Track(s):
Content Strategy, Site Building
Audience:
All

A web site, especially a Drupal web site, isn't just a collection of independent web pages with blobs of text; it's a meaningful presentation of structured information. Ideally, for content editors, it also follows the principle of "Enter once, display many times". For example, enter each staff member & their details just once, but display that information on a staff directory page, on each staff member's individual details page, on an emergency contacts page organized by responsibility, etc.

Information Architecture is about organizing and presenting information on your website to convey the desired meaning(s) to your visitors. And just like with a building's architecture, before deciding each room's shape and where to put it in the building, you first need to know what kind of rooms the building needs. Classrooms? Offices? Bathrooms? In the case of a website, you need to know what kind of information needs to be conveyed before any decisions about where and how to display it on the site. Staff information? Course information? Location information?

Information Modelling is a way to plan not just what kind of general information your site needs (e.g., staff information), but what particular details should be included (e.g., Name, title, email), as well as if and how different pieces of information relate to each other.

Data Modelling takes the information model and specifies how to implement it: so for Drupal, which Drupal modules, entities, content types, fields, etc., to use to enter & store content in the site, which in turn will be used to display the information to your visitors.

This session will demonstrate the process of information modelling and data modelling for a sample site being built with Drupal, with primary focus on information modelling, which requires no prior Drupal (or even general web) knowledge.