Information is at its most useful when it’s clear, consistent, orderly, organized—in other words, when it’s well-structured. And well-structured web content not only brings a bucketful of benefits to the user experience, but also delivers a deeper understanding of the content to us, the web professionals building that user experience.
Learning to focus on structural considerations—how content is built, organized, and connected across the experience—can change the way we work, fostering a more collaborative redesign process and enabling us to better execute our strategies. Using examples from several universities that recently overhauled their sites, this talk shows how structural approaches to content can:
* Make content easier to understand (and improve!)
* Enhance communications with stakeholders and across teams
* Lay a foundation to support future development, editorial work, and governance plans
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“Before the spread of
printing, a highly developed
Memory was needed by the
entertainer, the poet, the
singer, the physician, the
lawyer, and the priest.”
D A N I E L J . B O O R S T I N
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“The printed book would
be a new warehouse of
Memory, superior in countless
ways to the internal invisible
warehouse in each person.”
D A N I E L J . B O O R S T I N
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Track patterns and
themes.
• Keep separate notes for high-
level observations
• Group and regroup notes to find
patterns
• Try Boardthing or post-its
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Be particular about
presentation.
• Visualize content distribution
and other data points
• Lead with themes, not
spreadsheets
• Share raw data as a reference
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Build for next steps.
• Who needs to understand it?
Approve it? Build from it?
• What other work will it inform?
• How much detail does it need?
What other layers can it
support?
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Use structure as a
collaboration point.
• Consider who else needs to use
your documentation
• Don’t be afraid to make
changes
• Make sure your content is
aligned
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Resources
• Content Analysis Tool, content-insight.com
• Treejack, optimalworkshop.com
• Boardthing, boardthing.com
• Eileen Webb’s taxonomy work on the-toast.net:
http://responsivewebdesign.com/toast/taxonomy/
• The Order of Things, Barbara Ann Kipfer
• The Discoverers, Daniel J. Boorstin
• Thanks to the clients whose work I’ve shown here (Carnegie Mellon University
and Seton Hill University), and the agencies I’ve worked with (Brain Traffic,
Seven Heads Design, and Happy Cog)
• Photos sourced from Unsplash.com under a CC0 license