content analysis: methods and mentoring

Content Analysis: Methods and Mentoring

By Chiara FoxSLA NorthWest Regional Conference 2006

SLA NorthWest Regional Conference 2006

The process of assessing the nature of the content on a given web site.

What Is “Content Analysis”?

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What is content?• Words

• Images

• Video

• Tools or applications

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• Services

• Physical items

• Signage

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Content Analysis Is About Patterns

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And Relationships

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Why Do a Content Analysis?

• You have to know what you have before you start doing something with it.

• Often done at the beginning of:

• A site migration to a new platform or content management

system (CMS)

• A re-architecture project

• The task analysis and mental model process.

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What Are the Parts?

• Content analysis involves a series of deliverables.

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• Content Map• Content Audit• Content Inventory

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The Content Inventory

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The Content Inventory

A content inventory is a detailed, meticulous accounting of all items on the site.

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Data to Capture in a Content Inventory

• Content owner

• Person responsible for migration/updating page

• Freeze status

• ROT status

• Current location in site

• New location in site

• New file names/URL changes

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An Example of a Content Inventory

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Another Example of a Content Inventory

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What’s the interesting difference?

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Ask yourself...

• How is the document used?

• What is its purpose?

• What expectations will people bring to it?

• What can someone do with it?

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You know what you’ll get when you see links to...

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The Content Audit

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How Big of a Sample To Take?

Total Minutes for Sampling /

3 minutes per item /

2 passes over item /

total documents =

% of site sampled

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1080 minutes /

3 minutes per item /

2 passes over item /

5200 documents =

3.5% of site

It doesn’t take a lot of content to get a feel for what is on the site.

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How to Record Sampled Items

• Two methods for capturing the sampled content.

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Example of a Content Audit

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Example of a Content Audit, II

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The Content Map

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Map Your Content Audit

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So What Gets Mapped?

• Start with the spreadsheet

• Not formats (e.g., html, pdf, jpg)

• Generalize the pages by identifying the content types (content genres) that you have

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Content Map for Task Analysis

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So, Where Does the Analysis Happen?

• We’ve talked a lot about capturing data about a site, and how to record what we’ve found.

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What to Look for During Analysis

• Remember, it’s about:

Patterns Relationships

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Groupings and Connections

• The patterns and relationships will suggest groupings for the different content types.

• Broad groupings probably already exist in the current site structure.

• Look for a finer level of groupings and connections.

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Who Should Do the Content Analysis?

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Those Who Can’t Do Teach

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The Content Audit Personality

• Close attention to detail

• Deep understanding of & comfortable with the web

• Understanding of the project & how the content audit will be used

• Ability to think abstractly

• A member of the core web team

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Successful Mentoring

• Location doesn’t matter; touch points do

• Lots of examples

• Keep work in context

• Work together to “dial in” granularity

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Be Prepared If Things Don’t Go Well

• Close enough is often good enough.

• The map is often more important than the spreadsheet.

• This is hard work - be understanding and supportive.

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Thank You!

Questions? Comments?

Chiara Fox: chiara@adaptivepath.com

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