Information architecture (IA) remains one of those areas that, as writers, we often feel we don't know enough about. And while there are a lot of resources out there about IA broadly, most knowledge base tools encourage you to "follow IA best practices" without really digging into what those best practices are or how you might apply them.
We want to change that. Through our partnership with Kate Mueller of knowledge with sass, we're launching a new Information Architecture Master Class to directly apply Information Architecture best practices and tools to knowledge bases, help centers, and other support documentation.
With a small, personable cohort size, join a helpful and caring community of your writing peers to learn more about IA and improve your knowledge bases's IA.
This four-session course begins on September 16, 2025.
We're intentionally keeping this cohort small--we're accepting only 30 participants--to ensure you get direct access, personalized feedback, and the opportunity to build meaningful connections with other writers and knowledge base managers.
Course summary
Here's a rough summary of what we plan to cover in the class:
Session 1: Cohort introductions & Introduction to IA
In this session, we'll get to know each other and begin digging into the factors that should inform your knowledge base's IA:
- What is Information Architecture? Why should I care about it?
- Explore the key factors that influence your IA: Stakeholders, audience(s), purpose, and terminology
Session 2: Goal-setting and deciding what IA work we need to do
In this session, we'll explore ways to identify your most pressing IA goals, defining what success looks like for your knowledge base, and brainstorm metrics or measures you can use in your efforts:
- What qualifies as "good" IA or "good" documentation in your org? What does success look like?
- Metrics or measures you can use along the way to scope your efforts, measure success, or test theories
Session 3: Content hierarchy
In this session, we'll dig into what most people think of when they think of IA: content organization and hierarchy:
- Useful theories, metaphors, and concepts that can inform your IA
- Sample strawman IA formats you can test in your knowledge base
- Tools and techniques for testing and validating your content hierarchy
Session 4: Beyond the hierarchy
In this session, we'll explore elements of IA that are often overlooked and wrap up the course:
- Taxonomies and metadata
- Applying information scent to elements of your knowledge base
- Wrap-up
Meet your owl instructors
Kate Mueller is the host of The Not-Boring Tech Writer podcast; founder of knowledge with sass; and the Documentation Goddess of KnowledgeOwl, a seasoned technical writer who’s written and maintained documentation for companies in broadcasting, financial services, IT, and software for 15+ years.
Marybeth Alexander is the CEO and founder of KnowledgeOwl, helping people create and manage their knowledge base websites for over a decade.
Combined, these two pack a powerful punch of experience and problem-solving abilities with KnowledgeOwl’s characteristic helpfulness. Join us and bring your trickiest or most frustrating information architecture-related problems to a cohort of like-minded peers.
What you can expect
Each class will be a mixture of lecture, discussion, individual exercises, and/or small group activities to apply and discuss the concepts.
Most classes include homework to prepare for the next session. Homework might include:
- Reading blog posts or articles
- Watching conference talks or short explanatory videos
- Completing self-evaluations or other exercises to share/discuss the following week
We won't put you on the spot to share exercise results with the entire class, but you'll get a lot more out of the class if you do complete the exercises and bring your reflections and questions on them to the following class!
Join a parliament of owls
You’re encouraged to share things you’re working on or have questions about to get personal feedback from your instructors and fellow cohort owls.
We offer this opportunity to build friendships and community within your course cohort. Writing documentation can be isolating, but it doesn’t have to be. Join our cohort and put the owl back in knowledge management.
Sign-up details
We’re offering a tiered set of prices depending on when you sign up:
- Sign up before July 30th for our full early bird discount: $1,000/attendee with coupon code EARLY-BIRD
- Sign up before September 1st for a robin’s rush hour rebate: $1,250/attendee with coupon code ROBINS-RUSH-HOUR
- Night owls who sign up between September 2 - 15 pay full price: $1,500/attendee
* We do have a minimum number of sign-ups required in order to run the class. If we don't hit that minimum, we'll let you know and issue you a full refund for your payment.
Ready to fly?
Sign up here: https://knowledgeowl.onfastspring.com/owlcademy
Session details
All sessions will run from 11:30am - 2:00pm U.S. Eastern time zone on a virtual platform.
We'll record the main group session and share those recordings after the class.
Here's the live class schedule:
- Session 1: September 16, 2025
- Session 2: September 23, 2025
- Session 3: September 30, 2025
- Session 4: October 7, 2025
Other questions you may have about the class
What platform do you use?
Previous classes have been held on Google Meet with a dedicated Slack channel. We're currently evaluating other platform options for both the class sessions and to facilitate community discussion. We'll update this page once we finalize our platform of choice.
Who should attend?
Anyone who has to organize or create content in a knowledge base, help center, or documentation site who wants a deeper understanding of Information Architecture theories, concepts, and best practices. You'll leave this class with actionable strategies and a deeper understanding of the tools and elements you should focus on in improving your site's information architecture.
Do I need to be an experienced writer to attend?
Nope. We design this course for all skill levels.
We have seasoned writers and owls who've never published an article, plus people with no official mention of documentation or writing in their job titles who, nonetheless, write some documentation. 😉
Do I need to be a KnowledgeOwl user to attend?
Nope. We'll reference some things within KnowledgeOwl as examples of the concepts being discussed, but we've designed this Master Class to be tool-agnostic.
What if I can't make a session?
We'll be recording each session and we'll share those recordings with you so you don't miss a thing. The full session recordings are shared only with other participants.
