An Event Apart Chicago 2009 Session 3 was Kristina Halvorson, talking about content, content, content.
These notes are more sketchy, not because the presentation wasn’t good, but because it was more of an impassioned plea than a how-to that I could take notes on
- not just copy to be dropped into a template, it’s content–the “stuff” people are looking for
- How did we get here?
- Information Architecture gave rise to
- Information Design
- When the web came along, it was seen as primarily visual, so primarily visual people get hired
- not visual, it’s user experience
- Jesse James Garret’s The Elements of User Experience and iconic poster leave content consideration until the end of the process
- Big Problem: the person who defines the content doesn’t own the content
- Must stop seeing content as a feature
- No more lorem ipsum — content should come first; design around the content
Site comparison
- Quicken
- all about product photos/price, no space for benefits/description
- when copy-writers finally fill in the template, you end up w/ small fonts, cramped, busy page
- mint.com
- top 5 things people want from personal finance software
- top 4 triggers to get people to want to use personal finance
Page tables vs templates
- Page table defines what content should be on the page and where, whereas a template is a design with spots to fill in with whatever
- Priority 1: Messages
- what should the user come away with)
- Label them by importance: 1a, 1b, etc
- Tell the writer WHAT to write in what order
- Priority 3: Contextual contact us
- Not "launch mentality" but a renewable ecosystem
How to Start
- Get content involved early on
- Design around content
Q&A
- Can/do designers & developers have impact on content development process?
- If nothing else, you see content poured into design/structure.
- You can/should also ask who owns the content.
- What is an example of content requirement?
- on this portion of Page X, there must be a list of product one benefits
- What can you do for a new site, where the content doesn't exist yet?
- Plan for andcreate the cycle for maintenance
- How do you motivate clients?
- Help them see how users are reacting to their site (shame)
- Help them to see their content as a business asset, not a commodity
- Show them user research; businesses rarely test content in research; show that Users can't find what they’re looking for
- How to deal with what happens to the site after launch (client work; after the hand-off)
- Sell them maintenance plan/requirements
- Deliver them a plan for maintenance
- Do organizations need to hire someone for content?
- Organizations don't want to realize they're a publisher, and any publisher needs oversight. (so, yes, I guess)