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Reduce, Reuse, Restructure CHess
- 1. The In-house Content Strategist’s Guide to Christopher Hess @crhess
- 2. Your content's structure is what either limits or extends your ability to repurpose that content and make rules about where and when it should appear. -Sara Wachter-Boettcher
- 4. Fugazi ~ The Argument oReuse instead of proliferation and duplication oFlexibility of presentation and style oCross-platform and cross-channel usability oBetter experiences
- 6. OMG NOW WUT
- 7. o Strategy (migration / new, metadata, reuse…) o Modeling and the model o What to do with it o Growing your team o Doing the thing!
- 8. o In-house Content Strategist o Recovering writer-editor type o Brought structured content (and Content Strategy) home from here Christopher Hess @crhess
- 10. What your business needs it to be What your CMS and APIs require it to be What your taxonomy says it should be What your users want it to be
- 11. What your business needs it to be What your CMS and APIs require it to be What your taxonomy says it should be What your users want it to be
- 12. What your business needs it to be What your CMS and APIs require it to be What your taxonomy says it should be What your users want it to be
- 13. What your business needs it to be What your CMS and APIs require it to be What your taxonomy says it should be What your users want it to be
- 14. STRUCTUREDCONTENT is: Clearly defined and focused topics Separated from any single presentation Modular, reusable, recombinable
- 17. The need for structure follows the rise of reuse. ~Cleve Gibbon
- 18. o Integration of content sets o Standards! o Change in delivery platform o [Your business needs here]
- 19. Now You know enough. Take the first step and then the next steps.
- 20. Modeling
- 21. Find your patterns Define your types Establish their relationships Share it all
- 22. Find your patterns Define your types Establish their relationships Share it all
- 24. GTW connects to KB Cannot contain any linksCan link to anything DETAILS TOPICS PI: LEARNING ABOUT PI: AFTER VISIT PI: PRE- & POST- Go to Web MAJOR MINI SPECIAL MED TEST FOCUS CONDITION CENTER SURG DETAIL DRUG DETAIL TEST DETAIL OTHER TX DETAIL iTOOL WRAPPER POP-UPS MMDOC DEFINITION DECISION POINT REF QUICK TIPS PERSONAL STORY FRAMES PDF/FORM CSPs L2E VIDEO SYMPTOM SYMPTOM Topic disposition note
- 29. Educational/Informational Task instructions Actionable Stories Videos Images Messages Option comparison &c.
- 30. Find your patterns Establish their relationships Share it all
- 31. HealthwiseTopicTypes Topic Type Description InfoConcept Informational, Educational; Available in 3 sizes Task Instructional, How-to Action Actionable, non-sequential When to Call When to call 911 or your doctor Story Personal stories Media Images with titles, captions, alt-text Video Videos with titles and captions Definition Healthwise definitions Library topic DITA reuse mechanism Slideshow Healthwise slideshows Message For user contact in campaigns In Development: Decision, Option, Quiz
- 32. Topic types—Overview 1. Infoconcept Example and guide Provides information about one specific aspect of a subject area, such as what it is, how it’s diagnosed, treatment options, etc. Comes in three sizes: main point, summary, and full detail. May not need all three sizes because sometimes info can’t be boiled down to a main point or summary, and sometimes there’s not enough info to warrant a full detail. Consult with your editor as needed. Title (for all infoconcept sizes) Usually a standard question (see the standardized titles section for the list of standard titles). Examples: What is angina? How is heart failure diagnosed? Why is an MRI used?
- 35. Provides information about one specific aspect of a subject area, such as what it is, how it’s diagnosed, treatment options, etc. Comes in three sizes: main point, summary, and full detail. May not need all three sizes because sometimes info can’t be boiled down to a main point or summary, and sometimes there’s not enough info to warrant a full detail.
- 36. How-to info—steps that need to be done in a specific (i.e., numbered) order. • Each step should be its own bullet. Supporting info for a step goes into separate tags. • Length: No length limits, but the step names (commands) should be short, and the supporting info should be between 1 and 3 sentences.
