Content Architecture “In Action”

CSApplied 2013 (#csauk) Cleve Gibbon (@cleveg) CTO, Cognifide

…to create digital properties at the speed of Wordpress the scale of Salesforce, and

the simplicity of Google.

Just over five years ago, a customer asked me, to give them the ability to…

Change Content

TeamsValue

Digital

Content Managed Web Site

Digital Content Platform

Content Management

System

Web Managed Solution

10+ Digital properties

Content Management Ecosystem

Digital Platform

1000+ Digital

Properties

Multi ChannelWeb Channel

Content Architecture

Why What How

Why content architecture?To enable digital and content agility.

Digital ContentCustomer Experiences

Aggregation API

Archiving Audit

Authoring Distribution

Inventory Lifecycle

Localisation Management

Measurement Modelling

Personalisation Search

Syndication Taxonomy Translation Workflow

Analytics Automation Campaigns CMS CRM eCommerce Email Mobility Multi-Channel

Digital Agility

• Train and tracks are tightly coupled systems that are high efficient.

• Cars and the road are loosely coupled systems the provide more flexibility.

• Digital agility requires organisations to place more value on flexibility.

• Companies must experiment, to learn, to optimise customer experience.

Source: http://dachisgroup.com/wrangling-complexity-the-service-oriented-company/

typical starting point for digital transformations

first step towards intelligent processes Intelligent processes

requires intelligent content.

1

Intelligent content has to be

designed for.

2

ManageMeasure

Make

Strategy Architecture

Production

Content agility strives for small, frequent, and value-driven learning cycles.

Content Management Challenges

• More content through increased interactions

• Increased complexity through experimentation

• Fewer resources to manage more content

• Multiple channels along which content must flow

• Vast amounts of content trapped within systems

• Rate of production is exponential

But we know…

• There’s a lack of awareness around what’s happening

• Serious organisational change hurdles

• Misplaced focused on technology to solve problems

• Both processes and people need to change

• Structured and meaningful content is on the rise

• Content is a strategic business asset

What is content architecture?The time and place for continuous and collaborative content design.

Strategy Architecture Management

It’s where ‘design thinking’ for content takes place.

Content Architecture

• The design phase for content management

• Models structured and meaningful content

• Defines author experience for content creators

• Maps editorial workflows from production to delivery

• Specifies APIs to take content everywhere

• Outline a technical architecture to satisfy the design

Content Modelling“You can create good experiences without knowing the content. What you can’t do is create good experiences without knowing your content structures.”

Mark Boulton http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/structure-first-content-always

“A content model is a formal representation of structured content as a collection of content types and their inter-relationships.”

Cleve Gibbon & Rachel Lovinger http://www.slideshare.net/cleveg/content-modelling-2013-lite

officeContact

pressReleaseContact

articleContact

Articleheadingsubtitledate

authorcategoriessourceUrl

OfficecitycontinentimageUrl

attachmentdescription

ContactfirstNamelastNameemail

officescategoriescontact

Press ReleasetwitterUrlfacebookUrl

Maplatitudelongitude

titledescription

officeMap

News Article

What's going on today within the partnership.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Text Area

Property 1Property 2Property 3

Properties

Division 1Division 2Division 3

Divisions

EmbargoesPublishing detailsRetirement options

Lifecycle

Help & Support

Author Experience

“A bad author experience will lead to an even worse customer experience.”

Cleve Gibbon Excerpt from Content Everywhere, Sara Wachter-Boettcher

Mark Boulton http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/structure-first-content-always

“CMS - the software UX forgot.” !“The answer is to improve the author experience in the CMS.”

Karen McGrane Excerpt from Content Strategy for Mobile

We must invest in the UX for producing content; The “Author Experience”

Workflow

“Workflow - essential as part of any healthy design and content work life balance.”

“Workflow drives the streamlining of author experiences, verification of content model,

user permissions and roles, and the validation editorial the processes.”

Audit

Research

Strategise

Benchmark

Analyse

Plan

Define

Structure

Categorise

Create

Route

revise

Approve

Format

Tag

Test

Publish

Evaluate

Archive Update

Personalise

Translate

Localise

Transcreate

Workflows differ by sector, organisation, department & maturity.

Applying content architecture.Think big, start small.

Alignment

Content

Context UsersContent

Wireframes, Blueprints

Metadata, Taxonomy, Thesauri

Labelling, Navigation, Search

Content Inventories & Mapping

Information architecture

Content Models, Author Experience, WorkflowStructured, Reusable & Personalised Content

Content Administration, Asset Organisation

Role-Based Content, Permissions

Content Scale, Storage, Analytics

Content architecture

Mind the UX, content & technology gap

Assurance

Competency

Assurance

Capability

Syndicate Multi-channel

Translate Localise

Personalise Publish

Optimise Author

…

Train Mentor

Workshop Skills Assess

Pair Accredit

…

Roadmap Police Punish Inspect Adapt

Scrutinise Milestone

…

Approach: Capability LedCapability

Competency

Assurance

Value

WhenIn

crea

sed

Ris

k

Approach: Assurance LedCapability

CompetencyAssurance

Value

When

Lower, Managed Risk

Agencies

Enable agencies, to produce better content,

that increases customer engagement.

In Summary

In Summary

Content architecture is where content design takes place. !Make space for content architecture within your projects. !There is no clear cut set of roles and responsibilities, across strategy, architecture and management. Who cares? !This is a maturing field, so let’s grow with it!

Resources

For more details:

1. http://www.slideshare.net/cleveg/defining-content-architecture

2. http://www.slideshare.net/cleveg/why-content-model

3. http://www.slideshare.net/cleveg/content-modelling-2013-lite

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Questions !

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!Cleve Gibbon (@cleveg) www.cognifide.com