Information Architecture& Content Strategy

Partners In Crime

My promise to you: I have only two slides with bulleted lists.

• 76% of marketers share curated content on social media; the single biggest platform for distributing curated content.

• 73 different universities in the US and Canada now offer Human Computer Interaction Degree Programs.

http://writtent.com/blog/15-key-facts-about-content-curation/https://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/degrees.asp

Content StrategyIs Not Coming After

Information Architecture

Information Architecture Needs To Partner With Content Strategists To

Create The Best Results

I’m here to tell you that Content Strategy is not coming after Interaction Architecture. And IA needs to partner with CS for best results. And to explain the logic behind this, we have to take a little ride back in time.

Put Picture Here

In the beginning, there was Interaction Architecture.

Suffice to say, the creatives had some concerns. In the immortal words of Elvis Presley, “Let’s Not Let A Good Thing Die, When Honey You Know, I’ve Never Lied To You, Mmm, Yeah, Yeah.”

* Best Case Scenario

This lead to what I would call a bit of tension between IAs who thought creatives were know-it-alls and the creatives who thought the IAs could take their arrows and shove them right in their boxes. But the good news is that, as the IA field matured and IAs had this research and expanded what they could bring to the table, detante occurred. Well, in the best case scenarios, they did.

Meanwhile, something called “content strategy” came along. But too often, a “content strategist” was simply someone who managed an Excel document that could only be opened on one computer because every time someone emailed it, the thing was corrupted and wouldn’t open.

And when the IAs saw they CSs, they, well, acknowledged them.

But then the field of Content Strategy started to expand beyond the matrix, and developed into looking at larger pictures of how the makers and maintainers of a website could use content to help build themselves.

The IAs, having heard about this, well, they acknowledged it.

Now we’re at the point where there’s a question as to whether Content Strategy is ready to take over the Interaction Architects. Are the pieces ready, with the Marshalls and Generals and Miners ready to find the flag of superiority in the board game that is the World Wide Web?

The answer is no. We’re at Defcon 5, and anyone who argues otherwise is looking for trouble. And remember: Defcon 5 is the “Everything’s Okay” level. Don’t make me break out WarGames for us to watch.

With that said, because of the path IA took, there’s a lot CS can take from it. And the more IAs work with CS, the more IAs can inform how they build and structure their work.

Information Architecture2007

Content Strategy2014

The more I think about it, the more I think CS in 2014 is a lot like where IA was in 2007 (which was when I started down this motley path).

• People are starting to “accept” it.

• It’s growing legs as its own domain.

• Leading edgers are starting to get it.

• There’s no “degree” that opens doors.

• A realization is happening that it’s more than it initially seemed.

And here’s why.

More people outside our little clique are recognizing that CS brings something to the table, even to the point where its a domain that’s starting to grow itself (I think of the CS Meetups here in Chicago that Hilary’s a huge part of). You’re starting to see companies that are forward thinking bringing real content strategy into their worlds, even through there’s no classical degree that somehow opens the doors. I chuckle now about how I managed to get into this field in a manner that’d be far less likely now with HCI degrees to earn. And ultimately, there’s this dawning realization that, like a bud slowly blooming into the beautiful rose that was marked up by about 500% yesterday, there’s more to this world than what we first thought. Just as IA isn’t boxes and arrows anymore, CS isn’t an unholy Excel spreadsheet.

Where do we (as two groups) go from here? First, we can learn from those battles IAs had with creatives and accept the fact that we’re complimentary to each other. We each bring something to the table, and what we bring is important in its own special way.

We can start looking at where the things we’re working on are going both in the short and long term, and use those goals to mold and adjust how we create what we’re doing now, as to not get boxed into the future.

Finally, we can collaborate early and often. Too frequently things get tossed over walls in this business, and the more we share where we’re thinking and what we’re doing, the better it makes what we do and how we do it.

Content StrategyIs Not Coming After

Information Architecture

Information Architecture Needs To Partner With Content Strategists To

Create The Best Results

All of this is why Content Strategy is not coming after Interaction Architecture. And IA needs to partner with CS for best results.

Interaction Architecture& Content Strategy

Partners In Crime