© 2013 Intentional Design Inc. www.intentionaldesign.ca

Rahel Anne Bailie @rahelab

Intelligent Content Starts with an Intelligent Content Strategy

A 3-word mandate

Fix the website .

What was broken?

Too much “us”

Where would I find

information about a

permit to cut down a tree?

Where do I start?

Content siloed by department

Let’s look at the departments.

There’s no obvious choice

Guess I could search…

Can I track it down this way?

It’s probably not the

“mediaroom”.

Maybe it’s over here?

Could it be in the

“engsvcs” department?

Does engsvcs handle it?

No tree permits here.

What is “commsvcs”, anyhow?

Maybe the “commsvcs”

department?

Is it obvious that commsvcs = trees?

OK, I think I found it.

Too much “us”

The goal:

Organize information

for the user, not for

the organization.

Don’t make me work*

* Nod to Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think

How can I stay

informed without

information overload?

News for the entire city

Which of this stuff is

relevant to me?

How can I filter this for me?

I have to go hunting just

to see if I need the info.

Don’t make me work

The goal:

Make it easy to get

relevant information.

Not task-based

What do I need to do

before I plant in the

boulevard?

But what do I do?

I can “find out more”.

But what do I do?

Still no task…

Disconnected task

Here’s what I

do…I think.

Following the popular links

I want to find a

recreational activity.

Where’s the task?

Popular? Yikes, I’m

overwhelmed.

Looking for real-time information

I want to avoid road

crews on my drive home.

Where’s the task?

How do I work

this thing?

Not task-based

The goal:

Help residents complete

tasks clearly and easily.

Unbalanced content

Every week, they pick up

my garbage. This week,

they missed the pickup.

Parking: tickets and enforcement

Garbage & Recycling:

missed collections, get new

bag/box/bin

Request an inspection:

building, electrical, gas, sprinkler

Property tax

balance Business license:

status/renew

Report burnt out

street light

Hours of ops for landfill

Report abandoned garbage /

vehicle

Look for a job

Source: 311 calls Feb 2009 to Jan 2010

What people want

Community Services: bylaws, programs, business licenses,

dog pound, theatres

Parks: programs, parks, gardens,

pools, Parks Board

Engineering

Financial Services

Sustain-ability

Source: 2009/2010 City of Vancouver Content inventory

City Clerk: minutes, reports, mayor & council,

committees, election results

What’s on the site

Unbalanced content

The goal:

Ensure the users’ needs

are met, as are the

organizational objectives.

Search

Where would you find

information about…

Sometimes it works

Click. Pay. Done. Beauty.

Construction permits

Old bulletins?

Parking permits?

Car-free days

Old documents?

Meeting minutes?

Search

The goal:

Make search results

relevant and accurate.

The Plan

Make it work !

Bring in the User-Centered Design

Frank

Frustrated

Connie

Content Citizen

Lisa

Locally-involved

Nahm

Newcomer 101

Aaron

Ambitious

Bahri

Business Owner

Stevie

Student

One City, One Voice

Need to meet business requirements

People & Process

User Experience

Technology

Provide in-demand services

Facilitate public engagement

Provide answers to frequently asked

questions

Have efficient work processes

Transactions

Publishing

Participation

Common problem: too much content

• 26,000 HTML pages

• 35,000 binary files (mostly PDF)

• 12 areas (34 business units)

Go from bloated … to just enough

Be ruthless about “hoarding”

Connect content across the organization

From content by department

To visitors’ mental model

Easy to read

Clear call to action

Easy-to-follow task path

Auto-aggregate information

Re-think content

Case study detour

Governments run on meetings

Reports, agendas, minutes

Issues get written up

Reports get put onto agendas

Recommendations get published

Like this: agenda with multiple topics

Re-think content delivery from BLOBs

To the topic-based model

Components repackaged by output channel Source

content Output A Output B Output C Output D

How to componentize this?

Genre = social construct

AGENDA

Item for discussion 1 Item for discussion 2 Item for discussion 3 Item for discussion 4 Item for discussion 5

Schema = technical construct

AGENDA

Item for discussion 1 Item for discussion 2 Item for discussion 3 Item for discussion 4 Item for discussion 5

Item for discussion 1

Item for discussion 2

Item for discussion 3

Item for discussion 4

Item for discussion 5

Topics Tags

Rethink the content flow

Deliver to the neighbourhood pages

Deliver to relevant pages site-wide

Better search results

Connect the dots

Instructive and a showcase

Tell the City’s story

Engage the next generation

What we didn’t cover here

• Mobile

• Applications

• Maps

• Open data

• Engagement tools

• Taxonomy

• Social media

• Digital strategy

• Governance

…and much, much more

Intelligent Content Starts with an Intelligent Content Strategy

© 2013 Intentional Design Inc. www.intentionaldesign.ca

Rahel Anne Bailie @rahelab / http://about.me/rahel.bailie

Thank you