- 37. Actionable content. Tips-type info that you want to keep together as one list. Note: Action topics may be accompanied by main point and summary infoconcepts (no full detail). Each tip should be its own bullet. Supporting info goes into separate tags. Length: No limit, keep the tip itself short and try to limit the supporting info to 1 to 3 sentences.
- 38. A triaged list of symptoms. Covers call 911, call now, and call your doctor.
- 39. Personal stories include image, teaser, pull quote.
- 40. Find your patterns Define your types Share it all
- 41. HealthwiseTopicTypes Topic Type Description Infoconcept Informational, Educational; Available in 3 sizes Task Instructional, How-to Action Actionable, non-sequential When to Call When to call 911 or your doctor Story Personal stories Media Images with titles, captions, alt-text Video Videos with titles and captions Definition Healthwise definitions Library topic DITA reuse mechanism Slideshow Healthwise slideshows Message For user contact in campaigns In Development: Decision, Option, Quiz
- 43. CONREF CONREF Type: InfoconceptSU All Content Reference Type:When to Call All Content Reference
- 44. Type: Stem Topic Aspect: afterVisit Concept: Pinkeye Type: InfoconceptSU Aspect: careInstructions Concept: Pinkeye Type: InfoconceptSU Aspect: selfCare Concept: Pinkeye Type: WTC Aspect: WhenToCall Concept: Pinkeye PI MAP Metadata Aspect/Concept: HWID: ?? Type: Stem Topic Aspect: afterVisit Concept: Pinkeye Type: InfoconceptSU Aspect: careInstructions Concept: Pinkeye Type: InfoconceptSU Aspect: selfCare Concept: Pinkeye Type: WTC Aspect: WhenToCall Concept: Pinkeye Footer? Logo? GtW? T o p i c r e f s Library Topic Self-care treatment info • Item • Item • &c. Library Topic When to Call info • Item • Item • &c. C O N R E F
- 45. Pre-Op / Pre-Procedure PI {Surgery name}: Before Your Surgery What happens before surgery? What happens on the day of surgery? What is {a/an surgery name}? Boilerplate: follow-up Going home When should you call your doctor?
- 46. Topic type: Infoconcept Concept: Aspect: Notes: Boilerplate language conreffed here? What about title? Topic type: Infoconcept SU or FD? (Or Care Instructions?) Concept: [procedure—subject of the PI] Aspect: Overview Notes: Boilerplate conreffed here conditionally? Map Title? Stem topic? Topic type: Infoconcept SU Concept: [procedure—subject of the PI] Aspect: How to Prepare Notes: [Eventually conreffed from library topic of self-care] Topic type: When to Call Concept: procedure—subject of the PI Aspect: When to Call Notes: Conreffed from library topic; reusable elsewhere {Surgery name}: Before Your Surgery What happens before surgery? What happens on the day of surgery? What is {a/an surgery name}? Boilerplate: follow-up Going home When should you call your doctor? Topic type: Infoconcept SU Concept: [procedure—subject of the PI] Aspect: How done Notes: Topic type: Infoconcept SU Concept: [procedure—subject of the PI] Aspect: aftercare Notes: Pre-Op / Pre-Procedure PI
- 47. Find your patterns Define your types Establish their relationships
- 49. Provides information about one specific aspect of a subject area, such as what it is, how it’s diagnosed, treatment options, etc. Comes in three sizes: main point, summary, and full detail. May not need all three sizes because sometimes info can’t be boiled down to a main point or summary, and sometimes there’s not enough info to warrant a full detail.
- 52. Editorial
- 53. o Team o Tools o Process o FLEXIBILITY
- 54. o Modular and scalable, too o Atomic design + SC = !!!!!!!
- 56. Possibilities AND constraints They get influence, too
- 57. YOUR TEAM o New demands, same people o Help build skills while acknowledging strengths and legacy
- 61. Make it happen Make it matter Make it manageable
- 62. So WHY do this, again?
Notes de l'éditeur
- Good morning, thanks for coming. I’m Chris, and we’re here to talk about structured content. There’s a lot of ground to cover in the next hour, but I’d like to start with why we’re talking about this in the first place. And I’ll let someone smarter than me answer that question.
