intersections of information architecture and content strategy

The Intersection of User Experience, Information Architecture, and Content

Strategy

Theresa PutkeyInformation Architect

© Key Pointe. All Rights Reserved.

Introductions

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Today’s Discussion

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1. My struggle with content strategy2. Some definitions3. Comparing tools and deliverables4. Your experiences5. Where do we go from here?6. Your experiences


The problem I encounter with content strategy is both practical and existential

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Working definitions

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Information Architecture Definition

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1. The structural design of shared information environments

2. The combination of organization, labeling, search, and navigation systems within web sites and intranets

3. The art and science of shaping information products and experiences to support usability and findability

4. An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web – Morville and Rosenfeld (2006)


Content Strategy Definition

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“A unified content strategy is a repeatable method of identifying all content requirements up front, creating consistently structured content for reuse, managing that content in a definitive source, and assembling content on demand to meet customer needs.” Managing Enterprise Content, 2nd Ed., Rockley (2012)

“Content strategy guides your plans for the creation, delivery, and governance of content.” Content Strategy for the Web, 2nd Ed, Halvorson (2012)


The Intersection, Apparently…

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“As Louis Rosenfeld has said, ‘If [information architecture] is the spatial side of information, I see content strategy as the temporal side of the same coin.’”Halvorson, Content Strategy and UX: A Modern Love Story (2011)

• Spatial: Of, relating to, involving, or having the nature of space. (The Free Dictionary)

• Temporal: Of, relating to, or limited by time; Of or relating to the material world; worldly. (The Free Dictionary)


Part of the problem is overlapping capabilities

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Tools and Deliverables

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IA Tools and Deliverables

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With help from/inspired by Morville and Rosenfeld, Kissane, Davis.


CS Tools and Deliverables

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Content strategy grounded in content management

Content strategy grounded in marketing and editorial

With help from/inspired by Morville and Rosenfeld, Kissane, Davis, Halvorson, etc. See bibliography.


What are your experiences?

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How do we work together? Different needs from the same thing.

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Usability Testing

Information Architecture

• What’s the user’s mental model for this process?

• Does the site/intranet/ product support the way the user expects to find information?

• How does the navigation and search support wayfinding or findability?

Content Strategy• Once the user finds

the right place, does the content provided answer questions?

• Does the content meet branding and messaging goals?

• How easy is it for the user to comprehend the content?

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Content Inventory

Information Architecture

• How many pages are in the product?

• Are the pages properly structured?

• Do they meet wayfinding needs?

• What user goal does the content support?

• Informs the controlled vocabulary

Content Strategy• What user goal does the

content support?• What business goal does

the content support?• What content can be re-

used?• What is the quality of the

content?• Support the gap analysis

and make sure missing content is included in new IA

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Others

Site Map• IA: Supports

navigation• CS: Supports content

planning and migration

Wireframes• IA: Embodies

navigation and information seeking needs

• CS: Reflects content needs. Includes placeholders for content or examples of content.

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Where to next?

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Where Next for IA?

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“How can we design sites if we do not have a clear grasp of the elements that we are creating the structure for? What does the client have? Why do they have it? Does it still serve a purpose … All of these are part of an ongoing strategy around sustaining the living, breathing entity that a website should be.”(Marianne Sweeny, Personal Email, 2013)


Where Next for IA?

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“ [IA]starts to address the design of information spaces as a process, opening up a conversation with ubiquitous computing and service design, and where the information architect recognizes gathering, organizing, and presenting information as tasks analogous to those an architect faces…as both design spaces for human beings to live, work, and play in.”Resmini, A Brief History of Information Architecture (2011)


Where Next for CS?

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Content strategy grounded in content management

Content strategy grounded in marketing and editorial


Where Next for CS?

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“While differences are often good, our inability to communicate an agreed common definition of what content strategists do is damaging our brand. Our differing views on content strategy … make it challenging for businesses to know what to expect when they hire a ‘content strategist.’” Scott Abel, Content Strategists Must Become Engineers of Content-Driven Customer Experiences (2013)


What are your experiences?

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We covered

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1. My struggle with content strategy2. Some definitions3. Comparing tools and deliverables4. Your experiences5. Grounded in UX? Not necessarily6. Where do we go from here?7. Your experiences

Contact Me

• 604 563 6317• [email protected]• www.keypointe.ca• @tputkey• www.slideshare.net/tputkey/

© Key Pointe. All Rights Reserved.25

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.keypointe.ca/

http://www.slideshare.net/tputkey/


Book Bibliography

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• Ann Rockley, Charles Cooper: Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy (2nd Edition) (2012)

• Dan Brown: Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning (2nd Edition) (2010)

• David Weinberger: Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder (2008)• Elaine Svenonius: The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization (Digital Libraries

and Electronic Publishing) (2000)• Erin Kissane: The Elements of Content Strategy (Brief Books for People Who Make Websites,

