Karen McGrane

A List Apart asked some very smart people (and me) what they learned about the web in 2011.

I wrote about my realization that the problems we face with a multi-device future, the problems we’re trying to solve with responsive design or with other interaction design strategies, these problems are just as much about content strategy, and the solution lives way down in the CMS:

What blew my mind this year was when I realized that the problems we have with mobile and the problems we have with content management systems are the same problem. It’s been clear to me for a while that we need to provide better interfaces and workflows to content creators—if we want to publish great content, we’ve got to give people the tools to do it. What I didn’t realize until this year is doing that solves a lot of problems for mobile, too.

If we’re going to succeed in publishing content onto a million different new devices and formats and platforms, we need interfaces that will help guide content creators on how to write and structure their content for reuse. When we talk about mobile, we often focus on the front-end interactions, design, and code, but what I realized this year is that the solution to many problems with mobile lives way further down the stack, in the CMS.

This didn’t come to me as a lightning bolt out of the blue. I learned it the honest way: by researching and reading people who have smart things to say about our editorial processes across print, web, and mobile, content management interfaces, workflows, and APIs, and what that means for the future.

You might want to learn this too, so here’s a roundup of some of the best sources.

Structured Content + Responsive Design

If you think responsive design is just for designers and developers, then you’re missing out on the most exciting thing to happen to content strategy since the Excel spreadsheet.

A Richer Canvas
You know, I think we’re on to something when very respected graphic designers like Mark Boulton start arguing for content strategy. Actually, go ahead and smack me for saying that—of course great designers want great content, and skilled writers respect excellent design. The challenge is for us to work together to figure out what it means to think from the content out rather than the canvas in. What kind of structure do we need to put into our content so that designers can embrace the “unpredictable, fluid, fragile” nature of the web?
See also: Mark Boulton on designing websites using “content out” in .Net Magazine
See also: Content First by Jeremy Keith

Structured Content First
Stephen Hay gets this party started with a presentation that explains how content should be platform-agnostic for content, and platform-aware for user experience. Because layout and responsive design is only part of the problem, he explains that structured content is the baseline we need for responsive design. This is a Slideshare presentation, but don’t fret—there’s an audio track available and video too!

Structured Content, Shifting Context: Responsive Design, Content Strategy & the Future
Sara Wachter-Boettcher gives a great introduction to why responsive design isn’t just about design—it’s a content strategy problem, first and always. Content has to be ready for a future that’s fluid, shifting, and adaptive to change. To do so brings together the best of information architecture and the best of content strategy: people who are effective at structuring and describing content because they deeply understand the message and the meaning.
See also: Content First?: Semantics, Structure, and Why We Should Care by Sara Wachter-Boettcher

Nimble Report
Rachel Lovinger showed me a draft of this report when we were at the first CS Forum in Paris a couple years ago. It blew my mind then, not just because of the smart writing and appealing design, but also because it neatly synthesized a complex topic and made it accessible to mere mortals. It still blows my mind today, for being years ahead of its time. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s a classic. If you’re wondering why it makes my 2011 roundup even though it’s been around for a while, it’s because no discussion of this topic would be complete without it.

CMS + API

Mmm, alphabet soup. Once thought to be strictly the domain of hard-core techies, content management systems and application programming interfaces are now topics that should matter to every content strategist.

4 ways content management systems are evolving & why it matters to journalists
A better title might be: “… and why it matters to every business.” Publishers may be the most demanding users of a content management system, but the challenges they face in distributing and managing content across the entire social ecosystem are shared by many. The solution is to think of CMS as set of technologies, not a one-stop-shop, and to embrace open-source projects like WordPress, Drupal, and Django. The most benefits are gained when businesses think of the CMS as a platform that requires constant development and refinement to make it both useful and appealing to its content creator users.

COPE: Create Once, Publish Everywhere
Daniel Jacobson of NPR (now at Netflix) describes NPR’s approach to content management and API development, which aims to separate content from display to ensure content modularity and portability. NPR credits its API with increasing page views by 80%, largely because they’re able to get their content onto a variety of mobile devices without custom programming.
See also: Notes from NPR’s 2011 SxSW Session, by Scot Hacker

Your WYSIWYG Editor sucks
The title says it all: WYSIWYG CMS editors are the enemy of both structured content and standards-based web design. Let’s rise up and defeat them! Rachel Andrew details the many, many ways that they suck, and explains how we can do better. She notes, wisely, that there are technology components to this solution, but the real challenge lies in getting content authors to give up their familiar Microsoft Word editing model.

