Designing content modules

In my last post, I talked about the "why" and "how" of using content modules to improve efficiency and user experience. In this post, I'll talk about some of the specific considerations in designing content modules. 

Content Module Categories

It's important to think about content modules as a whole, and not to use them for a bunch of one-off messages. Think about the type of information that you want to convey through content modules, and then categorize them. For example, in a recent project that I worked on with Theresa Putkey for Rocky View County in Alberta we decided to use these categories:

• Alerts
• Events/Meetings
• Profiles
• News
• Related Topics
• Contact
• Application CTA
• Survey
• Interesting Facts

Categorizing content modules is extremely important for a number of reasons. Categories are a cornerstone of developing an effective taxonomy, which is they only way to automate updates of contextually relevant content. They're also important to ensure that similar types of information are presented consistently.

Content Module Types

Once you've got your key categories, you can break them down further into content types. These represent the different common types of information that you'll present in each category. You really need to have a strong understanding of your content at this point. Using the examples from the Rocky View County project, here are two of their categories broken down into standard content types:

• Alerts:
• Fire bans
• Weather warnings
• Road closures

• Events/Meetings:
• Basic statistics and link
• Statistics with brief description and link
• List of upcoming events/meetings and links

Defining content modules to this level helps to keep them focused and consistent and prevents a reactive approach to using them to publish any small bits of content that don't fit anywhere else. It also really helps writers to have a template to follow so they can quickly and easily write content that works for each type of content module.

Content Module Priorities

Depending on your website, you may want to assign each category of module with a different priority so that your CMS can pull one type of content module in preference to another. In the examples listed above, the Alert modules were the only content module given a priority one. This meant that in the spots that we wanted Alerts to appear, they would take precedence over any other content modules if they were available. If there were not, then that spot would be filled by a priority two module that met other specifications required of that spot.

Content Module Design

Once you know the type of content you'll be working with in each module, you need to define design requirements. Content modules should be designed to stand out on the page, but not compete against each other for user attention. “Alert” modules should be the most prominent element on any page. Strong CTA's should also be very prominent and obvious. All content modules should follow a consistent visual schema, with each type of content module having its own consistent structure and design. 

Some of the design decisions you'll need to consider and standardize include:

• Visual design
• Size and dimensions
• Text and font size
• Headings and phrasing
• Information design
• Number of characters or words per text element
• Use of photos and/or graphics

Visual design aside, the best way to figure out these design issues is to draft some copy for a number of each type of module and get a sense of the "norm".  Then you can develop sample copy for each content module that can be used to inform the visual design and content guidelines. That way you can be sure that the design requirements actually support the content and not the other way around.

Below are two examples of different types of content modules in the Events category:

Looking at these examples, you can see how a visual designer could get a good understanding of the type and scope of content that he's designing for, and how you could easily create templates and guidelines to help writers develop consistent content across similar content modules. 

Be sure to include content modules in your writer's style guide, and include specifications for each content module type. For example, one type of content module may consist of a heading, brief description, and a descriptive link to the main topic page. You can also specify if there are any constraints such as character limitations, phrasing preferences, or tone of voice variations. 

What other ideas do you have for working with content modules? I'd love to hear other stories about what has worked well for you, or what challenges you've encountered. 

And I extend a huge "Thank You" to the Rocky View team for allowing us to reference their project work and examples in this post. 

Content Strategy Deliverable: The Content Review (aka Heuristic or Expert Review)

This article is part of Rahel Bailie's series on content strategy deliverables. To read all articles in the series, visit Rahel's content strategy deliverables blog list at Intentional Design Inc. You can also follow Rahel on twitter @Rahelab.

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Content Review sample report

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One of the best ways to get an initial picture of content strengths and weaknesses is through an expert review. Also known as a heuristic review, or a content scorecard, the expert review shows how well your current content stands up to industry standards and best practices. 

