The workshop – hosted in collaboration with Martin Bulmer from Optimal Usability – will join the dots between UX and content strategy, and help you put a proven content strategy process to work on real projects.

The day will be particularly useful for people about to start content development for a large new website or redesign. Get a head-start here!

Content Clinic: Making Content Priority One – UXAustralia 28 August 2012

When we read online we’re impatient, often with a job to do, and constantly enticed to click away. So to quickly give people what they want online, web writing is brief, task focused, structured for ‘skimmers’ and optimised for search engines.

All this is true of mobile writing but more so. The smaller the screen, the sharper the copy.

Mobile content characteristics

Ryan Matzner on Mashable did a great job of summarising how we use mobile content and how it needs to be presented. Mobile use is defined by ‘pockets of use’ – dipping in and out when you have just a moment to spare. Like when you’re waiting at traffic lights (is that legal?), standing in a queue, or waiting for your kid’s turn at ballet recitals.

Then there’s the constant offline distractions, like that nattily dressed person passing you in the street or sale signs in shop windows. Mobile content needs to be precise, concise and designed to grab attention.

How to write content for mobile

Matzner lists a few salient points for those of us charged with creating mobile content. Again, many of these apply to web writing but are amplified when the screen size is minimised.

It’s the usual good stuff: task-focused copy, re–tweetable headings, and ‘frontloaded’ content. Wellington writer Rachel McAlpine popularised this term years ago and it’s more relevant than ever today. Twitter is an ideal training ground for mobile writers!

Matzner’s blog provides a great summary of the demands placed on content strategists and copywriters in a mobile world.

Read the full article on Mashable

The project was user-centred and content-focused from the get-go. Content development was a breeze, thanks to the strategic approach of the Commission’s Content Manager Peter Johnston.

As the new Sorted (designed by Chrometoaster) has just been launched we thought it was a good time to pick Peter’s brains about the value of a content strategy approach on this project.

What role did content strategy play in the redesign of the Sorted website?

“It was all about taking a planned approach to things, making sure what the site was trying to do matched the Commission’s general business and marketing plans.

Content strategy came out of our marketing and business planning and the Content Strategy document itself reflects that. The Think, Shrink, Grow concept also came out of that planning. I think the planning process we went through as a team was the key – the strategy document just captured our thinking.

The Sorted project was focused on the redevelopment so the strategy wasn’t so much focused on ongoing maintenance, it was more high-level.”

What was involved in developing the strategy?

“A lot of research, looking at our analytics and looking at overseas examples. We looked at what pages [on the old site] were most visited, what search terms were being used to find them.

Any organisation that’s been around for a while has legacy content so it was a case of identifying what content was most used, and what content would be most useful.

On the new site we made more use of links to authoritative sources rather than hosting it ourselves. It was all part of achieving content that was more sustainable.”

How did your content strategy influence the design and development process?

“In terms of the IA process it was more a case of coming up with a high-level site structure. We decided we didn’t need card sorting and the like. We had feedback from users, examples from overseas, and evidence that people come looking for financial information when they need to – so, for example, it was important for the new ‘life events’ content stream to be there.

Previously the site was structured into categories like Debt and Investing but people don’t necessarily think that way. So we adopted a twin channel approach – A-Z guides, an open alphabetical listing of financial topics, and life events.

There’s also a more guided ‘Get sorted’ section for people who don’t know where to start. That’s where the Think, Shrink and Grow concept fits in.”

Content strategy is an emerging approach in New Zealand web development. How did you go about it?

“ It’s all about taking a planned approach to content. Kristina Halvorson talks about the importance of governance and the need to think beyond launch date. You don’t want to create a huge amount of work down the track if you don’t have the resource to manage it. It’s about being realistic and sustainable.”

Did your content strategy make it easier to communicate what you wanted to your designers and web writers?

“ In the old days content development would be crammed into the two weeks just before launching a new site. In the Sorted situation content planning was happening alongside the design planning and development thinking.

As soon as we had wireframes we engaged writers and got content organised. So when designs were signed off, content was ready for loading. So content was a year-long project.”

Why did you decide to take this approach?

“It was always our intent to do a content strategy. Professionally it was important to me, part of my professional development. I’d been to the Web Content 2010 conference in Chicago and read the books. If you’re the only person working on the content you may not need a strategy but if you’re getting others involved it’s very important.”

Do you think having a content strategy saved the Commission time, money, hassle or risk?

“ Yes, it definitely saves risk for an organisation. It identified early on that certain resource was required and enabled us to plan for peer review processes so when the site went live we were confident everything had been reviewed.”

The Sorted Content Strategy was relatively brief – only three or four pages. We thought that was great!

“ I’m a ‘less is more’ person and don’t have a big attention span for documents! I struggled initially with what a content strategy should look like. I tried to nut it down to key headings, what it needed to cover.

It didn’t need to cover everything because it sat alongside the content plan, where we mapped out each page, and a style guide which expanded on the key [content strategy] points. So the strategy gave an overview of structure but not the detail of the content plan.

And Chrometoaster had a detailed development plan, including numbering requirements and the like, and I didn’t want the Content Strategy to compete with that. Too much detail [in the Content Strategy] could have mucked that up.”

Do you think the project achieved what you wanted it to?

“ Yes, everything went to plan. The content on the new site looks like it said it would on the tin – the content plan and page tables we created. And so far the feedback has been great!”

Post script: Peter has recently started a new position at Gareth Morgan Investments.

Check out the new Sorted

Sorted

‘Content strategy’ in his view is a red herring, a distraction from the real business of helping clients with their online business. It also, he says, encourages silos within the digital production world. I kinda agree.

Yes we should be focusing on strategic content – if it’s not strategic what are we doing? – and if you’re talking to a senior manager by all means talk their language.

But the tag serves a useful purpose for all the web designers, developers, UX people and writers that make websites.

‘Content strategy’ is short-hand for a way of working towards happy businesses and happy web users. And the constant conversation amongst the people who ‘do’ content strategy every day is evidence of the need for a label, because a lot of the time it’s about process.

What is the best way to give people what they want online, within your client’s budget and timeframe? If you can answer this for a client they will take you seriously, whether you call it content strategy or not.

Content strategy deserves all the focus and attention right now because it is changing the way web design and communication projects happen. Can’t wait to see what Kristina Halvorson et al have to say!

Gerry McGovern’s blog

“Writeclick did a great job on the copy for our newly branded website. From a home-grown website, we now have a professional looking one. Fast turnaround was part of the service, thanks.” Craig Evans.

Medsyn

PKABOO

This March a panel of plain language specialists from all over the world will be going through nominated websites and print documents with a fine-tooth comb. Or is that fine-toothed comb? There’s nothing like the judging process to keep you on your toes – as I’ve found through being involved with New Zealand’s own WriteMark Plain English Awards.

One thing I like about being part of a judging  panel is it really challenges your assumptions and habits. It’s also a great opportunity to stand back and take a good look at what’s happening in your industry. There is much cross-checking, discussion, and questioning – and utter delight when you come across an entry that clearly nails it. I can’t wait.

Find out more about the ClearMark Awards

Peak Performance International is a leading Australasian culture change and culture integration company. We helped them to tell their story with engaging content  designed to resonate with blue chip Australian and New Zealand organisations.

Peak Performance International

“Writeclick took about 90 legal service descriptions drafted by our in-house experts and gave them a consistent style and tone that captured our brand and worked well with our new site design.

“They also brought to the project an invaluable knowledge of search engine optimisation: within two months of launching our new site we were ranking well in Google for a wide range of key search terms for which we had previously been invisible.” Joe Owen, Kensington Swan.

Kensington Swan