Make It Semantic from the Start
CMSes are vertically integrated, combining content editing + management with display + publishing. Their production model is still print-centric, thinking about how to get content online only later in the process. This might (sort-of) work when going from print to web, but it breaks down when going from print to our crazy multi-device future. Dan Willis says the answer is a semantic publishing system that chunks content appropriately, allowing it to be recombined in different ways on different platforms.
See also: When Did Print Become an Input? by Ann Michael
See also: Publishers: Structured Data and Content Management Systems by by Andrew Davies
See also: The New, Convoluted Life Cycle Of A Newspaper Story

Add To RSS

If you haven’t heard enough on this subject, then you should be following these writers.

Every Page is Page One
With topic categories like “Metadata Matters,” “Objects vs. Chunks,” and “Every Page is Page One,” Mark Baker’s blog reads like a rallying cry for the future of content. Of course, the future of content isn’t new: he’s a 20-year veteran technical communicator.

CMSish
A blog “where web content management and user experience collide.” Fortunately, the collision is less like a car accident and more like a streamlined knitting of perspectives. Michael Kowalski has worked with tons of publishers and believes “editorial staff should be given great tools to work with, that offer every bit as good a user experience as the best consumer apps.”

The CMS Myth
Hear veterans of the interactive space tell you why your web CMS isn’t a silver bullet. It’s about more than just the technology: it’s about people and process too. Sounds good, right?

The Rockley Group
Ann Rockley has been talking about what she calls “Intelligent Content” for years. Her book, Managing Enterprise Content, is an out-of-print gem; fortunately for all of us a second edition is on the way.

Me Me Me Me Me

Forgive the shameless self-promotion, but I’ve said a thing or two about these subjects in 2011.

5by5 Podcasts
5by5 is a fantastic set of podcasts, a few of which I’ve appeared on recently.
The Web Ahead with Jen Simmons
Content Talks with Kristina Halvorson
The Big Web Show with Jeffrey Zeldman and Dan Benjamin

Web Content 2011
Jeff Eaton and I gave a presentation called “Making the most of mobile,” where we talked about our favorite subject, the “reusable content store.” How will it help us deal with the proliferation of new devices and platforms, and what are the challenges that prevent us from getting there?
Interview
Slides
Video Part 1
Video Part 2

Drupalcon Chicago
Eaton and I again co-presented, this time talking about how to use familiar practices from user experience to customize the interface and workflow of Drupal, in a presentation titled “Baby Got Backend: Content administrators are users too.”
Slides
Audio

CS Forum 2011
I gave one of the keynotes at this international content strategy event. This talk, called “The way forward: what’s next for content strategy,” was aimed squarely at the content strategy profession and talked about what we as a community need to do next.
Slides
Video
Notes by Martin Belam

Do It With Drupal
This was the first draft of my latest “stump speech,” called “Adapting ourselves to adaptive content.” In this talk, I pull together everything I’ve learned this year, and identify what we need to do next to adapt our content to the new world of fragmented devices and platforms we now live in.
Interview
Slides
Video (requires subscription)

An Event Apart
I couldn’t be more excited to be taking my “Adapting ourselves to adaptive content” talk on the road with An Event Apart this year and next. I’ve already spoken in DC but you can see me in Atlanta, Seattle, or Boston in 2012.
DC October 24-26, 2011
Atlanta February 6-8, 2012 (register)
Seattle April 2-4, 2012 (register)
Boston June 18-20, 2012 (register)

Filed under: Content Strategy

Are you feeling left out of the party that is content strategy because you’re not a content strategist? I’ll tell you a secret: I’m not a content strategist either.

And yet, I’m still qualified to talk about why content is important to user experience. And you are too! If you don’t believe me, watch this video of my talk from IDEA 10. You can even follow along with the slides.

We are all content strategists now (on Vimeo.com)

Filed under: Content Strategy

Content strategy is on fire, and I am out there, fanning the flames. Please stay tuned for a promotional message from our sponsor, highlighting four FIVE upcoming events. They’re going to be fantastic. You know what would be even more fantastic? If you came to one of these!