Benefits of expert reviews

Expert reviews are great for demonstrating content strengths and weaknesses to a client. They’re faster and more affordable than user testing, and can be scaled to meet client and project needs. In conjunction with a content audit, they’re an effective and efficient way to get a really good understanding of the scope of a potential redesign or rewrite of the site. They’re also incredibly valuable in helping to establish project focus and priorities.

Limitations of expert reviews

An expert review is subjective. The quality of the findings is completely dependent on your expertise as a content reviewer. And you need a deep knowledge of writing mechanics and technique, usability and interaction design, information design, content marketing, and branding if you intend to provide holistic results. It’s better to limit the scope of the review to one specific area rather than provide feedback on areas outside of your expertise. It’s also a good idea to have three independent reviewers work through the same heuristics, if possible. Then they collaboratively analyze discrepancies between their opinions and provide focused, consolidated findings. This eliminates some of the potential bias of a single reviewer. 

It’s important to note that an expert review is a diagnostic tool, and content validation should always include testing with real customers. 

Determining the heuristics

It can be a challenge to find the right set of heuristics, or criteria, to include in your evaluation. Typically, I include detailed criteria across 5 – 8 core categories. The focus of the heuristics depends on project and client needs, and your specialized expertise. Usability.gov has some great usability and design guidelines, many of which focus on content. There are tons of different usability and user-centred design guidelines, but they’re all adapted from Jakob Nielsen’s classic set of ten usability heuristics. Think about how these heuristics relate to content and make sure these areas are represented in your criteria. Finally, keep in mind the current best practices for social media and customer engagement when you’re finalizing your criteria. 

Make sure the criteria are specific, granular, can be demonstrated easily, and are organized into relevant categories. In the attached expert review sample, the table of contents shows the categories. The report detail pages will include one page per category, each page listing the specific criteria. In the sample, I’ve demonstrated how one category (Is the information design logical, effective, and consistent?) is made up of eight specific criteria.

Conducting the review

I like to conduct expert reviews around user scenarios. It helps establish a user-centred perspective, keeps you focused on priority areas, and provides a good cross-section of page types. Choose two or three key scenarios to evaluate. 

Create a spreadsheet that includes all of your criteria, the pages you’ll be reviewing, and plenty of space for notes. This is for your eyes only! As you work through the scenarios, evaluate each page based on the criteria. It’s easiest to do multiple sweeps through the pages, focusing on different elements each time. 

Documenting the findings

You end up with LOADS of data from an expert review! The challenge is in boiling it down to key messages that are useful to your client. I always start by providing the big picture, and then drilling down to more detail. For each category, I like to show an example of one criterion with specific comments and recommendations. If a client needs more clarification about specific criteria that I did not highlight, I talk them through it or provide an example at their request. Usually, the focus of the report is on high-level findings and recommendations.

Have a look at my Content Heuristic Review sample report.

I’d love to hear from other people who conduct content or usability expert reviews. Do you have any other tips or advice? What’s worked for you, or what challenges have you had?

What's better: Fewer clicks, or greater simplicity?

For a project I'm currently working on, part of my content strategy involves coming up with a simple information architecture (IA) for a large product & service section of a website. These aren't products or services that people buy frequently, and visitors are only expected to come to this section of the site occasionally. In the IA that I proposed, the user needs to make a few more clicks then they do on the current site but the pages are clean and simple and the path to the products is clear and straight-forward. This was getting some push-back from members of the project team who felt that there were too many clicks. So, what did I do?

First, I asked (yet again) to do user testing. There were all sorts of vague excuses that may make for another interesting blog post, but the bottom line was "no".

Then, I engaged our Vancouver User Experience Group in a lively discussion about which is better: fewer clicks, or greater simplicity.They provided really valuable feedback, and I thought I'd share the gist of it here with you:

• There is no acceptable excuse for not testing with users in a project of this size. Be creative, be sneaky, but get the design options in front of real people!
• Overwhelmingly, for infrequent site visitors, people supported 5 or 6 easy clicks and clear signposts over 2 or 3 clicks that require users to slow down to find the right link. (But for frequent users this isn't true.)
• Use personas and do scenario walkthroughs to make sure that you've considered how users will go through the site to find what they need.
• Be aware that these types of discussions are sometimes more about ego and being right than what's best for the user.

