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Content Strategy and User Experience: Combination in Practice
This document provides an overview and agenda for a research methods workshop. The workshop will cover setting research goals and objectives, identifying problems, an overview of techniques like interviews, focus groups, card sorts and personas. It will also cover content strategy topics like audits, inventories, modeling, and gap analysis. The goal is for attendees to feel confident in selecting appropriate research methods to gain actionable insights. Breaks are included and participants will have exercises to set goals and identify issues to research.
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Content Strategy and User Experience: Combination in Practice
- 1. Content Strategy and UserExperience Combination in Practice #heweb16 @amygracewells
- 2. Today’s Goal Go throughthe entire research process so you feel confident setting goals and selecting methods to gain data that will create actionable outcomes.
- 3. Agenda • 1:00-1:10: Introduction •1:10-1:30: Setting Research Goals and Objectives • 1:30-1:50: Identify Problems • 1:50-2:30: Overview of Techniques • 2:30-3:00: Break • 3:00-3:30: Research Problems • 3:30-3:50: Analysis/Compilation/Recommendations • 3:50-4:10: Present Findings • 4:10-4:30: Bringing Teams Together Take breaks as needed!
- 5. Research Goals & Objectives Researchwithout direction is the same as taking a trip without GPS. What is the business goal? What is the specific element you want to evaluate? Why will this research be useful?
- 6. Research Goals & Objectives Ithelps focus stakeholders and teams. “Why do people enter the website and not (apply/ donate)?” versus just dictating methods: “We need to do focus groups now!
- 7. Set Goals &Objectives Exercise: Gather your team. Write down questions about users and the UX. Collect all the questions and stick them to a board. Organize the questions based on similarity. Categories that have more questions than others will likely become your testing objectives.
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- 9. Identify Problems In yourgroups, identify issues throughout the conference that could be content or user experience problems. These could include the website, physical space, printed materials, etc. Narrow your list down to two issues you plan to research as a group.
- 10. Content Strategy The spacebetween content and people
- 11. –Kristina Halvorson “Planning forthe creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.”
- 12. –Margot Bloomstein “Planning forthe creation, aggregation, delivery, and useful governance of useful, usable, and appropriate content in an experience.”
- 13. –Michael Brenner “The mindset,culture and approach to delivering your customer’s info needs in all the places they are searching for it.”
- 14. –Joe Pullizzi “...requires goals,different forms of content for different customer touchpoints, mapping the needs of people, the channels they prefer and the content or stories, etc.”
- 15. Audits and Inventories •Although inventories vary in what they capture, most include the following raw data for each piece of site content. • Auditing the raw data requires going through each piece and perform a quality assessment. The type of assessment you choose to conduct depends on what you are hoping to learn. Once goals and scope are understood, you can choose which audit makes sense for you. http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/content-inventory.html
- 16. Audits and Inventories Inventories •Unique Content ID • Title • URL • File Format (HTML, PDF, DOC, TXT…) • Author or Provider • Meta Description • Meta Keywords • Categories/ Tags • Dates (created, revised, accessed) Audits • What pages should be removed • Whether content need to be revised • Which content needs to be written due to gaps • Where content should be mapped to if being moved or if it requires redirects • Whether content is appropriate for target users
- 17. Audits and Inventories •Don’t let it die on the vine! • It needs goals prior to starting. • What are you going to do with the information? • What will you do with it in 6 months? 12 months? • Is it for a short-term project? • A content audit uncovers patterns in content to inspire future content strategy. • A content audit is used to better understand content lifecycle and workflows.
- 18. Audits and Inventories •https://gathercontent.com/blog/how-to-perform-a-content-audit • http://blog.braintraffic.com/2009/03/the-content-inventory-is-your- friend/ • http://www.stickycontent.com/blog/qualitative-or-quantitative-which- one-do-you-need
- 19. Content Modeling Getting comfortablewith your chunks
- 20. Content Modeling • Acontent model documents all the different types of content you will have for a given project. • It contains detailed definitions of each content type’s elements and their relationships to each other. • The level of detail in the model is determined by the purposes you need it to serve. http://alistapart.com/article/content-modelling-a-master-skill
- 21. Content Modeling • Amodel can be used to validate the concept with stakeholders, and helps IAs and designers start thinking about the implications for the flow of the site. • A content model helps clarify requirements and encourages collaboration between the designers, the developers creating the CMS, and the content creators.
