how chunky do you need to be?: adaptive content strategies for the real world

How Chunky Do You Need To Be?

AKA, There’s No Perfect Way To Do Adaptive Content, So Let’s All Stop

Beating Ourselves Up About Not Implementing Our Site Like NPR Did.

Hello! SUBTXT Tosca Fasso Content Strategy@toscafasso Christopher Ward Digital Strategy & UX

We’re CMS dorks.

Joy! At the conference.

Score! Adaptive Content.

Image  from  Adap%ng  Ourselves  to  Adap%ve  Content  by  Karen  McGrane  (Slide  44)  

Make Chunks, not Blobs! HEADER

SUBHEADER ME T ADA T A

IMAGE

HEADER

COPY

EXCERPT

<div><div> <span>EVERYTHING GOES HERE </span> </div></div>

Next week, at work.

separate their content from code.

One does not simply

Not all code is created equal.

Let’s talk about tags, baby.

<p> <div> Syntax Style

<p> <div> Syntax Style

<p> <div> Syntax Style

Gray Area

<p> <div> Syntax Style

<i><strong><br> <font> <h1> <img>

WHAT LEVEL OF CHUNKY… …gives creators control of syntax?

…keeps content adaptive enough?

Ok, so how in the f###

do I use this at work?

Case Study 1 How To Keep Content Adaptive Enough.

What’s a Lullabot?

What they did.

1. Groups, not pages.

From  Lullabot  

2. Importance, not appearance.

From  Lullabot  

3. Shortcodes, not code-codes.

From  Lullabot  

3. Shortcodes, not code-codes.

Radiohead Rains Down on Austin City Limits The  progressive  rock  icons  drew  almost  exclusively  from  their  last  three  albums:  The  King  of  Limbs,  In  Rainbows  &  Hail  to  the  Thief,  quickly

Radiohead Rains Down on Austin City Limits

We  wish  we’d  done  a  spread  for  Radiohead,  but  these  SUBTXT  comps  for  illustraHon  only  

4. Content editing, not design.

From  Lullabot  

5. Allow some blobs.

Use Your CMS To Create Guardrails, Not Rules.

Moboom.com!A Truly Adaptive CMS1. Content Sets, Not Pages.

2. Dynamic Content Delivery.

3. Feed Into Existing CMS.

Case Study 2 How To Be An Adaptive Ambassador.

Way to design like it’s 1999.

SUBTXT

The client request: “Fix all the random content

overlaps and differences across our many websites.”

Yes, it seemed like the worst project.

Multiple sites with some shared content.

Dry, overlong copy.

A team who had never heard of adaptive content.

But it was the perfect storm.

An innovative stakeholder.

A developer team ready for a challenge.

An unsexy silo wanting to make a splash.

Adaptive content often starts with convincing

stakeholders.

1. Educate teams. “You can’t excite people if

they don’t know what you’re talking about.”

2. Excite ambitious people. “Who doesn’t want to do portfolio-worthy work?”

3. Use data to convince. “How many users are you alienating by not offering the best mobile content?”

Think Big, Start Small. Find a leader who lives for innovation Find a department who doesn’t get any attention Find a executive sponsor, offer to help them do something bold

1. Separate syntax from style, not content from code.2. Create guardrails, not rules.3. Think big, start small.

Three Chunky Conclusions

How Chunky Do You Need To Be?

How Chunky Do You Need To Be?

How Chunky Do You Need To Be?

How Chunky Do You Need To Be?

Get Started!

ACMS Examples Moboom, Kit (DSC), iAPPS, Lullabot

SUBTXT.US Thank You.

Contacttosca@subtxt.us christopher@subtxt.us Link to Slidessubtxt.us/icc