To see the full conversation, check out the VanUE mailing list archive.

But this is design and usability, so what does it have to do with content strategy? Well, design needs to support content, and usability makes sure that content is easy to get to. But everything on the page -- words, buttons, links, navigation --, and the pages themselves, are all content. How the user experiences this content is all part of a content strategy.

So now all I have to do is put on a mask and cape like Zorro, and find some unsuspecting people to walk through our designs... Don't give me away if you see me on the streets of Vancouver!

Please use the comments below to provide your 2 cents worth about what you think is better, fewer clicks or greater simplicity.

Customer-Centric Content: 10 Do's & 10 Do Not's.

It's no secret that if you want to engage your customers, you need customer-centric content. Business people, writers, and marketers are all getting on board with this. But what does customer-centric content look like? And, right now, I'm not talking about the medium or the delivery channel or the content provider. Sure, social media makes it easier to have a conversation with your customers, and customer-generated content is inherently customer-centric... but what about the copy that your company writes? With our ingrained habits of talking about ourselves, our company, and our key benefits, we're not always as good at writing from the customer's perspectives as we'd like.

Here are some tips to keep you focused.

Do Not:

1. Write about how wonderful your company is. It's not credible coming from you.
2. Use a gazillion wonderfully exciting adjectives to describe how unique and revolutionary your amazing new products and services are.
3. Use many words at all.
4. Focus on what you sell.
5. Be too stuffy and serious.
6. Expect your customers to come to your website...just because.
7. Expect to get it right the first time.
8. Interrupt your customers with irrelevant content when they're trying to do something.
9. Try to say more than one thing at one time.
10. Assume your customers are just like you.

Do:

1. Demonstrate that you know who your customers are, without telling them. 
2. Demonstrate how wonderful your company is, without talking about it.
3. Write as if you're a person, wanting to build a relationship with your customers.
4. Reflect your customers motivations, emotions, and life-context in your writing. 
5. Provide content that is relevant to both your customers, and your business. 
6. Be generous in sharing your knowledge in your area of expertise.
7. Get customer feedback, rewrite, revise, repeat.
8. Make products and service details easy to find and make the buying process easy.
9. Publish your content where your customers hang out. 
10. Focus on your industry expertise and customer needs.

Any other good ideas? Let me know.

Stakeholder interviews for quality content: Why, who, and how

Stakeholder interviews aren't very sexy. They're not new, or controversial, or unique to content strategy. They don't lend themselves to interesting diagrams or sketches. Both writers and clients often overlook them entirely. I'm not sure why. I think they just don't get it. They just don't see how powerful and useful stakeholder interviews can be. They must have tried it once, found it lacking, and gave up on it. If you're one of "them", I suggest you try again.

After all, how can we speak for our clients, if we don't speak to them? Here are some tips to make it easy for you.

Why do stakeholder interviews?

To build relationships and establish credibility. What better way to reach out and establish a conversation with the people who can make or break your project and those who know the most about it? You get to know them, they get to know you, and information is much more likely to flow your way after that. If you're walking in cold as a new project team member, stakeholder interviews (done right) are a fantastic way to establish yourself as someone who can listen, contribute, and add value.

To identify patterns. Whether you're trying to determine content requirements, business objectives, customer needs, or anything else, you have to look for patterns. And the best way to identify patterns is to ask each similar type of stakeholder a similar set of questions. Of course, you're going to ask on-the-fly follow up and probing questions, but when your core set of questions are consistent throughout your interviews, you'll find that patterns emerge. These patterns point you in the right direction.

To find discrepancies. Identifying differences of opinion early in the project is critical. If key stakeholders disagree it's better to bring that to light before any development is done. Sometimes discrepancies are OK (like different business units having different objectives) and can be dealt with in various ways. Other times, you really need to facilitate a commonly accepted approach, whether or not everyone is in agreement. For example, neither you nor the project will be successful if there is no widespread acceptance of who the target market is or how to communicate with them. Discrepancies can also indicate an abundance of subjective opinion and lack of real knowledge. You want to base your content strategy and content decisions on sound research and knowledge.

