Back, by popular demand → MAYA's pre-conference IA workshop!

Start your IDEA Conference experience a day early by joining David Bishop and Paul Gould of MAYA Design for a full-day workshop devoted to information architecture.

Whether you're simply curious about IA, or it has been a job title on your business card for years, MAYA's unique take on IA and our hands-on exercises will not only enlighten you, but also equip you with fresh approaches.

Participants in last year's workshop in New York said:

"Stimulating and thought provoking. Even when you were covering material that I considered familiar, I learned new things."
"Your workshop has proved inspirational in my work over and over again."

We'll use real-world case studies as the starting point for learning how to:

  • Gather domain knowledge
  • Synthesize and structure data
  • Diagram processes and relationships
  • Design interactions based on those models

You'll stay active and engaged as you participate in exercises that include:

  • Concept mapping
  • Documenting mental models
  • Process-flow diagramming
  • Depicting information models

Along the way, you'll discover that documenting the pattern of a problem (i.e., information architecture diagramming) is inextricably linked to the design solution. As Christopher Alexander said, ". . . there is a deep and important underlying structural correspondence between the pattern of a problem and the process of designing a physical form which answers that problem."

It's a critical, yet often neglected, component of designing human-centered products and interactions, and you shouldn't miss this opportunity to dig in.

Workshop Leaders

David Bishop Human Sciences Director, MAYA

David Bishop
David leads MAYA's Human Sciences group. As an interaction designer, he is particularly interested in the positive effects that come from having the fortitude to resist feature creep and the insistence to focus on features that users truly need. He works directly with our clients and their customers to design products that are not only easier to build and support, but that also empower people to accomplish challenging tasks. David holds a B.S. in applied mathematics and computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. As an antidote to untangling thickets of complexity, David and his family spend their free time sailing.

Paul Gould Designer, MAYA

Paul Gould Paul is a member of MAYA's Design group. Whether through ethnographic research, interaction design, copywriting, information architecture, or visual design, for Paul it's all about telling the right stories - the inspiring ones that lay out a vision for the future and the structured framework for getting there. His work at MAYA helps our clients improve what they do by understanding and anticipating the needs of their customers. He graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with a B.A. in Religion. Paul coaches two elementary school Odyssey of the Mind teams and hauls out his accordion and fiddle at occasional after-hours shindigs.