- Sara WB author of Content Everywhere and editor over at ALA says this about why. Because the structure of your content determines whether and how effectively you can reuse, repurpose, get the most value out of that content. It determines whether and how well you can make it go where you want it to go, and be ready to adapt to changes in how content is delivered and experienced. So we’re here to talk about making structured content a reality. Because there’s gobs out there on what to do with it once you’ve got it, but as you read and explore and seek, it quickly becomes apparent that… http://rosenfeldmedia.com/content-everywhere/content-modeling/
- STRUCTURED CONTENT IS AN ASSUMED STARTING POINT But as an in-house content strategist, or whatever your title is, you need to get to this point. How many people here are in-house? How many are on the verge of restructuring content? Already started? OK. …. As you know, before you do the work, you have to make the case for structured content, or the restructuring of content, because it’s no small thing to do. Many people at this conference will talk about making the case. There’s a session right now on it. So I’ll be brief.
- You make the case with what SC will get you: Reuse of content assets instead of proliferation and endless maintenance of content assets. Flexibility of presentation and style that comes from de-coupling presentation and style from content. The ability to deliver content that’s more useful and usable across platforms and channels. A means of creating better content experiences for your users. You’re enabling your content to do the things that are demanded of it across devices, sites, apps, all of it. Make the case based on the business benefits. Not on internal efficiency. That’s your secret hope and dream. And you’ll get that, too. So, if you’ve MADE the case and MADE the decision, but have not started, if you’re like I was at that point, now you’re all…
- Well. Now what. Or, worse…
- Oh my god what have I done. And now what?
- This is what we’ll aim to cover in the next 40 minutes or so. Strategy behind the move to structured content how to get to making it. Getting to modeling, building a model, and what to do with it when you are done—and all along the way How to help your team grow into their inevitably changing roles and skillsets And getting started, making structured content, and doing stuff with it.
- I’m Chris Hess, an in-house CS for Healthwise. We’re a mission driven nonprofit in Boise, ID that focuses on providing EBM content to normal people and helping those people make better health decisions. I came to CS from a writing and editing background, with an interest in solving problems outside my comfort zone and learning new things, especially when those two were tied together. I found the how-to of SC to be elusive So, as everyone does, we figured out how to. You will, too. But I hope this will help.
- Structured content is far from a new idea, but it’s helpful to define terms, so let’s set a baseline. Put simply, SC is content organized in a predictable way, classified with metadata. But it’s tons more than that.
- SC is what your business needs it to be. What works for one company may not work for another. Online product documentation and software help menu content and marketing content meant for multiple social channels all have different needs, but they all need structured content.
- Like it or not, your content management system has a lot to say about what structured content is for you. But that should go both ways. Every CMS has a content model built into it, so you need to make sure it fits with yours, or can be changed to suit yours, or that you can find software that can accommodate yours. Same for APIs. When machines are talking to each other, they have no idea what content is about unless you tell them. Or where a certain structure is appropriate, or anything. That’s part of your work. And by the way, please call me out on acronyms that aren’t clear. I try, but we all gloss past those we’re too familiar with.
- Your taxonomy is the key to what content is about. And again, the information flow goes both directions. Your content should stick to the boundaries of aboutness laid down by the taxonomy, but the taxonomy should be built according to your needs for describing aboutness. The structures understood by your CMS and the boundaries of aboutness defined by your taxonomy make for content that is predictable in the most beautiful, useful way.
- And, of course, you’ve got your users. What do they say they need and want? What do they need or want that they don’t yet see or realize? Where and how are they experiencing your content, and what do they need and want to do with it? All great questions that you get to find answers to on your way to defining what SC is for YOU.
- This is what it is for us. Structured content is authored around a more granular concept or task. This is also called topic-based authoring. The topics are clearly defined and identifiable. These topics vary in size, to allow for various presentions, and they’re product agnostic, they’re not locked into documents or any single presentation. The topics can be assembled in many ways, depending on product offering or page layouts or user need or context. It should probably be similar to this for you, but again,
- Know why you need it The why can guide the what and how. It can also guide what you DON’T do, which is very important. So, why do you need it?
- This is not the only reason for SC, but it’s a really good one. Reuse gets you efficiency, consistency, and a litany of other gains. It’s been a bit of a grail for many of us. More and more of us are getting there.
