Up next @rlovinger @karenmcgrane on content strategy.
Content strategist lead at Razorfish @rlovinger and designer on NYT.com @karenmcgrane
Starting with a crazy long narrative about medieval feudal systems.
I think where this is going is roles of design, IA and content. I hope.
Too much work put into framework, templates, not enough in actual content.
Content treated as easiest part of the process, "do it later"
Hope that content that goes into page will fit in boxes and is interesting to users.
Text not the only part of content strategy. Images, audio, video.
Also: data viz, comments, error msgs, messaging, the REASON ppl go to your site.
Content is data + metadata
Unnecessary analogy about moving old stuff to a new house ? migrating old content to new site.
Content mgmt systems let people easily ignore what's on the site.
Product stategy first, then work to design/content/tech strategy. Most are missing content to keep site useful.
Focusing on content analysis today.
Key: is existing content meeting your business needs?
Content inventory the first step.
Content inventory should be living doc throughout project.
Find lost/hidden content.
Scary spreadsheet for content inventory: Excel can handle it :)
[had to do one of these in my last job. What a nightmare ?AS]
Critical step is evaluating type and quality of content.
Inventory helps decide about migration, pathfinding for users.
Different types of content will impact the design of the CMS: PDFs, reviews, blogs, etc
Next: how to assess quality
Up to date, relevant, fresh, tone/style, meeting business needs are all factors in Q.
No single set of rules or definition around quality content. Depends on business.
"coming soon" not really cool anymore on the web. Keep it up to date.
Johnson & Johnson blogs often, but the content is mostly irrelevant to brand.
Appropriate tone/style: Motrin moms.
Meeting business needs: Skittle twitter fiasco.
Skittles solution: blocking users with age check interstitial. Cutting out kids from a candy site?
Ongoing governance of certain pages can be decided with a content strat. Also: define/refine editorial/message strategies to create biz value.
Question time.
User gen content: don't force tone/style on users. Feature their content, reward them, expect the unexpected.
Ethnographic research on content needs a lot more attention.
Hey it's 4:20.
User interviews prior to project can heavily inform content needs.
Wrapping up. Thx!
adamschwabe
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