When web sites were little more than an online version of a print brochure things were easy. The visual and organizational design was easy — make it look like the brochure. And the content was already written — just paste it in. Now the web team roles include information architecture, usability testing, visual design, programming, and interface design. And after all you still need to content, a process that has grown in complexity too. Maybe that is why so many web projects languish, wanting for content. Perhaps it is time to recognize how complex the whole content game has gotten. This article from A List Apart offers a good place to start.
A List Apart: Articles: The Discipline of Content Strategy
If our community fails to recognize, divide, and conquer the multiple roles associated with planning for, creating, publishing, and governing content, we’ll keep underestimating the time, budget, and expertise it takes to do content right. We won’t clearly define and defend the process to our companies and clients. We’ll keep getting stuck with 11th-hour directives, fix-it-later copy drafts—and we’ll keep on publishing crap.
Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data – Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design
Perhaps the problem is that, because content is so pervasive, everyone thinks they know all there is to know about it. If you can read and write, you can make content, right? (Nearly 60 million blogs may prove that.) But the fact is, as interactive experiences become more complex, so does the nature of content. A superficial understanding of content isn’t going to cut it anymore. Content strategists in the digital age need to become data philosophers and explore the metaphysics of content, starting with the question “What is content?”
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Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!
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