- Cleve Gibbon, one of the foremost thinkers and doers of content modeling, has this to say. In many ways, SC and reuse are part of the same idea. Reuse requires predictability in content items and flexibility in a content model. Like Legos--there's no end to what you can do with them, as long as all the pieces adhere to structural rules.
- And there are other reasons for SC. You’ll dig deeper into these and others as you work on your content model. The most important thing at this point is to >> Get Started.
- Don’t wait til you’re smart enough. >> You know enough now because if this is your job what you know is enough and you will have no choice but to learn as you go. In getting started there are a few things to keep your eye on. Things like short cycles better allowing for errors. So check yourself often. Develop test fix. Build and test, even if it’s analog. Don’t let content get too much attention or love—ie become too expensive—before you try and break it or figure out what you’re doing wrong. Don’t wait for totally wired systems, as you may have input on the wiring if you can get out ahead of it. Take the first bite. https://pamakidscoach.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/run-cross-country_start2.jpg
- Another of the most important things I have to tell you is that you can do this work. (Contest for how many times I say that.) The most important thing to do is just start. I showed a quote from Cleve earlier. I've taken workshops here at Confab with Cleve Gibbon, Rachel Lovinger, Noz Urbina, the one he did just this Tuesday, which was awesome, and learned a TON. I can’t recommend it enough. I’ve taken their advice, gone directly against it in some cases, and done the work and rework. But everything changed once we STARTED. You work toward the model, but the process is the thing Documentation: many formats work. Start simple and adjust when you need to. https://blog.adafruit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/hd_531b96e050067f2c7789235d4ed9e697.jpg
- There are some very clear steps to content modeling. And you should know that this is not EVERYTHING. But we can’t cover everything in an hour, so we will give little time to incredibly important things like developing a taxonomy, which is a huge part of creating a content model.
- So let’s walk through these steps. First, find your patterns. One advantage of being in-house is you should have a very clear sense of where you’re starting out. It’s likely you already have very solid ideas about what these are, even if you’ve not put form to them just yet. Instincts are good here.
- This is where we started out. It’s a picture of part of our existing content model. It didn’t exist til we made it, after starting on the new one to replace this. The old one was just a collection of templates that grew over many years. It’s really helpful to see it like this. This is a product model, in that the structures of the content are inextricably tied to the presentations required by our product offerings. There’s the PI model, the Major topic model, and so on. Notice how big these things are. Sections and sections.
- The model shows how our content items connect to each other. The relationships between them. This is how we reuse. If we had a thing, we linked to it. If not, we made another thing. This model made sense for a long time. It’s basically the Wikipedia hornet’s nest of links model (minus the user-editor role, so far). But for so many reasons that we know too well it’s no longer sustainable for this team to develop and maintain content in this way.
- To start finding patterns for structured content, we went analog. We printed out representative subsets of our content pool. We took pens and scissors and broke these products down into single medical concepts. Then we put them back together in their former forms, and we came up with some new ones, too. It totally worked. This sort of analog activity is great—working with things in a familiar format. You start to see opportunities quickly.
- This is an aerial view of all our asthma content. The yellow is what our content on asthma triggers looks like. All basically the same, just bigger or smaller, written a little differently. Ugh. Getting rid of duplicate and redundant content is really important (prevents rot, improves consistency and accuracy), and IS SO SATISFYING.
- All of this dupe and redundant content proliferates without reuse. New product? New presentation? Copy and paste! Make a new thing!
- With reuse, though, here’s best case of what it could look like—a few variations, one to suit all our needs. We’ve allowed for 3 with this type of content, but here only two are necessary, which is even better. Reducing your content load like this is not just internal efficiency, not just tidying up shop. It’s essential for survival. We could not keep up with client demands for new content the way we were going, with the outdated model we had. Lack of efficiency keeps you from doing more. To keep growing, to be able to say yes to new opportunities, we had to find a better way. Structured reusable content is that way.
- The patterns in our content track closely to the content’s purpose, and once we settled on this, things started moving. People could understand this. Yours may be more to format, or tone, or length, but you should have a similar experience. You can see that some of these are more format oriented. We’re working on that. None of it should seem completely foreign, just a new approach or a new angle.
