Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition

Presentations

You’ve done rigorous research and brilliant brainstorming. You’ve created a detailed, high-quality strategy report and a solid project plan. You’ve worked hard. You’ve successfully completed the strategy phase, right? Wrong!

We’ve learned through painful experience that information architecture deliverables can die a quiet death if they’re left to fend for themselves. People are busy, have short attention spans, and generally don’t enjoy reading 50-page information architecture strategy reports. Without some form of presentation and discussion, many of your best recommendations may never see the light of day.

It’s often a good idea to make one or more presentations to the people who need to understand your recommendations. In some situations, this might take the form of a single presentation to the web site or intranet strategy team. In other situations, you make dozens of presentations to various departments to achieve organization-wide understanding and buy-in. You need to think about these presentations from a sales perspective. Success is defined by the extent to which you can communicate and sell your ideas in a clear and compelling manner.

First, make sure you’ve got the basics down. Select some highlights of your recommendations that will really get the attention of the particular group you’re talking to. Then, organize your thoughts into a logical order to create a smooth presentation.

After you’ve figured all that out, you can consider ways to bring the presentation ...