SXSW10: Understanding Content: The Stuff We Design For

Overview:
We design websites for users, but if we don't also have a deep and thorough grasp of the content that will be served up to those users, we're not going to be able to create optimal experiences for them. Learn how to do Content Research to augment your User Research.

Presenters:
-Rachel Lovinger, Razorfish
-Karen McGrane, Bond Art + Science

Panel:
McGrane: We spend all of our effort into the framework for a great user experience but when it comes to the content itself there is a huge gap, and it means that the infrastructure is for naught because there is nothing that delivers actual value. Second, we treat content as an afterthought. We need to stop ignoring content!

Lovinger: Text is not the only thing that is content. Images or audio or video might better tell a story. Also comments and UGC may tell the story. Plus error messages and information content and data/meta-data. This is all content.

How do you understand your content better?
McGrane: You can't just move content from one site to the next? You must inventory it and audit it. You start with 1) product strategy, 2) then design strategy (how will users interact, what will it look like, tech platform) then 3) content strategy (what do we want to say and how, etc?)

Lovinger: Content analysis should be done during discovery to get a handle on what you are dealing with. There are two main parts: facts about content (what is it, how is it organized, what types, how much) and then quality of content (is it appropriate for audience, is it meeting business needs, is it communicating well?). Content analysis is not a one stop deal, it's iterative. Not so much linear, rather insights refining throughout design process.

McGrane: Content Inventory. What this means is what content do you have. Go through the site and document it. What content should you evaluate? Make strategic decisions about what content to looks at, consider the user paths. Decide what types of categories you want to create. It is useful to understand the story the site is trying to tell, get a sense of the range of pages that need to be designed, determine range of content types the site will support, decide what content to eliminate or migrate

Lovinger: Next look at Content Organization. To evaluate whether people can find stuff they're looking for, make decisions about a new navigation structure and content model, decide if content needs to be migrated to a new section, find gaps in content.

Next look at Content Model. Formats, structure/purpose, content assets, and how will this impact the page design and the CMS?

Other things to consider: SEO, Accessability, Functional Requirements

McGrane: Assess the Quality Framework could include: do we have all of the content that we need to have, is content current, is it clear and relevant, is the tone and style correct, does it meet business needs?