- Then define the types. This is more and more important as other people come into the work. You all have to understand the purpose of each type and the relationships between types in the same way, otherwise the work goes in too many directions.
- This is our current set of content types, or topic types as we call them. Totally necessary for content dev. They know what your content is about, so now you pick the right container for it. What kind of content is it? What’s its job? That was the most important question we asked ourselves. What job does this content need to do?
- We answered those questions in notes and sketches that turned into documentation that turned into a style guide. This is part of our in-depth description of this topic type.
- It’s essential that this information makes its way into the CMS, into the development environment. Put the instructions RIGHT THERE where the content developers are working. The guide is a great reference, but this is right at point of creation where it belongs. Eileen Webb is one of the smartest people out there when it comes to this. Look her up.
- This way everyone’s working to the same set of rules. Very important with a large content dev team.
- This is Infoconcept, our main topic type, with some limited style guide info and mockups of the structures. The structures include the elements expected in each type. Not everything necessarily, but the usual use. This is preliminary. This sort of representation helps communicate your model to everyone who needs to understand it, which we’ll get into shortly.
- Here’s another content type. TASK is a sequential set of steps. With an example. I hope that’s not too blurry. But these slides will be available with lots of good stuff in the notes.
- Action is actionable content where sequence is not required. Seeing each type like this helps people understand the structures, the differences between the types, and that gets everyone closer to getting the relationships, or how they all work together.
- This is When to call, basically triage of when to go to the ER or call your doctor or just watch and see how it goes.
- This is a story. Every one of these topic types has a different job, and that job is spelled out in the style guide.
- Then identify the relationships between the types. This can be the hardest part. It’s tough to do in the abstract. This information, these relationships come out over time as you start working with your types, creating documents or pages or sites. That’s why this is modeling and not just the model. The doing of it, the process and iteration are as valuable as the artifacts.
- The first step is understanding each content type’s purpose or job, and right there you can see how that fits in relation to the others. In defining them, you’re putting space between them, and that space is filled by purpose. Then you can see how they work together to a greater purpose.
- Then you can put things together intentionally, to meet user needs, for specific moments in care (or journey) and outcomes. This is a model of one of our main document types, a patient instruction, to show how it’s built from component content.
- In describing how to build it, you’re also >> indicating reuse.
- Here’s the reuse model behind creating one of these Patient Instructions. Here’s where I use the D word. We’re doing our restructuring in DITA, an XML spec that’s mainly used for product documentation and help menu stuff. I’m avoiding talking too much about it because it’s one way to get to structure and reuse, by no means the only way, and it comes with its own rules and I don’t want to get into those. Not in this hour. So. Two levels of >> reuse going on here; reference from a storage topic into individual topics, and the reference of THOSE topics into the map or the output template. Imagine the gains of this carried out over thousands of these patient instructions, pulling from the same pool of reusable content.
- Another visualization of that same document type, showing how a template for it can be built to reproduce what we had before structured content. That for us is a big deal and was part of the contract when we sold the org on SC. “WE can do everything we had and so much more.”
- And this shows the metadata attached to each part. This double view carries a lot of info for a few different teams. Which brings me to the last step.
- The last step is not the least important. This is how you ensure that the content you’re creating, based on the model you have painstakingly created over a long period of time, gets used to its best potential. The sharing has to be in the right format and at the right depth of detail for the right audience, otherwise it’s meaningless. This is the reality. Embrace it. Be excited.
- Use all channels available, and make sure you’re using the ones your target audiences use. Say things over and over and over again. When it comes to the actual people involved, accept the role of guardians and enlist them to be guardians of this NEW thing you’re creating TOGETHER. Figure out how it’s valuable to them instead of placing value on how it’s valuable to you. Overcommunicate, but don’t be annoying.
- These things are part of that communication or sharing plan. These are very clear to the people who have to work with these topics after they’re created.
- Beyond the building of the model, it’s the sharing and communicating—which also means gathering and processing input—that gets you here. That puts your model at the center of your organization’s universe. Other people in other roles have to understand and CARE.
- All of these people have to understand and care, and for the most part, it’s your job to make it so. The model informs and is informed by these teams and roles. That’s why it’s modeling and not just model, and that’s why it can’t be done in a vacuum. Let’s talk about how to connect these teams to the content model.
