Skip to main content
The following fields are required:
Error has occurred. Please reload this page and try the operation again.
  • Agents
  • Partners
  • Student Login
  • Instructor Login
UC Berkeley Extension Home Page
      • Areas of Study
        • Art and Design
        • Behavioral Health Sciences
        • Business
        • Construction and Sustainability
        • Education
        • Humanities and Languages
        • Sciences, Mathematics
          and Biotechnology
        • Technology and
          Information Management
        • Writing, Editing and
          Technical Communication
      • Online Learning
        • Online Courses and Certificates
      • Events
        • Information Sessions
        • Free and Low Cost Events
      • Academic Services
        • Enrollment
        • Transcripts
        • General Information
        • Community Guides
      • Course and Program Information
        • Latest COVID-19 Information
        • Online Course Policies
        • Certificates, Programs and CEUs
        • Concurrent Enrollment
        • Career Services
      • Student Aid
        • Disabled Students
        • Financial Assistance
        • Community Impact Scholarship
      • Voices
        • Voices Home
        • Educator Insights
        • Student Stories
        • Professional Pathways
        • Industry Trends
      • Events
        • Information Sessions
        • Free and Low Cost Events

  • Berkeley Global

Information Architecture (IA) and Content Strategy

DESIGN X435.1

27188944
Delivery Options Online

Lisanne Wirth is the instructor for Content Strategy.

Information Architecture (IA) and content strategy (CS) play significant roles in improving user experience. The challenge lies in building the right content for users' needs. The solution is unifying design and content with IA and CS professionals—all working harmoniously together.

You’ll go from high-level conceptual thinking to real world practical designs in the organization of complex websites and projects. As part of this class you integrate SEO and accessibility initiatives to enhance content discovery, audits and analysis, content inventory and interaction behaviors, company user engagement, voice and tone assessment, content management systems (CMS), templates and microcopy in CS. In information architecture, you learn about mental models, task and user flows, sitemaps, and wayfinding. This course includes two projects: the first one is about content audit and chunking; the second one is related to tree testing by using Optimal Workshop, card sorting, labels, tags and taxonomies. There are two final presentations that can become part of your UX design portfolio.

See a sample of former student Gary Tran who works for UC Berkeley Extension applying his UX design skills.

Course Outline

Expand or collapse section

Course Objectives

UC Berkeley Extension designs the best possible online learning experience for you to prepare you for the skills and a quality portfolio to become a confident design professional.

  • Understand IA and content strategy define an online organization
  • Describe each planning phase of content strategy
  • Apply key UX concepts to real-world situations
  • Learn different verticals, products, brands, audiences and channels
  • Evaluate IA and content quality and discoverability through user research
  • Integrate SEO and accessibility initiatives to enhance content discoverability
  • Translate research findings into practical designs and content
  • Specify design and prototype optimized navigational systems, including labels, tags and taxonomies
  • Describe the role of a content management system (CMS), templates and microcopy in content strategy and identify related deliverables

What You Learn

You explore information architecture and content strategy—from research and development through governance. You then apply your high-level conceptual thinking to real-world practical designs in the organization of complex websites and UX projects. The final projects can become part of your UX design portfolio.

  • Planning phase of content strategy (CS)
  • Importance of IA for business, process, and stakeholders
  • User testing to understand user needs and behaviors
  • Best practices on design decisions
  • UX content strategy guiding concepts Introduction to content discovery, audits and analysis
  • Content inventory and interaction behaviors
  • Company user engagement
  • Voice and tone assessment
  • Content management systems (CMS)
  • Mental models and use cases
  • Synthesize user findings to create sitemap
  • SEO and accessibility
  • Audience engagement
  • Card sorting
  • Labels, tags and taxonomies
  • Tree tests
  • Wayfinding

How You Learn

We are online! All of the design classes are conducted online including: video classes, mentor-led learning and peer-to-peer support through our student online platform, Canvas.