To unearth that golden nugget. It doesn't matter how prepared the project lead is, and how many stacks of documents they've given you outlining project research and requirements, there is ALWAYS a gold nugget still locked away in a stakeholder's brain. Maybe it's an interesting insight, or a great piece of research, or some examples that demonstrate what can't be articulated through words. Sometimes you just need to get the facts straight, or validate your assumptions. Stakeholders are powerhouses of knowledge, and there's always something new to find out through talking to them directly.

Who do you interview? The people who..

Hold the purse strings. We gotta keep them happy. They also tend to know a lot of useful stuff. Think department Directors, VPs, etc.

Influence the people who hold the purse strings. These people are a giant step closer to the actual project. They've usually fought to get the project budget from the person above and are highly invested in it. You better get input from these people, because if you head off in a direction they don't understand they'll stop you in your tracks. These are often business managers.

Have customer knowledge. These are your customer stand-ins and advocates. They work directly with customers and understand their motivations and pain points. They often have a practical perspective and can provide insights that help you to see past a mountain of wish-lists and identify the few, critical, customer must-haves. These may be call-centre staff, sales people, or service providers.

Have technical knowledge. It's all fine and well to create a brilliant content strategy, but if the client doesn't have the technical resources to make it happen, then it will die before it's born. Do your homework: talk to the IT guys.

Have subject matter knowledge. As a writer, you know a lot of stuff. Especially about writing. But odds are, there are people in the company who know a lot more about what you're writing about than you do. You need to combine your writing wizardry with their knowledge. These people could be anyone. They may have an official title (like "Subject Matter Expert"), or they could be any old employee who has specialized knowledge.

How do you interview?

Get as close as possible. Face-to-face is best. By phone is OK if necessary, and sometimes preferable. For example, I'll often choose to do stakeholder interviews over the phone prior to an out-of-town, on-site project kick off to begin establishing relationships and so I can have something to contribute when we all meet. Then when I arrive on site, they already feel like they know me. But for the most part, interview in person when possible. Don't use surveys of any sort.

Be respectful of time. There's no right or wrong time frame. It depends entirely on the purpose of the interview and who you're interviewing. But as a basic guideline, ask for half the time you think you'd really need and stick to it. If you frame your questions well, and stay on track, you won't need all the time you think you do anyway. And you can always follow up later if necessary. Most of my stakeholder interviews run about 20-45 minutes, depending on the purpose. Subject matter interviews may need longer, but for anything requiring more than 1 hour it's better to break it up over multiple sessions. Or turn it into a half day session and call it a workshop!

Carefully craft your questions. This is critical. Developing really effective interview questions is both art and science. Read up on how to design good interview questions for your objectives. Focus your questions on three or four main topics and make sure that every question counts. Edit out the weak questions and eliminate redundancy unless it's part of your interviewing strategy. Always test-drive your interview questions on a real person first. Bonus points if that test person has a similar knowledge base as your actual stakeholders.

Take good notes. Consider having someone else take notes for you so you can focus on the interview. Make notes of any potential quotes that you could use if you're delivering a stakeholder interview report. Quotes that reflect common themes are a great way to personalize the data you collect.

What Kind of Content Are You Serving?

What kind of content are you trying to serve to your customers?
And what does it say about you?

2 New Ways to Think About Content

We all know that content creates the web experience. So let’s go beyond that. If you think of content as any scripted business communication, the opportunities for impacting business strategy and customer experience increase. Customers will experience your content either directly, or indirectly through your employees.

