Content Strategy as A Model of Web Stewardship -

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Slide Notes

Courtney McDonald (@xocg), Head, Discovery and Research Services

Anne Haines (@annehaines), Web Content Specialist, Discovery and Research Services

Digital Library Brown Bag
September 9th 2015 @ 12:00pm
Hazelbaker Hall, Wells Library, Indiana University Bloomington

Content strategy is an emerging area of expertise related to user experience design work, defined as “planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.” This session will provide a brief overview of content strategy concepts and describe how a well-articulated content strategy can enable a better user experience through thinking holistically and strategically about web content -- in other words, in stewardship. We’ll also present a brief case study of how, through implementing these tools and processes, our small department was empowered to stop simply chasing web pages around and instead invest our efforts into crafting a user-centric, sustainable web presence for the IUB Libraries (http://libraries.indiana.edu).

Content Strategy as A Model of Web Stewardship - Digital Library Brown Bag/Sept 2015

Published on Nov 18, 2015

Content strategy is an emerging area of expertise related to user experience design work. This talk provided a brief overview of content strategy concepts and described how a well-articulated content strategy can enable a better user experience through thinking holistically and strategically about web content -- in other words, in stewardship -- in the context of a university library web site.

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

content strategy

AS A MODEL OF WEB STEWARDSHIP

Photo by 10ch

Content strategists are

marketers, designers, writers, editors, IA, UX...

"planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content"

Kristina Halvorson, Content Strategy for the Web

Highly recommended: “Content Strategy for the Web” by Kristina Halvorson, http://www.worldcat.org/title/content-strategy-for-the-web/oclc/759583769

"planning for the creation, AGGREGATION, delivery, & USEFUL governance of useful, usable, & APPROPRIATE content
IN AN EXPERIENCE"
Margot Bloomstein

Margot Bloomstein – author, “Content Strategy at Work,” http://www.worldcat.org/title/content-strategy-at-work-real-world-stories-t...

content
lifecycle

Don’t forget the planning part!

Image courtesy Anne Haines.

tools

Content strategy tools include:

- content inventories (quantitative)
- content audits (qualitative)
- analytics (e.g. Google Analytics, CrazyEgg)
- editorial calendars
- style guides
- metadata
- taxonomies
- content management systems

...and more.

Photo by kate e. did

both sides now

Goal: to improve both Author Experience and User Experience. If it’s easier for content authors to do things well, then content will be better.

Photo by Kerri Lee Smith

UX + CONTENT STRATEGY

User experience & content strategy are like two halves of a whole, both requiring a focus on both the seemingly smaller details and on the larger picture.

We started out thinking about User Experience in the largest sense, but we also needed a concrete way to approach a very large project. We found ourselves asking questions like, Who are our users? What do they want to know or do? How should we talk with them?

What do you do when you are already many years behind schedule? How do you balance data collection and analysis with a pressing need to Git-R-Done?

Photo by D-Gernz

case study

(This is graffiti on a desk in the Wells Library.)

((But I said things like this to myself a lot during our 3.5 year migration project.))

Prime directive: migrate.
Strategy: content.
Content Strategy: wha?

Other notes:
Complex ecosystem.
Large organization.
Many needs.
A lot of 'technical debt.'

Confession: I approach this and other terrifyingly large projects with a bias toward action.

We migrated in July 2014 to Drupal 7, with many thanks to our partners Bluespark Labs.

Photo by Cat Sidh

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prioritizing the user's experience

In earlier days, the web was essentially the domain of those who could code.

Then came all sorts of change, including products like Drupal & WordPress, social media and a corresponding explosion of platforms, the mobile web.

Now what? The website is stewarded in the context of prioritizing user experience.

But what does that really mean?

Photo by alliekenny

11.

Untitled Slide

If you're familiar with agile, you're familiar with relative sizing. This is a great tool for the context of identifying a group of discrete tasks that can be accomplished in a set period of time.

Relative sizing in UX is sort of a nightmare, though.

Who is your user?
What is a library website for?

I bet we all have different answers!

In a large organization, it can start to feel sort of out of control - where to start when we all have a different traveler, journey, even continent in mind?

Photo by uncoolbob

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structure

Structure and strategy are inseparable - for better or worse. Your structure can determine your strategy; but, your strategy should drive your structure.

A good strategy needs a shared understanding of where you are now and where you're going; or, to a bunch of word nerds, it calls for some definitions.

What is the library website, anyway? Here's our working definition.

An integrated representation of the organization providing continuously updated content (and tools) to engage with the academic mission of the University, constructed and maintained for the benefit of the user. Value is placed on consumption of content by the user rather than production of content by staff.

What is content? Ahoy! Welcome to the 7C's.

Photo by Tobyotter

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current

Content is:

of current use to the University community (and as a secondary audience, to unaffiliated researchers and scholars)

Photo by oskay

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compliant

Content is:

assessed by objective standards (accessibility, data, recognized UX best practices)

Photo by atxryan

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collective

Content is:

collective property, stewarded by a team of experts in content strategy, user experience and service design.

Photo by Retis

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conversational

Content is:

conversational - we provide a web-mediated representation of the person-to-person experience.

Photo by Marc Wathieu

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contextual

Content is:

contextual - our writing serves as a bridge connecting current events and scholarship to library collections or academic pursuits; that is to say, placing the day-to-day in the broader universe of scholarly publishing and the Academy.

Photo by Jim Nix / Nomadic Pursuits

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constructed

Content is:

constructed to support critically framing inquiry and research as a fluid, iterative process of creation, supporting the continuum of information, knowledge and learning.

For more on this, see the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (ACRL): http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

Photo by blech

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curated

Content is:

carefully curated to provide the best recommendations for researchers.

To expand on this
- we actively avoid duplication to "save the time of the reader" (Ranganathan)
- we highlight librarian expertise and knowledge as relevant to user journey
- website content does not meet archival standards (not a repository)

Photo by Joe Shlabotnik

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mission provides the
context

To repeat an earlier thought, your strategy should drive your structure. Your mission should drive your strategy.

Content strategy is all about context.

Photo by mikkashar

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