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Web Design: Strategy and Information Architecture

Intermediate English University CertificateFREE
SkillsWeb designInformation architectureUX strategyUser researchSite planningContent structure

Is this course right for you?

Our take
Roman Jaster's CalArts course tackles the part of web design most people rush past: the planning that happens before anything gets laid out.

Good for: Planning websites well — strategy and information architecture.

Skip if: You want visual design, coding, or a quick layout tutorial.

It works through research, setting goals, understanding users and information architecture — the groundwork that decides whether a site actually makes sense to the people using it. That's its whole value and its boundary: it's for people who want to plan websites properly, and not the place to go for visual design, coding, or a quick layout tutorial.

Audit it free on Coursera; a certificate needs a subscription (about $49/month) or Coursera Plus, with financial aid available, and evidences the work done rather than a qualification. Good information architecture is a lasting skill (as of 2026).

Comparison · LBS

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About this course

Web Design: Strategy and Information Architecture covers the early, often-skipped part of web design: the planning. From CalArts and instructor Roman Jaster, it works through research, setting goals, understanding users, structuring content, and developing a site's information architecture — completing the first half of a large website project by defining its strategy and scope.

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Instructor

RJ
Roman Jaster
Coursera instructor

Roman Jaster teaches in the design program at CalArts. The course reflects a design-school approach to the strategy and structure that underpin good websites, rather than front-end coding.

Frequently asked questions

Neither, really — it focuses on the planning layer of web design: information architecture, how content is organised and structured, sitemaps, and the strategy behind a site before you style or build it. It is part of CalArts' UI/UX specialization and complements the visual and prototyping courses rather than repeating them. If you want to code or learn visual polish, that is elsewhere; this is about structure and strategy.

Aspiring and practising designers who want to understand how to plan a site's structure and content, plus anyone in product or content roles who shapes how information is organised. It assumes no coding and sits within the broader CalArts UI/UX path, so it suits people building a rounded design foundation rather than those seeking a purely visual or technical skill.

Yes, it assumes no prior experience and teaches the concepts from the ground up, but like CalArts' other design courses it carries genuine art-school rigour — expect real thinking and project work rather than a light skim. Beginners who engage seriously do well; those wanting the most structured, hand-holding path might prefer a program like Google's UX certificate first or alongside.

It is one course in CalArts' four-part UI/UX Design specialization, sitting alongside the visual-elements, UX-fundamentals, and wireframes-to-prototypes courses. You can take it standalone for the information-architecture and strategy grounding, but it is designed as part of that sequence, so if you enjoy it there is a clear path through the rest of the specialization.

Yes, you can audit it on Coursera and watch the lectures at no cost. The graded assignments, peer feedback, and the certificate need a subscription, with financial aid available. Because much of the value is in doing the structuring exercises and getting critique, auditing gives you the teaching but misses the practice loop where the skills genuinely develop.
Free
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