  • Lectures
  • Discussions
  • Online demonstrations
  • Independent user research
  • Design and content strategy exercises
  • Individual and group assignments
  • Quizzes (at instructor's discretion)

Is This Course Right for Me?

This course is ideal for professionals and aspiring UX designers who want to further their career opportunities at a current employer, find a new job or grow their own business. Our experienced instructors monitor your development along with peer-to-peer support on our student online platform.

After completing this course, you are ready to take User Interface (UI) Design.

Loading...

Sections

Section 025

Enrollment Closed Live Online

Course Fee(s)

Course Fee credit (2 units)

$1,225.00


Type Live Online

Access classroom-style interactive learning from anywhere in the world! Attend scheduled online sessions with your instructor and classmates in addition to completing your coursework.

Live Online format allows you to take classes from anywhere with an internet connection. Classroom sections will be taught in this format through Spring 2021. Learn more about this format.

Beginning August 15, 2020, you must have a Zoom account to participate.

Many schools are now accepting transfer credit for online coursework, including health and sciences programs. Check with your institution before enrolling.

Days

Th

Time

6:30PM to 9:30PM Pacific Time

Dates

Feb 18, 2021 to May 06, 2021

Schedule and Location

View Details

Instructional Hours

36.0

Delivery Options

Online

Available for Credit

2 semester units

Instructors

  • Rakesh Patwari
  • Lisanne Wirth

Section Notes

Course runs February 18 to May 06, 2021. 

Access classroom-style interactive learning from anywhere in the world! Attend scheduled online sessions with your instructor and classmates in addition to completing your coursework.

Live Online format allows you to take classes from anywhere with an internet connection. Classroom sections will be taught in this format through Fall 2020. Learn more about this format.

Equipment

The following minimum recommendation for UX Design:

  • Apple MacBook or PC

    • 8 to16GB RAM

Art Supplies

  • Pen, pencil, sketchbook, fine point Sharpie®
  • 100 5”x 3” index cards, white

Section Materials

  • (Mandatory) Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, and Jose Arango O’Reilly Media 4th edition ISBN 978-1491911686 O’Reilly Media
  • (Mandatory) Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach New Riders 2nd edition ISBN 078-5342808308 New Riders

Section 024

Mar 01, 2021 to May 31, 2021 Online

Course Fee(s)

Course Fee credit (2 units)

$1,225.00


Type Online, Fixed Date

Enroll in this course by its start date and complete it by its specified end date. There are no live sessions, but plenty of opportunities to collaborate with your classmates and instructor.

Dates

Mar 01, 2021 to May 31, 2021

Delivery Options

Online

Available for Credit

2 semester units

Instructors

  • Rakesh Patwari
  • Lisanne Wirth

Section Notes

Course runs March 01 to May 31, 2021. 

Enroll in this course by its start date and complete it by its specified end date. There are no live sessions, but plenty of opportunities to collaborate with your classmates and instructors.

Equipment

The following minimum recommendation for UX Design:

  • Apple MacBook or PC

    • 8 to16GB RAM

Art Supplies

  • Pen, pencil, sketchbook, fine point Sharpie®
  • 100 5”x 3” index cards, white

Section Materials

  • (Mandatory) Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, and Jose Arango O’Reilly Media 4th edition ISBN 978-1491911686 O’Reilly Media
  • (Mandatory) Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach New Riders 2nd edition ISBN 078-5342808308 New Riders

Section 027

Jun 03, 2021 to Aug 19, 2021 Live Online

Course Fee(s)

Course Fee credit (2 units)

$1,225.00


Type Live Online

Access classroom-style interactive learning from anywhere in the world! Attend scheduled online sessions with your instructor and classmates in addition to completing your coursework.

Live Online format allows you to take classes from anywhere with an internet connection. Classroom sections will be taught in this format through Spring 2021. Learn more about this format.

Beginning August 15, 2020, you must have a Zoom account to participate.

Many schools are now accepting transfer credit for online coursework, including health and sciences programs. Check with your institution before enrolling.

