone
  • ways to get meaningful buy-in and sign-off (not showing everyone a data model)
  • short exercises throughout

Margaret Hanley

Margaret’s session will focus on developing and creating feeds for interaction with an exercise that get people to think back and forth between the details of the data and the interaction with the interface presentation

  • Introduction to data feeds and why we should care
  • Where it belongs with the rest of Web 2.0 and the development of web sites
  • Example from her work
  • Example of feeds of data - real information from APIs and how they are presented in interfaces
  • Exercise to create a feed out information that exists in an organisation; brainstorming all the different things you could do with the data; structuring the data; then combining it with another two feeds; designing the interfaces from the combination.

John Allsopp

Microformats is a project, and set of (ever growing) HTML based formats for commonly used types of information on the web. You can think of them as design patterns, in particular focussed on data. So for example, there is a microformat for contact details, hCard, which is the vCard schema, in HTML. There are microformats for events and calendaring (hCalendar) for reviews (hReview), classified listing (hListing), resumes (hResume).

This part of the workshop will:

  • Discuss the benefits of using microformats
  • Show how existing microformats are being used
  • Explain how you can get in on the microformats game
  • Give you a chance to brainstorm and invent your own microformat

Thomas Vander Wal

Thomas will wrap up the workshop, highlighting two key aspects:

  1. Moving beyond just the web, using microformats, APIs, scrapable pages with consistent structure – these contain pieces that can be easily moved out to other devices and applications.
  2. Search engine optimization has an extremely large focus on proper semantic structure. Building in the semantic structure from the beginning makes SEO much easier for others working on the site.

Thomas will highlight that getting to this point requires understanding one's own content and how people want and need to use it, bringing in the other side of IA – a deep understanding of users and their needs.

Thomas will lead a wrap-up activity to help you bring together the learnings from the workshop into a plan for your work.

Full day workshop $550
Choose "Designing with Structured Data" on your IA Summit Registration Form

*** All workshop participants will be entered into a drawing for a complimentary registration to next year's IA Institute pre-conference workshop. Sign up and win a free pass to the 2008 precon! ***