Responsive. Adaptive. Mobile first. Cross-channel. We all want a web that’s more flexible, future-friendly, and ready for unknowns. There’s only one little flaw: our content is stuck in the past. Locked into inflexible pages and documents, our content is far from ready for today’s world of apps, APIs, read-later services, and responsive sites—much less for the coming one, where the web is embedded in everything from autos to appliances.
We can’t keep creating more content for each of these new devices and channels. We’d go nuts trying to manage and maintain all of it. Instead, we need content that does more for us: Content that can travel and shift while keeping its meaning and message intact. Content that’s trim, focused, and clear—for mobile users and for everyone else, too. Content that matters, wherever it’s being consumed.
1. web directions south 2012
GETTING
UNSTUCK
content strategy
for the future
Sara Wachter-Boettcher
www.flickr.com/photos/spanner/1591803996/ @sara_ann_marie
2. ‘‘
Every client, in my experience, has a
content problem.
Mark Boulton, just before lunch
4. ‘‘
In traditional media, canvas dimensions are
a known constraint. With digital, however,
the canvas is an unknown...
We need to build on what we do know:
content.
Chris Armstrong, “The Infinite Grid”
7. ‘‘
✦ Defines how you’re going to use content
to meet your business (or project) goals
and satisfy your users’ needs
✦ Guides decisions about content
throughout its lifecycle, from discovery
to deletion
✦ Sets benchmarks against which to
measure the success of your content
Kristina Halvorson & Melissa Rach
17. ‘‘
The Microsoft.com team built tools,
guidelines, and processes to help localize
everything from responsive images to
responsive content into approximately
100 different markets... They adapted
their CMS to allow Content Strategists to
program content on the site.
Nishant Kothary,
“The Story of the New Microsoft.com”
41. Some of you have
probably been
making data
models forever.
From Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL
by Hugh E. Williams and David Lane (O’Reilly, 2003)
42. But it’s easy to forget that data is
also content.
what?
huh?
no
idea!
62. If [content type] is in [situation], then
[do this with] the [content elements].
63. If [a recipe] is in [the app], then [include]
the [ratings before the ingredients].
64. AD
RECIPE NAME
Publication | Date
AD Attribution
Yield/Servings
Teaser/short
overview of this
RECIPE NAME recipe and why
Publication | Date it's delicious.
Attribution AD Ratings Reviews
Yield/Servings
Ratings
Teaser/short overview of Cuisine Diet Type
Reviews
this recipe and why it's
delicious. Ingredients
• Lorem ipsum dolor sit
Ingredients • Amet consectateur
nonummy
• Lorem ipsum dolor sit Cuisine • Interdum volgus videt,
est
• Amet consectateur nonummy • Si veteres ita miratur
• Interdum volgus videt, est laudatque
• Si veteres ita miratur laudatque • Ut nihil anteferat
AD • Nihil illis comparet, errat.
• Ut nihil anteferat
• Nihil illis comparet, errat.
Diet Type AD
Preparation Preparation
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectateur nonummy Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
consectateur nonummy
lorenzino. Interdum volgus videt, est ubi peccat. lorenzino. Interdum volgus
videt, est ubi peccat.
Si veteres ita miratur laudatque poetas. Ut nihil anteferat,
Si veteres ita miratur
nihil illis comparet, errat. Si quaedam nimis antique laudatque poetas. Ut nihil
anteferat, nihil illis
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectateur nonummy comparet, errat. Si
lorenzino. Interdum volgus videt, est ubi peccat. quaedam nimis antique
Si veteres ita miratur
Si veteres ita miratur laudatque poetas. Ut nihil anteferat, laudatque poetas. Ut nihil
nihil illis comparet, errat. Si quaedam nimis antique anteferat, nihil illis
comparet, errat. Si
quaedam nimis antique
89. the underpants
problem
www.flickr.com/photos/red_devil/4728500604
90. ‘‘
Customers don't know—and don't care to
know—how government is organized. So
why make them go from agency [website]
to agency [website] to get the full picture of
what gov't has to offer on any subject?
Participant, National Dialogue on
Improving Government Websites
91. A BETTER WAY
Transcend silos with cross-
department teams focused on
tackling a single issue. Empower
them to spread new ideas.
128. THANK YOU,
SYDNEY!
sarawb.com // @sara_ann_marie
Content Everywhere is coming in November!
http://rfld.me/content-everywhere
Flickr images used via CC-Attribution license unless otherwise noted.
Illustrations used with the permission of Eva-Lotta Lamm.