UX Week, San Francisco, August 25

At this amazing event hosted by Adaptive Path, I’ll be leading a full-day, action-packed workshop on how to integrate content strategy into the UX design process. Working off a familiar UX process framework, I’ll show how content strategy fits into the mix with four entertaining, hands-on exercises.
Learn more and register now!

Planning-ness, Brooklyn, September 30

I have a particular fascination with how content strategy fits into advertising and publishing models. So I’m delighted to be leading a workshop at Planning-ness, an unconference aimed at planners and creatives. Branded content? Social publishing? Editorial workflow? See how content strategy enables all of these.
More about Planning-ness

IDEA 2010, Philadelphia, October 1-2

Wow. I am extra proud to be invited to speak at IDEA, a top-notch conference put on by my many friends in the Information Architecture Institute. Expect me to throw down the gauntlet for tighter integration between information architecture and content strategy.
IDEA program announced soon!

Iceweb, Reykjavík, October 7-8

I’m doing not one but TWO talks at this phenomenal conference in Iceland. Hop over to Reykjavík, pay your respects to the volcano, support the Icelandic economy, and see me give both a workshop and a short talk on content strategy. And an extra special bonus level of awesome: more content strategy talk from the inimitable Relly Annett-Baker.
Give it up for Iceweb

Content Strategy Forum, London, September 5-7 2011

It’s more than a year away, and I am already bouncing up and down with excitement. While it hardly seems possible that we could improve on the CS Forum in Paris, we’re going to take it to eleven at the next European event in London. This time with 100% fewer volcanic ash clouds from Iceland (I hope.) Also this time with me as a headliner, sharing the bill with the renowned Gerry McGovern.*
Register for more info

* Elizabeth McGuane, Gerry and I insist that this event is organized by Together London. Any involvement from the nefarious cabal of people whose last names start with McG is entirely imagined. I swear.

Filed under: Content Strategy

One of the most enjoyable events I’ve done recently was a UX meetup in Melbourne. This talk—about how we screw ourselves over by not planning for content—is one of my personal favorites. The audience in Melbourne was a hoot and had some great questions. On the off chance that you weren’t in Melbourne that night, here’s the video.

Karen McGrane on Web Content Strategy or “Avoiding the Eleventh hour Sh*tstorm Problem” from UX Melbourne on Vimeo.

Filed under: Content Strategy

Lorem Ipsum is one of those things like silicone breast implants or orange spray cheese in a can that just seems wrong. It’s fake. It’s unabashedly fake. It calls attention to itself by being so fake, making you look at it in wonder, asking: “What is that? Can that be real?”

We don’t like fake, right? We like organic cheeses, and, well, organic breasts, and we’re 100% in favor of real content in our designs.

What you put in your mouth or have surgically inserted into your body is your business. What you put in your wireframes or your design comps? Well, that’s a heated public debate. With respected thought leaders asking us to pinky-swear that we’ll never, ever use Lorem Ipsum ever again, I want to say a few words in support of greek text.

A Symptom of a Bigger Problem

I’m a word person, okay? I start with the content, and design around it. I often show draft copy in design reviews. And yet, I still use Lorem Ipsum. I believe wholeheartedly that greek text has a place in the interaction designer’s toolkit. Even content strategists can find a place in their hearts for it.

Now, look. if you’re running a project where you mock up designs, get them approved, code them up, build a CMS, hook it all together, and then everyone looks around and says “Who’s got the content? Wait, this content doesn’t match the designs and it won’t fit in the CMS!” then you have a problem. A big problem.

But you know what? Lorem Ipsum is not the cause of your problem. It’s a symptom. The real problem is an overall process that treats design and content as separate tracks without appropriate communication, collaboration, and checkpoints along the way. Thinking you’ll solve your content strategy problem by signing a purity pledge that you’ll never use Lorem Ipsum is like saying “you’re a crapass designer and the solution is you should quit using drop shadows.” A step in the right direction, perhaps, but one that focuses on changing a superficial behavior rather than fixing the underlying problem.

Why They Say You Shouldn’t Use Lorem Ipsum (and Why It’s Okay)

The internet mob is out in force, waving sticks and torches and demanding Lorem Ipsum’s head on a platter. Why so much hate for nonsense text?

