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Workshop-length presentationIf you think content production is complex now, wait until it starts converging with content from other departments or groups. Or when users, dissatisfied with the quality of the documentation provided, start their own DIY documentation project, and it ranks higher in the Google rankings than your own support site.If you're being asked to use your content in more than one way, you might be at the stage where the more part includes methods or technologies you're not really familiar with. Maybe content re-use means syndication or collaborative creation with other departments or divisions, or incorporating content from other sites or user generated content. It could mean figuring how to build community or provide better support or get better feedback.
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Content Convergence
Content
Convergence
Rahel Anne Bailie© 2008 Intentional Design Inc.
Content convergence is a move away from content silos
a move away from content silos.
Paired with content integration, which is combining content
combining content from multiple sources.
Together with syndication, they have powerful communication potential.
Simple example of content convergence:A blog•Blog posts
•Images (in blog posts)
•Twitter posts
•Upcoming conference gigs
•User-generated content
•Visitor log
•Subscription information
www.salimismail.com
Training instantiation
TechComm instantiation
Support instantiation
A techcomm example:
“The Triumverate”
www.allmusic.com
A marketing example: High-value content
Content convergence means portability.
Content can be mixed-and-matched to fit new contexts.
To be portable, content needs to:• Be structured• Have semantic properties• Be findable (searchable)• Conform to standards
Match structures to purposeHTML
XHTMLMicroformats
XMLDITADocBookS1000DData
WikisStructured wikisDITA wikis
Portable content makes context more important.Portable content makes context more important.
Content must support multiple contexts.
Convergence at Visa
Convergence at VanCity
Complex contexts demand concise content.
Shape content around a single concept.
Context changes content.
The ability to re-use content across contexts increases content value.
Content is not isolated.Content is not isolated.
Content does need to be self-contained.
WHY?The market demands it• Organizations need to deliver more content, faster, cheaper.• The content needs to work for many similar products.• There is a need to deliver to multiple markets , sometimes in multiple languages.• There is too much content to deal with, to create linear content.
It’s doing more, better, faster.
Users want itOrganic content convergenceWorld of Warcraft• Some users dissatisfied with documentation provided.• Built their own database.• Better quality, more features.
Apple• Search for “iPhone help” and observe the results• Search for an error message by number (e.g. “error message 12846”) and observe the results
• Users will create their own documentation.•Their sites will come up higher in search engines.• Your reputation may suffer.• Brand management issues arise.
Apple iPhone
World of Warcraft
wow.allakhazam.com/
HP Knowledge Center
h30413.www3.hp.com/SupportServices/country/us/en/support/T1100.html.htm
It’s not a single-department issue
When architected well, it happens seamlessly.
Information portal
TechComm
content
User-generated content
Engineering content
CRM content
Support center content
Marketing content
RSS feedsSubscriptions
Training content
Move to experience design
Convergence creates possibilities.
The end goal is user satisfaction.
Portable content creates valueContent is integrated from:
• Airline booking
• Hotel booking
• Car rental booking
• Google maps
• Weather network
• User-generated content
… and more.
Convergence is automated, generating an automatic, customized itinerary.
This convergence of content provides a value-add service to the user.
www.tripit.com
Content can include integration of data, visuals, audio, text.
Mash-ups are also a form of content convergence.It improves comprehension
Portable content creates efficienciesContent needs to be engaging.
And content format must be predictable.
The move away from single-use, linear content is happening fast.
Every day, the bar is raised a little higher.
The pressure is on to devise strategies for portable content.
You snooze, you lose.
BREAK
Strategies are business-dependentThere is no formula.
• The solutions are as unique as the business and the reasons for needing the strategy.
• It means changes in technologies.
• It means change in processes.
•It means change in skill sets.
Business drivers
Product differentiation
Cost impact
Customer profitability
Number of customers
Number of suppliers
Switchability
Spare industry capacity
Entry barriers
Relative service
Product performance
Relative market share
Overhead
Variable cost
Customer price sensitivity
Capital intensity
Level of service
Relative perceived value
Relative costs
Market attractiveness
Competitive position
Current profitability
Treat content as a valuable corporate asset.
It means rethinking the nature of content.
Content needs a strategy
Designing content ties into experience designSubsets of experience design are:• Multi-channel experience• Digital experience design• User experience• User-centered design• Service design• Usability
No matter what you call it, the end goal is to improve the experience for the end user.
Work Your Content
Beyoncé, I Am ... Sasha Fierce, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
Change the attitude toward content
• How does your organization view your content? – Pain point in a cost center?– Corporate asset in a profit center?
• Learn from industries that run on content.
MP3 file
Blair Douglas, Brave Hearts, Nelson Mandela's Welcome to the City of Glasgow
Value-add = ROI
Music is no longer“just a track”
Think aboutformats andvariants
What goes into a musical experience?
Colin James, Limelight, Far Away Like a RadioZachary Richard, MarjolaineOK Go, Here It Goes AgainFantasia, Walt Disney Productions
MP3 file Track + metadata +Cover art
Track + metadata +Cover art + VIdeo
Track + metadata +Cover art + Video +Film + Game +Value-add content
EXERCISE: Compare these music services
– iTunes– Pandora– All Music Group
• What content do they have?• How do they use content?• How does it affect the UX?• What structures can you assume?
Ways we use content
How do we listen to music?– On the Web?• Streaming video
– At home?• Stereo• Docking station
– On the move? Car radio Music player Mobile phone
How does this affect how we present content?