Customer/Content Touch-Points

Here are some common ways in which customers interact not just with your business, but with your content:

• Being welcomed as they enter your business (Think, “Good afternoon, welcome to Burger Bonanza where we make big beautiful burgers, my name is Nancy Natterbox, what can I get for you today?).
• Listening to customer service or sales reps go through their spiel.
• Listening to, and interacting with, voice messages or recordings.
• Filling out application or membership forms. And sometimes more forms. And more forms.
• Reading follow-up e-mails.
• Reading your service contract.
• Reading your privacy and policy statements, guarantees, and disclaimers.
• Reading reminder notices.
• Reviewing invoices and statements. 
• Reading print newsletters, brochures, or articles.
• Completing surveys.

Employee/Content Touch-Points that Impact Customer Experience

Your customer’s experience is also directly impacted by how your employees interact with the content that you provide to them. Here are some ways in which your employees interact with content that can make a massive difference to the customer experience:

• Reading from scripts.
• Going through checklists.
• Filling out print or online forms.
• Getting face-to-face training, or reading training materials.
• Searching for information on the intranet.
• Referring to policies or procedures.

Take a moment to think about all of these different content touch-points in your business. What other content touch-points do you have? Do they all work together to create a consistently great customer experience? Do they effectively convey the same core values and brand messaging? Do they provide an effective and efficient tool for both customers and employees?

If you’re like most businesses, you’ve just identified a huge opportunity to strengthen your customer experience strategy simply by improving your content. Some tools that are particularly helpful to get you started are journey mapping and content assessments. More about those later!

How to add content activities to your UCD process

Are you part of a UCD or Customer Experience team that's recently had a eureka moment and realized that you need to pay attention to content? You know that quality content needs to be part of your process if you're ever going to create really great customer experiences, but what does that look like?

Here's a simple diagram that shows various content-related activities that can be done throughout the various project stages. Some of them reflect traditional UCD activities, just be sure to include a content component in each of them!

A Real Feel-Good Online Experience

I love great online experiences. I never expect them, because they're almost non-existent. I'm more used to frustration and roadblocks. But every once in a while a great experience jumps out and surprises me and gives me a big fat smile. I was so happy with my purchase of the book Rework, and my experiences leading up to it, that I have to share it with you. It's a terrific example of great content, after great content, after great content... all working together to create a great customer experience.

Good content #1: Social relevance and intrigue

I read a tweet from Copyblogger recommending the book Rework, from 37signals. In less than 140 characters, I was captured by two persuasive messages: 1) Somebody else (like me) enjoyed a specific product, and 2) he commented on how much he liked Rework's web page, which made me curious enough to actually go look at it.

Good content #2: Product positioning

A big image of the book. On the cover: A great but concise testimonial from a well-known name, and an interesting graphic. I keep going. Back cover: Interesting, controversial, concise, clever. Definitely keep going. I see three YouTube videos, which I watch one by one. And I'm completely sold! The movies convey the basice theme of the book, and I get a sense that the authors are smart, clever, funny, articulate, and a bit irreverent. AND they're talking about something that interests me! I love it. I see the table of contents (in this case "essays") which confirms my first impression. I want to buy this book.

Good content #3: Super-slick, 1-click shopping with almost invisible upselling

Cut over to Amazon (In the USA you can do this directly by clicking on the book's image). I'm not a big consumer. I rarely shop unless my kids clothes are two sizes too small or it's Christmas. But I do admit to a certain fondness for books. Some call it an addiction, but that's just semantics. At any rate, I have an Amazon account with 1-click shopping set up, so literally all I have to do is select the book and click to purchase. But I like to watch my dollars so I check out the price before I buy. Very reasonable! So reasonable, in fact, that I need to add another book to get free shipping. No problem, there's always a good selection of books sitting in my Amazon wish list. Easy, easy, easy. I don't need to dig out my credit card. I don't need to spend time finding another book to purchase. There is not a single thing to distract me from my decision to buy, and buy right now.

So, who wins?

Everyone. Copyblogger wins because I talk about him, retweet his tweet, link to him in my blog. 37signals wins because I bought their book Rework, and am talking about it. And Amazon wins because not only did I buy Rework from them, I added another book to the order! And I win, because I'm happy that everything just worked to support me. I never felt like I was being sold anything at any point along the way. I was being shown something that I would enjoy, and was provided with a quick and easy way to buy it.