Days

Th

Time

6:30PM to 9:30PM Pacific Time

Dates

Jun 03, 2021 to Aug 19, 2021

Schedule and Location

View Details

Instructional Hours

36.0

Delivery Options

Online

Available for Credit

2 semester units

Instructors

  • Rakesh Patwari
  • Lisanne Wirth

Section Notes

The course runs June 3 to August 19, 2021.

Type Live Online

Access classroom-style interactive learning from anywhere in the world! Attend scheduled online sessions with your instructor and classmates in addition to completing your coursework.

Live Online format allows you to take classes from anywhere with an internet connection. Classroom sections will be taught in this format through Spring 2021. Learn more about this format. You must have a Zoom account to participate.

Equipment

The following minimum recommendation for UX Design:

  • Apple MacBook or PC

    • 8 to16GB RAM

Art Supplies

  • Pen, pencil, sketchbook, fine point Sharpie®
  • 100 5”x 3” index cards, white

Section Materials

  • (Mandatory) Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, and Jose Arango O’Reilly Media 4th edition ISBN 978-1491911686 O’Reilly Media
  • (Mandatory) Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach New Riders 2nd edition ISBN 078-5342808308 New Riders

Section 026

Jun 08, 2021 to Sep 07, 2021 Online

Course Fee(s)

Course Fee credit (2 units)

$1,225.00


Type Online, Fixed Date

Enroll in this course by its start date and complete it by its specified end date. There are no live sessions, but plenty of opportunities to collaborate with your classmates and instructor.

Dates

Jun 08, 2021 to Sep 07, 2021

Delivery Options

Online

Available for Credit

2 semester units

Instructors

  • Rakesh Patwari
  • Lisanne Wirth

Section Notes

Course runs June 08 to Sept 07, 2021.

Type Online, Fixed Date

Enroll in this course by its start date and complete it by its specified end date. There are no live sessions, but plenty of opportunities to collaborate with your classmates and instructor.

Equipment

The following minimum recommendation for UX Design:

  • Apple MacBook or PC

    • 8 to16GB RAM

Art Supplies

  • Pen, pencil, sketchbook, fine point Sharpie®
  • 100 5”x 3” index cards, white

Section Materials

  • (Mandatory) Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, and Jose Arango O’Reilly Media 4th edition ISBN 978-1491911686 O’Reilly Media
  • (Mandatory) Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach New Riders 2nd edition ISBN 078-5342808308 New Riders

This course applies to the following programs:

Professional Program in Graphic Design

Expand or collapse section

Required Courses

  • Visual Design Principles
  • Illustrator I
  • InDesign
  • Typography Fundamentals
  • Photoshop I
  • Web Design With HTML5 and CSS3
  • Graphic and Web Design Portfolio

Courses for Further Advancement

  • Animation Design and Video Production
  • Diagramming and Prototyping for UX
  • Illustrating Children's Books
  • Essentials of User Experience (UX) Design
  • User-Interface (UI) Design
  • Branding
  • Expressive and Experimental Typography
  • Information Architecture (IA) and Content Strategy

Learn More About this Program

Professional Program in User Experience (UX) Design

Expand or collapse section

Required Courses

  • Essentials of User Experience (UX) Design
  • Diagramming and Prototyping for UX
  • Visual Design Principles
  • User Research for UX
  • Information Architecture (IA) and Content Strategy
  • User-Interface (UI) Design

Electives

  • UX Design Portfolio
  • Qualitative Research: Design, Implementation and Methods
  • Quantitative UX Metrics and Research
  • Human-Centered Design for Data Visualization
  • Design Thinking and UX Strategy
  • Accessibility in UX Design
  • Service Design
  • Web Design With HTML5 and CSS3
  • Typography Fundamentals
  • Illustrator I
  • Photoshop I
  • InDesign
  • Branding

Learn More About this Program

Notes

Departmental contact: extension-uxdesign@berkeley.edu | (510) 643-8916

Prerequisites

While this entry-level course is suitable for people from any discipline, you must have a working knowledge of at least one of more design tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Axure or Sketch.