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- 23. Content Gap Analysis •A gap analysis is an inventory of your existing content, with added context for your brand. It’s a simple way to discover content opportunities you may have missed, and make a plan for moving forward. • There are three parts to a gap analysis: understanding your current state, mapping your future state and applying those gaps to your strategy. http://studiod.com/blog/how-to-save-time-and-money-with-a-content-gap-analysis/
- 24. Content Gap Analysis •A gap analysis should help you understand • Categories over- and under-represented on your site • How well your content aligns with KPIs • How effectively you speak to your target audience Additional reading: http://www.sitecore.net/learn/blogs/best-practice-blogs/beth-bader/ posts/2013/10/part-2-content-gap-analysis.aspx
- 25. Personas Get to knowyour users
- 26. Personas • Represent amajor user group for your website • Express and focus on the major needs and expectations of the most important user groups • Give a clear picture of the user's expectations and how they're likely to use the site • Aid in uncovering universal features and functionality • Describe real people with backgrounds, goals, and values http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/personas.html
- 27. Persona Benefits Personas helpto focus decisions surrounding site components by adding a layer of real-world consideration to the conversation. Offer a quick and inexpensive way to test and prioritize those features throughout the development process. • Stakeholders and leaders evaluate new site feature ideas • Information architects develop informed wireframes, interface behaviors, and labeling • Designers create the overall look and feel of the website • System engineers/developers decide which approaches to take based on user behaviors • Copy writers ensure site content is written to the appropriate audiences http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/personas.html
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- 29. More Techniques toExplore • Competitor Analysis: • http://meetcontent.com/blog/conducting-a-competitive-analysis/ • http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31619/How-to-Conduct- Competitive-Analysis-to-Step-Up-Your-Content-Strategy.aspx • Workflows: • http://meetcontent.com/blog/designing-content-workflow-for-your- cms/ • http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/02/content-marketing- workflow/
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- 32. Interviews and Focus Groups Seventhings to remember with user interviews • Set proper expectations. • Shut up and listen. • Minimize biased questions. • Be friendly. • Turn off your assumptions. • Avoid generalizations. • Don’t forget the non-verbal cues. http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2008/07/preparing-for-user-research-interviews-seven-things-to-remember.php
- 33. Interviews and Focus Groups Theinterview guide should contain: • The brief description and goal of the study. This is for you to share with the participant and use to remind yourself to stay close to the topic. • The basic factual or demographic questions for putting the participant’s answers in context. These will vary depending on the purpose of the interview, but often include name, gender, age, location, and job title or role. • A couple of icebreaker or warm-up questions to get the participant talking. Most people know this as “small talk.” Feel free to improvise these based on the demographic information. • The questions or topics that are the primary focus of the interview. http://alistapart.com/article/interviewing-humans
- 34. Interviews and Focus Groups •https://www.nngroup.com/articles/focus-groups/ • https://whitneyhess.com/blog/2010/07/07/my-best- advice-for-conducting-user-interviews/ • http://www.slideshare.net/edanzico/user-interview- techniques
- 35. Interviews and Focus Groups •https://articles.uie.com/three_questions_not_to_ask/ • http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/ focus-groups.html • http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/07/dos- and-donts-for-focus-groups.php
- 36. Card Sorts • Cardsorting is a method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site. • In a card sorting session, participants organize topics into categories that make sense to them and they may also help you label these groups. • Card sorting will help you understand your users' expectations and understanding of your topics. http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/card-sorting.html
- 37. Card Sorts • OpenCard Sort: Participants are asked to organize topics from content within your website into groups that make sense to them and then name each group they created in a way that they feel accurately describes the content. Use an open card sort to learn how users group content and the terms or labels they give each category. • Closed Card Sort: Participants are asked to sort topics from content within your website into pre-defined categories. A closed card sort works best when you are working with a pre-defined set of categories, and you want to learn how users sort content items into each category. • You may also choose to try a combination of the two. You could conduct an open card sort first to identify content categories and then use a closed card sort to see how well the category labels work.
