1.
Why I Teach Content
Strategy
Misty Weaver
UX Johannesburg
November 14, 2012

2.
Who?
Misty Weaver
Twitter @meaningmeasure
LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/mistymelissaweaver
My work is all about Communication Strategy
for Nonprofit Organizations:
Community Management, Social Media Marketing, Content
Creation, Curation and Publishing, Website Management, Events

3.
Old School
Masters Library & Information Science
Lecturer, University of Washington
Information School

4.
Instead of thinking about IA as building a house, consider building a city. Full of
traffic, business, art, design, community and people. Seattle is my city.
I, Cacophony [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Oranviri at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-3.0
(www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia
Commons

5.
Seattle Public Library stands as an example of
Seattle Public Library
forward thinking, open design meant for
community use.

6.
We want a little of everything, art &
architecture, style & use, design & display. The
experience music project is both fun and
functional.

7.
We are a bit quirky in Seattle, art crops up
under bridges and we like to play.
www.stachesofseattle.com

8.
My work is influenced by my education, the
city in which I live and what I do now with
community.
New School

9.
Talking ‘bout
• Content Strategy in
Information
Architecture & User
Experience Design
Discovery Process
• Role of Content
Inventory & Audit in
the Customer Journey

10.
•
By Khammurabi Jeff Voigt

11.
“Useful, usable content is a
process, not a product. It needs
people who are responsible for
ongoing, editorial oversight. Set
standards to inform changes and
inspire growth.”
– From Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina
Halvorson

12.
My Interpretation
• Know your organization
• Know your audience
• Know your ecosystem
• Know your limits
Build a holistic system

13.
Goal: Deliver Relevant Content
My personal goal is deliver relevant content to
people (and search engines). I work up the
pyramid, developing specific tactics to carry
out strategy.
Specific
Achievable
Measurable
Findable
Useful
Usable

14.
Assumption: Content Has
a Life Cycle
Create
Cut
• New Content
• Content • New Programs
• Navigation • New Navigation
• Policies • Roles, Policies, Wor
kflows
Connect Keep
•
•
Merge
In-site links (Revise)
• External Links
• Content:
• Social Media Pages, elements
• User generated • Navigation, structur
content e
• Policies • Policies

15.
Content Inventory & You

16.
Is Design Content’s Nemisis?
Lorem Ipsum
Designer Luke Wroblewski argues that “using
dummy content or fake information in the Web
design process can result in products with
unrealistic assumptions and potentially serious
design flaws.” He also explains how these
designs usually fail when real content is added.
- Death to Lorem Ipsum
Karen McGrane Defends Lorem Ipsum
http://karenmcgrane.com/2010/01/10/in-
defense-of-lorem-ipsum/
Nemisis. Louvre. Marie-Lan Nguyen (2010)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_Neme
sis_Louvre_Ma4873.jpg

17.
Taxonomy & Search both require us to prioritize
content and how it is displayed

18.
Content Inventory What
Agenda
Quantitative
Content Strategy The Information School University of Washington

19.
Content Inventory what should be
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333418/Amazon-Christmas-rush-Picture-elves-work-Swansea.html

20.
Quantitative Inventory
• How much
• Where is it
• What’s it called
• Who owns it

21.
The Bad News
• Click by Click
• Starting with home page
• Pay attention to sections
• Have the experience the user does
It takes a long time and can hurt your body but
you get an unparalleled experience from the
user perspective (hint: staff are usually users as
well.)

22.
Are there tools for this?
• Web Crawlers
• Two Monitors
• Robots file
• Firebug
Yes! They can’t do the analysis for you but they can
collect data faster so that you can still experience
the site just without having to stop and copy/paste.
Xenu
http://siteorbiter.com/
http://content-insight.com/

23.
Qualitative: What to Audit
Consistent
Cluttered
Relevant
Useful
Once you have an inventory, you usually want to then audit the value of the
content in an audit. These are general things I look for but audits should always
be specific to your context: business goals, audience needs, resources/time
available.

24.
Content
Inventory
Tells you what’s below the surface.
There’s often a world of content
underground.
Inventories let you scope and adjust
timelines. Often a client thinks they
have 300 pages but they really have
3000. I use automated tools to find
the scope before I start the project
and never start an audit without full
discussion of expectations.
Termite mound close to Maun, Botswana by Discott

25.
Things I’ve
encountered in
content
inventories, audits
and website visits

26.
Fibber McGee & Molly
HALL CLOSETS
They don’t want you to open that door!

27.
by jurvetson
SLIME
You know it when it hits you

28.
ImperfectTommy / Edmond Meinfelder
TUMBLEWEEDS
ain’t nothing to break your fall

29.
The World of Audit options is limitless… Try to connect with your user’s psychology & needs
Speaks to Intended Audience
Facilitates user tasks Recommendations
Keywords / Subject
Keep/Kill
Has Calls to Action Revise
Owner / Author
Add
Date Revised
Quality
Readability
Length
SEO Tone
Title elements Message
Meta description Navigation
H1 tags Sub Navigation
Title matches content http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brain_scan.jpg
Relevancy
Content is unique to page Use / Analytics
Title element includes keywords Value to IAI
Description element includes keywords Value to User

30.
An inventory and audit
are diagnostic tools!
An inventory is not an
audit
An audit is not a
taxonomy
A taxonomy is not a
miracle cure
sidknee23

31.
There is a purpose and an order
Inventory
Audit
Analysis
Decision
They aid us in structure and design that
• Saves Customer’s Time
• Builds Trust and Credibility
• Develops Authority
• Improves People’s Lives Online

32.
The battle for IA has just begun
We still need to educate
• Clients
• Project managers
• Co-workers
• Users
• Students

33.
Finding ways to educate
• Don’t be afraid of repeating yourself
• Carry samples
• Do it where people can see it
• Volunteer
• Mentor
• Meet Up

34.
Finding people near & far
• Kerry-Anne Giloway @kerry_anne
• Rahel Bailie @rahelab
• Jonathan Colman @jcolman
• Content Insight @content_insight
• Kristina Halvorson @halvorson
• Karen McGrane @karenmcgrane
• LinkedIN, Google Groups

35.
Thank you!
Questions?