No. 3)• Indi Young: Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior (2008)• Kristina Halvorson, Melissa Rach: Content Strategy for the Web, 2nd Edition (2012)• Margot Bloomstein: Content Strategy at Work: Real-world Stories to Strengthen Every

Interactive Project• Peter Morville, Louis Rosenfeld: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing

Large-Scale Web Sites, 3rd Edition (2006)• Rahel Anne Bailie, Noz Urbina: Content Strategy: Connecting the dots between business,

brand, and benefits (2012)• Richard Sheffield: The Web Content Strategist's Bible: The Complete Guide To A New And

Lucrative Career For Writers Of All Kinds (2009)• Peter Morville: Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become (2005)• Peter Morville, Jeffery Callendar: Search Patterns: Design for Discovery (2010)


Website Bibliography

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• Andrea Resmini: A Brief History of Information Architecture (2011) http://journalofia.org/volume3/issue2/03-resmini/

• Andrew Maier, Complete Beginner’s Guide to Content Strategy (2010) http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-content-strategy/

• Erin Kissane, What Content Strategists Do (2010) http://incisive.nu/2010/what-content-strategists-do/

• Gene Leganza with Alex Cullen, Rob Karel, Mimi An: Topic Overview: Information Architecture (2010) http://www.forrester.com/Topic+Overview+Information+Architecture/-/E-RES55951?objectid=RES55951

• Jeff Pass: Information Architecture’s Teenage Dilemma (2013) http://boxesandarrows.com/information-architectures-teenage-dilemma/

• Joe Gollner: The accidental content strategist (2012) http://www.gollner.ca/2012/08/accidental-content-strategist.html

• Joe Gollner, Architecting Information and Engineering Content (2010) http://www.gollner.ca/2010/02/architecting-information-and-engineering-content.html

• Joe Gollner, Why Content Technologies are Hard to Implement (2013) http://www.gollner.ca/2013/01/content-technologies.html

http://journalofia.org/volume3/issue2/03-resmini/

http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-content-strategy/

http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-content-strategy/

http://incisive.nu/2010/what-content-strategists-do/

http://www.forrester.com/Topic+Overview+Information+Architecture/-/E-RES55951?objectid=RES55951



http://boxesandarrows.com/information-architectures-teenage-dilemma/

http://www.gollner.ca/2012/08/accidental-content-strategist.html

http://www.gollner.ca/2010/02/architecting-information-and-engineering-content.html



http://www.gollner.ca/2013/01/content-technologies.html




Website Bibliography

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• Jorge Arango: … for the World Wide Web (2013) http://www.jarango.com/blog/2013/06/28/for-the-world-wide-web/

• Karen McGrane: Why UX Needs Content Strategy (2010) http://www.slideshare.net/KMcGrane/why-ux-design-needs-content-strategy

• Karen McGrane: WYSIWTF (2013) http://alistapart.com/column/wysiwtf• Kristina Halvorson: Content Strategy and UX: A Modern Love Story

http://uxmag.com/articles/content-strategy-and-ux-a-modern-love-story• Peter Morville: Editorial: The System of Information Architecture (2011)

http://journalofia.org/volume3/issue2/01-morville/• Peter Morville, Information Architect (2011)

http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000647.php• Rachel Lovinger: Tinker, Tailor, Content Strategist (2012)

http://alistapart.com/article/tinker-tailor-content-strategist• Rachel Lovinger: Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data (2007)

http://boxesandarrows.com/content-strategy-the-philosophy-of-data/• Rachel Lovinger: Content Modeling as a Master Skill (2012)

http://alistapart.com/article/content-modelling-a-master-skill• Scott Abel, Content Strategists Must Become Engineers of Content-Driven Customer

Experiences (2013) http://thecontentwrangler.com/2013/07/29/content-strategists-must-become-engineers-of-content-driven-customer-experiences/

http://www.jarango.com/blog/2013/06/28/for-the-world-wide-web/

http://www.slideshare.net/KMcGrane/why-ux-design-needs-content-strategy

http://alistapart.com/column/wysiwtf

http://uxmag.com/articles/content-strategy-and-ux-a-modern-love-story

http://journalofia.org/volume3/issue2/01-morville/

http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000647.php

http://alistapart.com/article/tinker-tailor-content-strategist

http://boxesandarrows.com/content-strategy-the-philosophy-of-data/

http://alistapart.com/article/content-modelling-a-master-skill

http://thecontentwrangler.com/2013/07/29/content-strategists-must-become-engineers-of-content-driven-customer-experiences/

http://thecontentwrangler.com/2013/07/29/content-strategists-must-become-engineers-of-content-driven-customer-experiences/

intersections of information architecture and content strategy

Technology

content strategy definition

unified content strategy

assembling content

content requirements

structured content

governance of content

enterprise content

experiences key pointe