- 38. Card Sorts • https://www.nngroup.com/articles/card-sorting-how-many- users-to-test/ •https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the- encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/card- sorting • https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/10/improving- information-architecture-card-sorting-beginners-guide/
- 39. Field Studies • Basicfield study techniques are fairly simple, and everyone who works on a design/content team should go on customer visits from time to time. • Visiting a real customer site is an invaluable experience for designers, programmers, and marketers. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/field-studies-done-right-fast-and-observational/
- 40. Field Studies • Fieldstudies give the advantage of delivering the team information they just can’t get in any other way: • Terminology and processes: What do users do and how do they talk about it? • Context: What are the external forces that will impact the design? Do the user’s requirements change when they are rushed or up against a deadline? • Similarities and differences: Just compiling a list of similarities and differences observed in 4 separate visits can really help a team focus on the critical functionality and requirements for a project. https://articles.uie.com/field_studies/
- 41. Diary Studies • Ininterviews, it can be difficult to get a sense of behavior over time because you have to rely on the participant’s memory of past activities or circumstances, and artifacts can only do so much to prompt that. One way to widen your view of someone’s activities without shadowing them 24/7 is to ask them to keep a diary. • This can be some-what structured, much like a survey taken several times, or can be free-form entry guided by a few questions. • A diary can take almost any form: written responses to a periodic e- mail reminder, a handwritten notebook, a narrated video, or photos with written commentary. http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/jumpstart-design-research-with-a-diary-study/
- 42. Diary Studies • Themain advantage of a diary study is that it allows collecting longitudinal information.This can be some-what structured, much like a survey taken several times, or can be free-form entry guided by a few questions. • It focuses on reporting events and experiences in their natural context. http://uxpamagazine.org/dear-diary-using-diaries-to-study-user-experience/
- 43. Usability Studies • Usabilitytesting refers to evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users. • Typically, during a test, participants will try to complete typical tasks while observers watch, listen and takes notes. • The goal is to identify any usability problems, collect qualitative and quantitative data and determine the participant's satisfaction with the product. http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/usability-testing.html
- 44. Usability Studies • Learnif participants are able to complete specified tasks successfully and • Identify how long it takes to complete specified tasks • Find out how satisfied participants are with your Web site or other product • Identify changes required to improve user performance and satisfaction • And analyze the performance to see if it meets your usability objectives http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/usability-testing.html
- 45. Usability Studies • 5to 10 tasks within a 90-minute session. Tasks should represent the most common user goals (e.g. recovering a lost password) and/or the most important conversion goals from the website or application owner’s perspective (e.g. making a purchase). • Clear success criteria for each task. Such as: “Participant must load the URL www.examplewebsite.com/purchase-success/ in their browser, and report that they believe they have successfully completed a purchase.” • Clarify where the participant should begin the task (e.g. at the home page of the website), and how task completion and starting points may affect the researcher’s ability to counterbalance task order. http://www.usabilityfirst.com/usability-methods/usability-testing/
- 46. Agenda • 1:00-1:10: Introduction •1:10-1:30: Setting Research Goals and Objectives • 1:30-1:50: Identify Problems • 1:50-2:30: Overview of Techniques • 2:30-3:00: Break • 3:00-3:30: Research Problems • 3:30-3:50: Analysis/Compilation/Recommendations • 3:50-4:10: Present Findings • 4:10-4:30: Bringing Teams Together Take breaks as needed!
- 47. Techniques • Audit/Inventory • ContentModel • Content Gap Analysis • Personas • User Interviews/Focus Groups • Card Sorts • Field Studies • Usability Studies
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- 49. One Table Make ita priority for everyone to come together. Have analytics and facts ready. Set rules for discussion. Candid but constructive.
- 50. Not a tabledivided Understand the goals and roadblocks of each team. Find the common ground and point it out. Keep the focus on the users.
- 51. Let everyone participate Don’t tryto own the process or everyone. Let others shape processes, workflows, governance. Make sure they understand who will make the final decision.
- 52. Avoid participation problems Set timelimits for discussion items, then recap the discussion. Find case studies or examples to help guide discussions.
- 53. Find your champions Whoare those people that want to collaborate or “get” the bigger picture? Pull them in early. Use them as ambassadors to share information.
- 54. Get support If youcan’t do it organically, go for the power play and get support from higher levels. It will create more contention at first, but keep at it.
- 55. Contact me always AmyGrace Wells [email protected] @amygracewells