UC Berkeley Extension UC Berkeley Extension Footer Logo

1995 University Ave., Suite 200

Berkeley, CA 94704-7000

extension@berkeley.edu

  • About Us
  • Administration
  • Contact Us
  • Gifts
  • Jobs

Copyright © UC Regents

Powered by Destiny One
Facebook Facebook Icon Twitter Twitter Icon LinkedIn LinkedIn Icon YouTube YouTube Icon Instagram Instagram Icon

Join us on WeChat!

Image of UC Berkeley Extension's WeChat QR code

We use cookies to give you the best experience on our website. By clicking Accept, you consent to our cookie policy and privacy policy.

Session Time-Out

For security reasons and the protection of your personal information, your session will time out due to a period of inactivity in minute(s) and second(s). Click Extend My Session to continue. For security reasons and the protection of your personal information, your session timed out after a period of inactivity. You will be redirected to the home page.

Confirm

Alert

Course Fee

DESIGN X435.1 - 025 - Information Architecture (IA) and Content Strategy

Processing...

Online

Rakesh Patwari

Rakesh Patwari is a passionately curious digital product designer, who designs, enables design, and teaches design. Currently a Director of Product Design at Salesforce and an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley Ext, San Francisco.

For the past 19 years, he worked at start-ups, large enterprises, and consulting firms across industries that provide him an assortment of rich and diverse experiences to draw from. He is known for making complex, clear, and brings in a unique blend of practical industry perspective and design concepts into his classes. A mentor at startups, he has been invited as a speaker, as a panelist to talk about design, storytelling, leadership, and security and has been featured in podcasts.

Some of his former employers and clients include Juniper networks, Apple, Linkedin, Cognizant technologies, and Aerohive networks.

 

Lisanne Wirth

Lisanne Wirth launched her UX content consultancy, Contentment Communications, to fuel innovation with communication and technology. She implemented the first content management system for VerizonWireless.com, which transformed Verizon's online publishing processes. Her customized requirements for CMS implementations at Verizon enabled intelligent sharing of content chunks between B2C and B2B, without duplicating content. Her previous experience managing large-scale CMS projects in Drupal, Wordpress, and AEM incorporated both creative strategy, UX content, and change management. But it's her background as a writer and editor user of CMS that helps her identify hidden UX opportunities on the front and back end.

Course Fee

Rakesh Patwari

Rakesh Patwari is a passionately curious digital product designer, who designs, enables design, and teaches design. Currently a Director of Product Design at Salesforce and an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley Ext, San Francisco.

For the past 19 years, he worked at start-ups, large enterprises, and consulting firms across industries that provide him an assortment of rich and diverse experiences to draw from. He is known for making complex, clear, and brings in a unique blend of practical industry perspective and design concepts into his classes. A mentor at startups, he has been invited as a speaker, as a panelist to talk about design, storytelling, leadership, and security and has been featured in podcasts.

Some of his former employers and clients include Juniper networks, Apple, Linkedin, Cognizant technologies, and Aerohive networks.

 

Lisanne Wirth

Lisanne Wirth launched her UX content consultancy, Contentment Communications, to fuel innovation with communication and technology. She implemented the first content management system for VerizonWireless.com, which transformed Verizon's online publishing processes. Her customized requirements for CMS implementations at Verizon enabled intelligent sharing of content chunks between B2C and B2B, without duplicating content. Her previous experience managing large-scale CMS projects in Drupal, Wordpress, and AEM incorporated both creative strategy, UX content, and change management. But it's her background as a writer and editor user of CMS that helps her identify hidden UX opportunities on the front and back end.

Course Fee

DESIGN X435.1 - 027 - Information Architecture (IA) and Content Strategy

Processing...

Rakesh Patwari

Rakesh Patwari is a passionately curious digital product designer, who designs, enables design, and teaches design. Currently a Director of Product Design at Salesforce and an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley Ext, San Francisco.

