Amber Swope

Governance is an essential part of long-term success that is frequently misunderstood and too often under-valued and under-resourced. Governance requires engagement, commitment, investment, and active participation. Many people think of governance of a necessary evil—but effective governance demystifies how to successfully do your job.

There is no single definition of the Information Architect role. In fact, every working Information Architect has a unique job description, list of responsibilities, and set of skills. Regardless of how amorphous this role is, most Information Architects agree on one thing—this job is all about structuring and maintaining information so that it is findable and useable.

Over the years, I’ve helped dozens of organizations hire Information Architects. Here is my go-to job description.

Taking the time to create a content model (even one that isn’t perfect) can save you and your team significant time and effort in the proposal and implementation phases. With the right strategies, you can leverage work you did earlier in the IA development process—such as analyzing deliverables and content--to quickly assemble a content model that accurately and effectively communicates your design to team members and stakeholders.

In the July 15th episode of Coffee and Content, Patrick Bosek and special guest Amber Swope of DITA Strategies talk about developing information architecture in an Agile environment.

Agile methodology is very popular in technology organizations because it provides a blueprint for organizing teamwork. However, developing information architecture (IA) in Agile can be difficult. This article provides methods for Information Architects to plan their work using stories and leveraging product backlogs. Our strategy is to create an IA Sprint Plan that is realistic, manageable, and adaptive.

In episode 88 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Alan Pringle and special guest Amber Swope of DITA Strategies talk about information architecture.

In an increasingly digitized world, users flood content stores with billions and billions of bits of information. Finding the right result can be like finding a needle in an acre-sized haystack. The solution is taxonomy. In order for information to be easily found, navigation menus need to make sense and your search engine needs to provide the right results. Taxonomy not only provides the backbone for digital navigation, but also powers successful filtering. But how do you use taxonomy? How… Show more

In an increasingly digitized world, users flood content stores with billions and billions of bits of information. Finding the right result can be like finding a needle in an acre-sized haystack. The solution is taxonomy. In order for information to be easily found, navigation menus need to make sense and your search engine needs to provide the right results. Taxonomy not only provides the backbone for digital navigation, but also powers successful filtering. But how do you use taxonomy? How might you recognize existing taxonomies at your company? And what can you do to optimize your taxonomies? Show less

Content strategy and information architecture are two different disciplines that work together to create customer success. Information architect Amber Swope and Content Strategist Chris Hibbard share some methodologies and processes, best practices, and insights on how content strategy and information architecture work together to help make client projects succeed.

Moving to a new source format, such as DITA, is a major project and one to not be undertaken lightly. When companies that are fiscally constrained approach a move to XML, their teams should understand when to utilize expert assistance.

Interested in learning more about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, commonly known as DITA? This article provides a thorough introduction to DITA that includes an overview of what it is, who uses it, and why.

As part of the Stilo DITA Knowledge Series, Amber Swope discusses using content collections to share content across the enterprise. Learn how to identify the requirements for the collection, determine the collection scope, and collaborate with other stakeholders to build and manage the collection.

There are many resources out there for learning about information architecture (IA) and the role of Information Architect. Here is a list of resources Amber has found helpful and informative for learning more about this role.

Are you being asked to deliver your learning content in new ways, such as microlearning? Do your users want to have personalized training? Do you need to support multiple learning platforms? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then structuring your learning content in XML may be the right strategy for you. By creating your content in a neutral XML source and then transforming it for each delivery platform, you can simplify your content maintenance and still leverage the delivery… Show more

Are you being asked to deliver your learning content in new ways, such as microlearning? Do your users want to have personalized training? Do you need to support multiple learning platforms? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then structuring your learning content in XML may be the right strategy for you. By creating your content in a neutral XML source and then transforming it for each delivery platform, you can simplify your content maintenance and still leverage the delivery features that users enjoy in each platform.

Join us to learn how companies are using Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) as the single source to power their learning content, including leveraging learning objectives to drive personalized learning. Dawn Stevens, President of Comtech Services, and Amber Swope, President of DITA Strategies, are co-chairs of the Learning & Training OASIS subcommittee and will explain how DITA can provide the structured foundation for your learning initiatives. Show less

DCL's Training Content Trends Survey revealed one of the major challenges to developing and delivering training content today is, "How do I keep my training content up to date?" This webinar discuss the issues that are driving that result and provides some strategies to make it easier to keep content current.

Are you translating DITA content? If so, are you getting the expected results? Learn about how to optimize your DITA content model to get the best results from the translation process.

There are many resources out there for learning about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). Amber has compiled this list of the resources that she's found most helpful and informative for teams undertaking or considering a DITA implementation.

Our podcast series begins with an introduction to DITA Strategies president and DITA specialist, Amber Swope. Amber explains DITA, information architecture, and how DITA Strategies can help you.

Your company’s teams may produce similar or identical content, but do they share that content? The promise of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is that reusing XML content avoids redundant work and improves content consistency. This article covers the four key considerations of content sharing.

The information landscape has changed drastically in the past decade, and learners’ expectations of how they interact with content have changed along with it. Printed books, e-books, dynamic learning portals, content via mobile app, and interactivity – modern learners want it all. At DITA Strategies, we believe, these changes mean educational publishers must convert their content to a neutral, XML source that supports multi-channel content delivery – and that the Darwin Information Typing… Show more

The information landscape has changed drastically in the past decade, and learners’ expectations of how they interact with content have changed along with it. Printed books, e-books, dynamic learning portals, content via mobile app, and interactivity – modern learners want it all. At DITA Strategies, we believe, these changes mean educational publishers must convert their content to a neutral, XML source that supports multi-channel content delivery – and that the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is the recommended architecture. Watch this webinar to learn how DITA supports learning and training content. Show less