Content Strategy and Information Architecture

This unit teaches students how to inventory existing assets and constraints, develop a content strategy, and translate that strategy into a structured information architecture. Students will produce content models, maps, and IA artifacts that link user needs and business goals and prepare projects for prototyping and testing in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze existing content, technical constraints, stakeholder requirements, and analytics to produce a prioritized content inventory and gap analysis
• Apply content strategy principles to develop measurable content goals, audience-driven messaging, tone guidelines, and a content lifecycle plan
• Design content models and content maps that specify content types, metadata, templates, and relationships to support scalable content production
• Evaluate and construct information architecture artifacts (site maps, navigation schemes, and IA diagrams) and justify IA decisions using usability principles and user task flows