content strategy & ia: data soul mates
TRANSCRIPT
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01WORLD IA DAY 2016 CONTENT STRATEGY & IA: DATA SOUL MATES
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN,
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CONTENT STRATEGY & IAData Soul Mates
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TODAY’S CHAT
➤ Who am I?
➤ Content strategy
➤ The tasks of content strategy
➤ Information architecture
➤ How do they relate?
➤ Working with another colleague tasked with IA
➤ Small agency process
➤ Content strategy resources
➤ Questions, comments, concerns
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MY EXPERIENCE
➤ 12 years in marketing
➤ Previously: Digital Product Support, Journal Broadcast Group
➤ Currently: Content Strategist, Lightburn
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“It’s kind of a truism in this industry: everybody started out doing something else and came in through a side entrance.
-Karen McGrane
Karen McGrane Quote
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LIGHTBURN IN 30 SECONDS
➤ Digital agency
➤ Milwaukee, Wisconsin
➤ 1998
➤ 16 developers, designers, UX, digital marketing and account professionals
➤ lightburn.co
➤ @lightburn
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LIGHTBURN’S WORK
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WHAT IS CONTENT STRATEGY?
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“…planning for the creation, delivery and governance of useful, usable content.
-Kristina Halvorson
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TYPICAL CS TASKS➤ Content audits & inventories
➤ Metadata
➤ Gap analysis
➤ Content style guides
➤ Copywriting
➤ Information architecture
➤ Identify and plan for content that:
➤ Supports key business objectives
➤ Supports users in completing tasks
➤ Supports consistent brand messaging
➤ Supports consistent user experience across multiple contexts and devices
Adapted from Andy Fitzgerald’s Information Architecture & Strategy
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CONTENT AUDIT & INVENTORY
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METADATA
➤ <meta title> ~75 characters
➤ <meta description> ~150 characters
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CONTENT STYLE GUIDE
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WHAT IS IA?
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“Information architecture (IA) focuses on organizing, structuring and labeling content in an effective and sustainable way.
-usability.gov
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TYPICAL IA TASKS
➤ Taxonomies & ontologies
➤ Controlled vocabularies
➤ Navigation maps
➤ Metadata maps
➤ Search functionality specifications
➤ Use cases
➤ User flows
Adapted from Andy Fitzgerald’s Information Architecture & Strategy
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HOW DO THEY RELATE?
➤ Not optional
➤ Concerned with structure, meaning, organization, best practices
➤ Focused mostly on the user
➤ Dip into creatives “territory”
Adapted from Chris Moritz’s Overlapping and Underpinnings - Content Strategy and Information Architecture
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“IA defines structure, content strategy defines mass, creatives define surface.
-Chris Moritz
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TOGETHER, THEY DESCRIBE “WHAT”
Adapted from Andy Fitzgerald’s Information Architecture & Strategy
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ONCE AN AGREED-UPON UNDERSTANDING OF “WHAT” IS ESTABLISHED, SUBSEQUENT DESIGN PHASES
(INTERACTION DESIGN, VISUAL DESIGN) CAN MOVE ON TO “HOW” WITH A CLEAR SENSE OF THE GOALS AND
PRIORITIES OF THE UNDERLYING VALUE PROPOSITION.
Adapted from Andy Fitzgerald’s Information Architecture & Strategy
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WORKING WITH ANOTHER COLLEAGUE
whose tasks also include information architecture
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DEFINE YOUR ROLES
➤ How will you approach the project from your unique perspective?
➤ How can CS and IA help to inform one another?
➤ What does success look like for the other?
➤ Avoid the power struggle.
Posts by Ahava Leibtag’s Content Strategy: 5 Tips on Working with an Information Architect
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TALK ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUNDS
➤ What experiences from previous projects or positions have worked for you?
➤ What strengths or weaknesses do you have?
Posts by Ahava Leibtag’s Content Strategy: 5 Tips on Working with an Information Architect
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EXPLAIN THE INPUTS YOU NEED
➤ What things do your IA or CS colleagues need that you might not be aware of?
➤ There’s always time to talk.
Posts by Ahava Leibtag’s Content Strategy: 5 Tips on Working with an Information Architect
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SMALL AGENCY PROCESS
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PROCESS FROM DISCOVERY THROUGH START OF DESIGN
➤ Signed proposal
➤ Internal discovery kick off (UX, Design, Project Management)
➤ Client discovery kick off
➤ Internal brainstorming
➤ UX and CS work simultaneously
➤ Content audit/inventory
➤ Wireframes
➤ CS provides an initial sitemap based off of discovery insights
➤ UX review of sitemap
➤ Internal wireframe review
➤ Client internal wireframe review
➤ Sitemap is a consistently updated, changeable document
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WHY THIS WORKS
➤ Everyone is on the same page from day one
➤ Input from CS, UX and Design is a group effort
➤ Wireframes are reviewed and edited as a team with input and takeaways from each department
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CONTENT STRATEGY RESOURCES
➤ Content Strategy for the Web, Kristina Halvorson
➤ Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project, Margot Bloomstein
➤ Blog, GatherContent.com
➤ Scatter/Gather medium.com/scatter-gather
➤ A List Apart alistapart.com