- Modeling is about structure, but structure is influenced by content's meaning and purpose. Meaning informs patterns and constructions which lead directly to structures and constraints So dig into the words. Look closely at your content—don’t just model from memory, which gets wrapped up in and distorted by assumptions. Find patterns in meaning, not just structure. The ones you use most often, rely most upon, get the best usage data on, serves your purpose—adapt to those and clear out the rest.
- With your preliminary model, start making content. Or moving it over, if you’re migrating existing. This is incredibly important, you can’t wait for everything to be ready. Any of these things. Grow them with the work. New ideas are more meaningful in action, during use, than as abstract concepts ahead of time. Find team skills in doing the work. Start with the tools you have and move to the tools you need. Start with minimal process and grow it, making it heavier, only as you need to. And always STAY FLEXIBLE in all of these things.
- The design team. There’s a movement in design called Atomic Design, introduced by a designer named Brad Frost. The correlations between this approach to design and the modular approach to structured content are just too beautiful to not work. I admit that we’re in the early stages of this work, but what we’re finidng so far is really exciting. It boils down to a parallel approach to design as to content. If your content works this way, so should the design layer.
- User Experience. Designing experiences with knowledge of structure is a huge step ahead of dumb lorem ipsum mockups. Knowledge of structure and rules can even make use of lorem ipsum an ok thing! IF you know the structure, built on meaning… Modular content can enable modular designs and experiences for better efficiency and consistency Designing to a content type’s purpose enables more purposeful, actionable user experiences.
- Whatever your relationship with sales or with product management, this is critical. They should be familiar with the possibilities AND constraints of the content model. If everyone has a sense of the model that things are built on, the things that can be made of it are clearer. Again, think Legos. Encourage product and sales to influence the model as much as anyone. This is how the org stays alive.
- Now let’s talk about your team. There’s no way for me to know what all your teams are like. I am part of a longstanding and fairly large content development team comprised of writers, editors, SMEs, copy editors, production admins, and now content strategists. The entry of content strategy has changed things, and continues to do so, in no way moreso than with the migration to structured content. So what I’ve seen is the importance of both assisting in the transition to the new things, and making sure existing skills are put to use and valued.
- Be respectful about getting rid of legacy processes or content. … The people you’re talking to are the ones who made the old stuff, and it’s likely that they’re pretty proud of what they’ve done. And for good reason. It suited the need and the known means of connecting people with content. It’s just that those means have changed, and this is what it is to change with them.
- It’s your job to bring people in. Think strategy and operations to find the intersections of strengths and interests. Strengths might not be what someone wants to do. And don’t be afraid of asking people what they WANT to do.
- And it’s not just about them. Part of steering a team and operationalizing change is getting people involved--which sounds great, duh, until you realize that in order for others to be invested in the change, they have to have ownership, which means you let go. And let go for real, not just letting other people do things your way. This is easier said than done. And it requires that your team is aligned on the vision of where you’re going, that distant flag in the sand that you want everyone marching toward. And that’s also your job. The fact is that change is hard. But, as is the point here, it’s necessary. So don’t take it lightly.
- Find the balance that’s right for your team. Not too much at once, but don’t drag it out forever. Be thoughtful, but don’t be too reticent. Check in often. Encourage always. This is hard. It will be hard for a long time, people won’t like it, they might hate it, you will doubt yourself and want to quit and get a job as a cook or something, but don’t. Remind yourself why this matters, why you care enough to turn your worklife upside down and make it hard for you and everyone. Have faith in the principles and the goals… Be prepared for this. It’s emotionally tough for you and for them.
- Because what you get from structured content changes the whole game for what your content can do. Just remember that. It’s worth it. For all these reasons and more.
- Once you’ve taken the all-important step of getting started, keep checking yourself on the basic principles you’ve laid out to do this work, and the means by which you’ve decided to do it. Big ideas, tackled by repeated series of small steps. Don’t get hung up on systems or process or anything else. Those things will come through deliberate action informed by all your analog and messy discovery work. Keep on going, and you have no choice but to learn a TON as you do the work. Good luck. I can’t wait to hear how it’s gone.