For the past 19 years, he worked at start-ups, large enterprises, and consulting firms across industries that provide him an assortment of rich and diverse experiences to draw from. He is known for making complex, clear, and brings in a unique blend of practical industry perspective and design concepts into his classes. A mentor at startups, he has been invited as a speaker, as a panelist to talk about design, storytelling, leadership, and security and has been featured in podcasts.

Some of his former employers and clients include Juniper networks, Apple, Linkedin, Cognizant technologies, and Aerohive networks.

 

Lisanne Wirth

Lisanne Wirth launched her UX content consultancy, Contentment Communications, to fuel innovation with communication and technology. She implemented the first content management system for VerizonWireless.com, which transformed Verizon's online publishing processes. Her customized requirements for CMS implementations at Verizon enabled intelligent sharing of content chunks between B2C and B2B, without duplicating content. Her previous experience managing large-scale CMS projects in Drupal, Wordpress, and AEM incorporated both creative strategy, UX content, and change management. But it's her background as a writer and editor user of CMS that helps her identify hidden UX opportunities on the front and back end.

Course Fee

Rakesh Patwari

Rakesh Patwari is a passionately curious digital product designer, who designs, enables design, and teaches design. Currently a Director of Product Design at Salesforce and an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley Ext, San Francisco.

For the past 19 years, he worked at start-ups, large enterprises, and consulting firms across industries that provide him an assortment of rich and diverse experiences to draw from. He is known for making complex, clear, and brings in a unique blend of practical industry perspective and design concepts into his classes. A mentor at startups, he has been invited as a speaker, as a panelist to talk about design, storytelling, leadership, and security and has been featured in podcasts.

Some of his former employers and clients include Juniper networks, Apple, Linkedin, Cognizant technologies, and Aerohive networks.

 

Lisanne Wirth

Lisanne Wirth launched her UX content consultancy, Contentment Communications, to fuel innovation with communication and technology. She implemented the first content management system for VerizonWireless.com, which transformed Verizon's online publishing processes. Her customized requirements for CMS implementations at Verizon enabled intelligent sharing of content chunks between B2C and B2B, without duplicating content. Her previous experience managing large-scale CMS projects in Drupal, Wordpress, and AEM incorporated both creative strategy, UX content, and change management. But it's her background as a writer and editor user of CMS that helps her identify hidden UX opportunities on the front and back end.

Processing...

Privacy Policy

Cookie Policy

This statement explains how we use cookies on our website. For information about what types of personal information will be gathered when you visit the website, and how this information will be used, please see our privacy policy.

How we use cookies

All of our web pages use "cookies". A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we place on your computer or mobile device if you agree. These cookies allow us to distinguish you from other users of our website, which helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and enables us to improve our website.

Types of cookies we use

We use the following types of cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies- these are essential in to enable you to move around the websites and use their features. Without these cookies the services you have asked for, such as signing in to your account, cannot be provided.
  • Performance cookies- these cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often. We use this information to improve our websites and to aid us in investigating problems raised by visitors. These cookies do not collect information that identifies a visitor.
  • Functionality cookies- these cookies allow the website to remember choices you make and provide more personal features. For instance, a functional cookie can be used to remember the items that you have placed in your shopping cart. The information these cookies collect may be anonymized and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

Specific cookies we use

The list below identify the cookies we use and explain the purposes for which they are used. We may update the information contained in this section from time to time.

  • JSESSIONID: This cookie is used by the application server to identify a unique user's session.
  • registrarToken: This cookie is used to remember items that you have added to your shopping cart
  • locale: This cookie is used to remember your locale and language settings.
  • cookieconsent_status: This cookie is used to remember if you've already dismissed the cookie consent notice.
  • _ga_UA-########: These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the website. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the website, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. This anonymized visitor and browsing information is stored in Google Analytics.

Changes to our Cookie Statement

Any changes we may make to our Cookie Policy in the future will be posted on this page.