Keeping your content alive from cradle to grave

By now we all know that the web is not a publication — that it’s a living, evolving thing. But a lot of content I see still appears to be ‘published’ once and then left alone.

This talk is about what happens after content is published. We’ll talk about how to:

- decide what to create in the first place (and what the best format is)
- identify which content types need to be left alone, and which need to be looked after
- revive existing content and give it a second wind
- check your content is still working for its readers
- put it to sleep when it is time
- put a process in place so you can do this yourself and with distributed content creators

We’ll also discuss how this varies depending on your industry, size of site and type of content.

Transcript

1. Keeping your content alive: From cradle to grave
2. About me • User experience freelancer – information architecture, interaction design, content strategy  Far too long (10+ years) • Run UX Australia (Sydney, late August 2011) • @maadonna Card sorting How to write great copy for the web A practical guide to information architecture
3. What still happens
4. Content strategy “Content strategy plans for the creation, publication and governance of useful, usable content” Kristina Halvorson – The discipline of content strategy http://www.alistapart.com/articles/thedisciplineofcontentstrategy/ “It plots an achievable roadmap for individuals and organizations to create and maintain content that audiences will actually care about.” Kristina Halvorson – Content strategy for the web (New Riders)
5. Does it matter? • Why isn’t it OK to write a site, launch and leave it?
6. The world changes
7. People’s expectations change
11. Your content changes • Rules, policies, procedures, principles, ideas – they all just change
12. What we’re going to talk about • Deciding what to publish in the first place • Identifying content types that can be left alone and which need to be looked after • Reviving existing content • Checking the content is still working • Retiring content when it is time • Processes for distributed content authors
13. What we’re not going to talk about • Not e‐commerce/product sites • Not user‐generated content sites • Relates to content‐heavy sites • Not just words. All content – words, audio, video, diagrams etc
14. What to publish • How do you figure out what to publish? • My list  Stuff you know that people need to know  Upcoming issues and topics  Cyclical content  Feedback from people  Questions from people  Things you learn from actual user research  Search terms
15. Identifying content to leave alone/manage One‐off Needs checking and updating Grows over time
16. Identifying content to leave alone/manage One‐off Needs checking and updating Grows over time • News • Articles • Summaries of something that happened (event) • Instructions • Processes, guidelines & policies • Data (graphs etc) • Conference talks (e.g. UX Australia) • Event details
18. Reviving • Why restart when you can re‐use
26. Reviving • Why restart when you can re‐use • Rotate articles to home page • Restart a discussion • Related and interesting articles
27. Is your content still working? • Walk through key scenarios as if you were new to it
36. Is your content still working? • Walk through key scenarios as if you were new to it • Pay attention to feedback and questions  “How much does the conference cost?”  “Do workshops cost extra?”  “How do I pay you?”  “What time does the conference finish?” • Use remote tools to see what’s happening on your site
41. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24139340@N02/4931570875/
42. Is your content still working? • Walk through key scenarios as if you were new to it • Pay attention to feedback and questions  “How much does the conference cost?”  “Do workshops cost extra?”  “How do I pay you?”  “What time does the conference finish?” • Use remote tools to see what’s happening on your site • Undertake usability testing
44. Retiring content • What do you do when content is ready to retire?
53. Retiring content • What do you do when content is ready to retire? • My list  Delete it (& redirect links)  Mark it as out of date  Wrap it up into past tense (UX Australia)  Archive it
54. And distributed authorship… • Run content like a project • Set milestones/deadlines/tasks • If you’ve identified what you need & what its lifecycle is, this is easy
55. Wrap up • Look after content for its entire lifecycle by:  Deciding what to publish in the first place  Identifying content types that can be left alone and which need to be looked after  Reviving existing content  Checking the content is still working  Retiring content when it is time  Putting in place processes for distributed content authors
56. Questions & thanks • http://maadmob.com.au/ • +61 409‐778‐693 • donna@maadmob.net • Twitter etc: maadonna