Was this just random good luck? No. It was a result of well-designed, effective, strategic content that provided me with an effortless experience. Someone else did all the work so I didn't have to.

Now, I just have to wait to enjoy the book.

Content Strategy: Sitting at the Customer Experience Table

Content Strategy is in its infancy as a recognized discipline and, like infants everywhere, is often overlooked. We’re still in the process of figuring out how we communicate our value and skills to ourselves let alone our clients. But people are starting to take notice, so we really need to ask ourselves: “Who do we want to be when we grow up?”

We all know the importance of first impressions. We’re in the unique position of being able to significantly impact how the business community views content strategy as a discipline. Because they’re only just starting to notice we exist. Think about that for a minute—it’s really, really cool!

As a new discipline, we have a responsibility to take our own advice and think strategically. We only have one chance to create our first impression in the business world.

Looking beyond the details

Too often we fall into the trap of carrying out our work in a tactical way. We educate clients about the need for improved processes, content testing, and editorial calendars. We focus on content audits, content design, and content management systems. We talk about web content, mobile content, structured content, and social media. These are great things—they’re the tools, technologies, and methodologies that we rely on to do our job. But, if these things are only tools, who are we as content strategists?

We need to step back and really articulate why we do what we do. Not how, but why. Why do we care about plain language so much? People don’t go to websites to find plain language any more than they go to them to experience the navigation. Why do people consume social media content like they’re starving? It certainly isn’t because they love the quality of the prose they find there. Why do so many people still pick up the phone hoping to talk to a knowledgeable and friendly support person?

At the most basic level, these things are successful because they make customers feel good.

Content strategy is customer experience

Every successful piece of content creates a positive experience for the person who interacts with it. You may have a brilliant piece of writing, efficiently developed through streamlined processes and targeted to a specific audience—but if it doesn’t contribute to the customer having a good experience with your client’s company, then it’s not successful.

The “strategy” in content strategy needs to reflect our focus on contributing to, and even driving, the overall customer experience. Even when we only implement a single element of the content strategy, such as web content or content process improvement, we need to know how it fits into the bigger picture and who the other players are. And we want to help shape that bigger picture whenever possible. It’s not just about unifying and improving content to create an effective website, or mobile application, or whatever. That’s content strategy for a project. We can aim even higher.

We can also contribute to the overall communication strategy and articulate content needs not just for online channels, but for print materials, face-to-face contact, phone support, corporate communications—basically, for every customer touch point. Because it’s the combined effect of every touch point that creates the customer experience. And that’s content strategy for a business.

The business community is realizing that the quality of customer experience is quickly becoming the leading differentiator that provides competitive advantage. And content is at the very core of customer experience.

Integrate, collaborate, and contribute

Currently, user-centred design (UCD) teams are beginning to fill the screaming demand for improved customer experiences. And they’re making tremendous headway. But the vast majority of these UCD teams do not have the necessary content-related skills or experience to even identify the current issues with content, let alone provide strategic advice on how to include content in the overall experience strategy. So content continues to be ignored.

Just when content strategy is becoming grown up enough to sit at the web design table, the UCD teams are moving to the customer experience table! This time, we need to invite ourselves to dinner before the meal is served. We’ll be welcome, because we’re bringing something that’s new and needed. By combining our content skills with traditional UCD skills, we can finally impact all communication channels, organizational silos, and customer touch points to create a truly holistic, consistent, and effective customer experience.

So, while most of our actual content-strategy work may relate to one particular channel, or audience segment, or project stage, we need to retain a very clear focus on what it’s all about. And that’s creating great experiences for our clients’ customers, and making sure that our clients know that that’s what we bring to the table – not just audits, and metrics, and copy, but experiences.

If we position ourselves as an integral part of the customer-experience team, rather than focusing on isolated content elements or communication channels, then businesses will view us in that way. We can grow up knowing that we are an accepted contributor to a core business strategy. Which is exactly where we need to be.