Designs can’t be evaluated without real content

I’ve heard the argument that “lorem ipsum” is effective in wireframing or design because it helps people focus on the actual layout, or color scheme, or whatever. What kills me here is that we’re talking about creating a user experience that will (whether we like it or not) be DRIVEN by words. The entire structure of the page or app flow is FOR THE WORDS.

—Kristina Halvorson, Death to Lorem Ipsum & Other Adventures in Content, Adaptive Path

For those who would argue that it’s impossible to evaluate designs without real content, let me ask this: why then, is it okay to evaluate content out of context of the designs? To review copy decks devoid of color, typography, layout, and styling means that readers are missing out on the important signals communicated by design—cues to priority, weight, and hierarchy of information, but also emotional and aesthetic appeal. If content strategists want to ask designers to stop using Lorem Ipsum, maybe designers should insist that content strategists add style sheets to their copy decks that match the proposed design direction.

Or maybe not. How about this: build in appropriate intersections and checkpoints between design and content. Accept that it’s sometimes okay to focus just on the content or just on the design.

Fake data breaks down in real life

Using dummy content or fake information in the Web design process can result in products with unrealistic assumptions and potentially serious design flaws. A seemingly elegant design can quickly begin to bloat with unexpected content or break under the weight of actual activity. Fake data can ensure a nice looking layout but it doesn’t reflect what a living, breathing application must endure. Real data does.

—Luke Wroblewski, Death to Lorem Ipsum, Functioning Form

For better or for worse, websites are templated. Content management systems and other publishing platforms make it possible to display different content in the same template. When you’re publishing thousands of articles, or product pages, or user profiles, each with variable sizes and business rules for different content elements, it’s easy to see how unexpected scenarios can break the design.

This is a complex problem, and the solution isn’t as simple as just avoiding Lorem Ipsum. Using test examples of real content and data in designs can help, but this doesn’t guarantee that every outlier will be caught and fixed. A prototype or beta site with real content published from the real CMS is the only way to really be sure—but you’re not going to get there until you go through an initial design cycle.

I’ve found that Lorem Ipsum actually helps in the design stage, because it calls attention to places where the content is a dynamic block coming from the CMS (as opposed to static content elements that will always stay the same.) A block of Lorem Ipsum with a character count range provides a tangible reminder to double-check that the design and the content model match up.

Or how about this approach?

Distracting copy is your fault

If the copy becomes distracting in the design then you are doing something wrong or they are discussing copy changes. It might be a bit annoying but you could tell them that that discussion would be best suited for another time. At worst the discussion is at least working towards the final goal of your site where questions about lorem ipsum don’t.

—Kyle Fiedler, Lorem Ipsum is Killing Your Designs, Design Informer

If the copy becomes distracting in the design it’s because it’s working.

Lorem Ipsum doesn’t exist because people think the content is meaningless window dressing, only there to be decorated by designers who can’t be bothered to read. Lorem Ipsum exists because words are powerful. If you fill up your page with draft copy about your client’s business, they will read it. They will comment on it. They will be inexorably drawn to it. Presented the wrong way, draft copy can send your design review off the rails.

Telling a client to ignore Lorem Ipsum is a one-time thing. They quit reading it because it doesn’t make sense. Telling a client to ignore draft copy can be a never-ending battle. I show draft copy quite frequently, and in every meeting I usually get a handful of confused questions about it. I’ve had terrible situations where work-in-progress showing draft copy gets passed around to client stakeholders who haven’t participated in review sessions, and then fielded angry phone calls about the “wrong” content appearing in the designs. Show draft copy—I’m not telling you to only use Lorem Ipsum—but make sure you’re prepared to handle the questions, confusion, and even meltdowns that can result.

Permission To Use Lorem Ipsum

Lorem Ipsum: a sign that you’re a traitor to all that is good and right and holy in the world of web design, or an occasionally useful tool that, used intentionally, may help solve some problems? I’m going to go with the latter. If you’ve got a problem with content strategy, fix the bigger problem. Otherwise you’re just treating the symptoms, not curing the disease.

Update October 5, 2010:
Now, new and improved! Read it in Belorussian!

Filed under: Content Strategy