Some key differences
iTunes.com Pandora.com AllMusic.com
Downloadable tracks, cover art, preview clip, sortable metadata
Listen for free online
Recommends similar tracks through Genius sidebar
Recommends similar tracks through Music Genome project
Recommends tracks through community (reviews, related items, editorial)
Focus on guiding users to check-out
Focus on expanding musical tastes
Focus on learning about chosen music
Converging content: How it affects UX
www.allmusic.com
Blog posts
Genre listsGenre descriptionsNavigation data
Cover artMusic filesMusic labelsAds
Automation of delivery: content management
• How do they automate:– A UX that involves multiple incoming content
types?– Tens of thousands of incoming content
components per day?– Make sure content is findable?
• Critical pieces:– Presentation layer controls the user experience– Underlying content management handles
automation– Taxonomy handles the searchability
Metadata
Melissa Harrison, interviewing Stephen Baker, author of The Numerati , for SXSWorld, February 2008
• Picture your iTunes library. The song file itself is the data, and all of its defining characteristics – album art, play count, genre – are the metadata.
• Given this information, iTunes is able to analyze, categorize and manage your music.
• Shuffle? Not so random, actually. It speaks to the truth behind metadata: by comprehending its parts, we can better control the whole.
Kirsty MacColl, Tropical Rainstorm, These Shoes
Metadata affects UX
Metadata for a single track iniTunes
To dream up this UX, contents must have:
•Re-use potential•Semantic properties•Structure (XML, microformats)
Cliff Hunt, Yangaroo’s COO
“Yangaroo’s Digital Media Distribution System compiles singles from artists and bundles them into an email that includes bio details, tour dates, and other support information. The tracks can be downloaded directly to iTunes and synched with an iPod so the songs are portable and sharable – like their CD counterparts – and their WAV format means the songs are immediately ready for terrestrial, Internet, HD and satellite radio broadcast. Once the song goes out, the system also lets you know which songs are reviewed, including the listened time and date.”
Content is everyone’s problem
• Christopher Cashdollar, Creative Director, Happy Cog Studios
• “Nothing can deter confidence quicker than a broken experience.”
• With social media, broken experiences can damage brands faster.
Production – Marketing – User Experience – Customer Support
• Lane Becker (the founder of Get Satisfaction, an online service that helps to improve service and communication between companies and customers) says that to get the most from current economic nose-dive, look at folks who took advantage of the downturn of 2000 to really explore the medium they’d been working on for years. They created all sorts of new projects and ideas that ended up driving the innovation that the 2.0 boom depended on.
Brady Hester, interviewing Lane Becker, SXSWorld, Nov 2008
In tough economic times ...
• Necessity is the mother of invention ...• Hard economic times drive innovation –
from energy to manufacturing to technology
• When times get tough:– You can’t afford to be complacent– It’s not enough to be “competent”– It’s not enough to do a “good” job– It’s not enough to “follow orders”
Challenge = opportunity
• Not just advice for the music industry• Not just for entertainment content• Tough times demand:– Inspiration– Vision– Innovation– Initiative
This is, in essence, a product portal
This is, in essence,
a product portal
www.allmusic.com
Same idea, different industry
This is, as well, aproduct portal
Think holistically; act boldly.
If you can’t be entertaining, be enjoyable
• By making the customer experience user-focused, they’ve created a better experience.
• Better experience is a market differentiator.
• It says “we care about our customers”.
How will your audiences use your content?
• Example:– First, there was Twitter.– Then came TweetDeck.– Then came TinyTweet.
(and so on, and so on)
• The UX gap was filled by others.• Is that OK for your brand?
Think outside the site• What are the touch points • What can be automated for users• What are the preferences of your audiences• How creative can you be?• What is the best you can provide, in practicality?
Can you fill a gap?
• Exploit the potential of your content– Structure– Findable – Engaging
• Deliver a rich UX
• First impression of a site: 50 milliseconds
Are you a T-shaped thinker?
You’re adept at convergent, synergistic thinking.
www.davidarmano.com/thought.html
Does your content have semantic properties?
• Is it structured?• Can it be re-used?• Can it be filtered?• Can it be searched (more importantly,
found)?• Can it be personalized?• Can it be integrated, syndicated?• Can your content converge?
Lots of places to find inspiration
Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
• How does your content measure up?• Do you have a strategy to move to the
next level?
• Check your competition.• Use the music industry as a
benchmark (or inspiration).
HTML http://www.w3schools.com/html/DEFAULT.asp http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/
XHTML http://www.w3schools.com/Xhtml/ http://www.xhtml.org/
Microformats http://microformats.org/about/ http://www.xfront.com/microformats/
HTML, XHTML, Microformats
XML http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/ http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp
DITA http://dita.xml.org/ http://dita.xml.org/5-minute-dita-tutorial
DocBook http://www.docbook.org/ http://wiki.docbook.org/topic/DocBookTutorials
S1000D http://www.s1000d.org/
And many other schemas:http://www.w3schools.com/schema/schema_intro.asp
XML, DITA, DocBook, S1000D
Wiki languages http://www.it.uu.se/internt/web/wikihelp/wikilang http://semanticweb.org/wiki/Structured_wiki http://talk.bmc.com/blogs/blog-gentle/anne-gentle/dita-wiki
Specialty XML http://www.stilo.com/ http://www.stylusstudio.com/xml_to_xml_mapper.html
Wikis, Other XML
Contact Info, Acknowledgements,Resources
Presentation © 2009 Intentional Design Inc.www.intentionaldesign.ca
Presenter:Rahel Anne Bailie, Content Strategist+1.604.837.0034
Photographs used under Creative Commons:http://www.flickr.com/photos/fdecomite/