http://www.informationdesign.org/ Dedicated to the growth and improvement of the information experience industries. en-us plato@xs4all.nl 2013-06-10T09:56:34+01:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Facts, not 'factoids'. Find 'Facts', replace 'Content'. "Users hunt for facts online, so factually rich content will attract readers and keep their attention." (Jakob Nielsen ~ Alertbox) Content strategy 2013-06-10T09:56:34+01:00 Getting your hands dirty with markup for real. "Content strategists should realize that XML isn't scary and it is really powerful for doing cool things with your content. In the 'olden days' when we first began creating Web-based content we used to have to use HTML codes to tag the content, now you create content in web forms or Word and rarely, if ever, have to think about the HTML codes. The same is true of XML, you don't have to use codes to create content, there are lots of tools that 'hide' the XML tags. However, XML is much smarter than HTML. HTML tags describe the formatting structure of the content, XML defines the semantic structure of the content. For example, we can define that some content is a teaser and then have the system handle it differently when published to the Web, mobile, or even print." (Words+Pictures=Web) Content strategy 2013-05-23T10:51:05+01:00 The larger the organization, the more important this component becomes. "While all three components (creation, publication, governance) of the content strategy lifecycle are intended to be ongoing, it's the Governance component that often requires the most dedication due to its never ending need for attention. Once content is created and published then it will forever need to be managed, maintained, optimised and compliant which leads to the age old question of 'where to begin?'" (Jessica O'Sullivan ~ Siteimprove) Content strategy 2013-05-14T17:47:47+01:00 Including the notion that form (a.k.a. presentation) has meaning too. "Arguing for 'separation of content from presentation' implies a neat division between the two. The reality, of course, is that content and form, structure and style, can never be fully separated. Anyone who's ever written a document and played around to see the impact of different fonts, heading weights, and whitespace on the way the writing flows knows this is true. Anyone who's ever squinted at HTML code, trying to parse text from tags, knows it too." (Karen McGrane a.k.a. @karenmcgrane ~ A List Apart) Content management 2013-05-02T15:54:44+01:00 Mnemonic device for the UX disciplines: LATCH re-visited. "The reason I ask has to do with something you may remember from early math classes when coursework introduced multiple types of operations. There needed to be a set of rules in place so that little Jimmy would know whether or not multiplication happens before or after subtraction. Enter the Order of Operations, a.k.a 'Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally'." (Tom Harari a.k.a. @tomharari ~ iAcquire) Content strategy 2013-04-12T16:41:32+01:00 Reducing the essence of content strategy to a holy trinity: create, publish, and govern. "Creating effective website content can be an arduous task, especially when so many factors must be considered: varying role capacities, internal politics, customer expectations etc. However, following a structured strategy can make creating focused content a piece of cake!" (Jessica O'Sullivan ~ SiteImprove) Content management 2013-03-27T12:47:33+01:00 Object orientation moving up the ladder. Now, it's entering the info layer. "When the word modular comes up in a conversation about web design, it's usually in regards to the code. Object oriented programming on the backend, separating structure, presentation, and behavior on the front end, or perhaps the reuse of certain visual patterns like buttons across the site. However, if we're going to spend some time talking about modularity in web design our first stop, like everything else web design, should be the content." (Steven Bradley a.k.a. @vangogh ~ Vanseo Design) Content strategy 2013-02-18T11:57:20+01:00 A kind of new style DIKW and DTDT thinking with "(...) describes what content really is." "Content is a piece of information we want to share with our audience. We create content by turning a piece of information into a type that our audience is familiar with. Then we distribute that content on the channels where we think our target audiences spend their time." (Ahava Leibtag a.k.a. @ahaval) Content strategy 2013-02-13T10:28:39+01:00 Desperately hoping CM and CMSs get consumerized as well. "One last thing that end-users need to keep in mind as they think about solutions that are migrating from the consumer world to the enterprise world. A consumer application is not necessarily battle hardened for enterprise use." (Digital landfill) Content management 2013-02-07T14:56:20+01:00 Testimonial for content strategy, the Canadian way. "Content strategy is the most important part of your project. It is where you plan what to put into the website, trade publication, brochure, catalog, fifty foot outdoor advertisement, or whatever. Some companies do content strategy intuitively, but most need a lot of help. Enter the content strategist." (Darcy Hastings a.k.a. @bioagency ~ BIO digital) Content strategy 2013-02-07T14:40:09+01:00 Karens star is rising and rising. Interview with Karen McGrane. ~ "For us this is a generational issue, and it's our life's work to help contribute to organizations’ learning how digital design (and information architecture) should fit into their organization. If we are going to be successful, we may not fix it for ourselves, but for the next generation of digital designers, I want to leave those organizations better off. There will also be some social darwinism, where the organizations that successfully navigate this transition are the ones that are going to survive." (IA Summit 2013) Content strategy 2013-02-05T11:58:17+01:00 Embedding in the existing organization. A big challenge for UX and CX management and staff. "It's time to leave the web sandbox and lead the organization into a deeper understanding of the power and use of digital channels. It's time to inform and engage executives so that organizational expectations are reasonable and that they're supported culturally and fiscally. So maybe you can clean up the mess in six months - but it's going to take a lot of resources and a cultural shift that can probably only be directed from an executive level. Most likely though, tough 'redesigns' are going to be ongoing evolutions." (Lisa Welchman a.k.a. @lwelchman ~ WelchmanPierpoint) Content management 2013-01-30T14:47:06+01:00 We tend to forget how important the content infrastructure and technology is. "They create a language to express publishing, content management, or reuse concerns, and then expect writers to write directly into what is really an internal content management format. Putting a graphical face over the markup does nothing to change this. The graphical interface only hides the syntax of the XML. It does nothing to change the fact that authors are being asked to create what should be the internal semantics of the publishing system — semantics they generally neither care about nor understand." (Mark Baker ~ EveryPageIsOne) Content management 2013-01-30T10:03:53+01:00 Information management and technical communication appear to be the parents of content strategy. "Over the years technical communication has transitioned from a conventional author-reader engagement to a realm of social collaboration. Let's take a look at how technical communication has progressed over time and the significant milestones along the way." (Monalisa Sen and Debarshi Gupta Biswas ~ tcworld) Content strategy 2013-01-09T13:50:21+01:00 Without a plan, no project. Without a plan, no modification of the planning. "It turns out that the only real way to avoid a trainwreck with editorial work is to get ahead of the trouble, line everything up carefully, and leave oodles of room for all the pieces to connect on time. The same is true of content strategy, content planning, and just about everything to do with content on the web, except for the writing itself – and that, too, usually takes far longer than anyone expects. If you’re not a professional editor and you suddenly find yourself dealing with content creation, you’re almost certainly going to underestimate the time and effort involved, or to skip something important in the planning process that pops up to bite you later." (Erin Kissane a.k.a. @kissane ~ 24ways) Content strategy 2012-12-21T09:46:43+01:00