An information architect once quizzed me, “What do you think would be the best strategy for our organization? He added, “You got 5 seconds to answer this and, your time starts now.” I answered almost instantaneously, “The one that best meets the organization’s business goals and also meets every user need on the product or service offered.” He nodded, and I figured that he was expecting more for an answer, courtesy the ongoing cold war between the different teams involved in the project . A minute later, I added, “Also, a shared understanding between different departments. He beamed, and continued, “The best visions get implemented when the departments in question (IA, content strategy and UX) possess a shared understanding on the overarching vision and its implementation.”
One of the ways to create a shared understanding lies in content modeling. Content modeling provides a framework that guides how content is created, organized and presented to meet specific user needs and business objectives. The process lends structure to the content and structured content is the first step toward meaningful content models.
STEPS TO MEANINGFUL CONTENT STRUCTURING AND MODELING
1. Assess the content you have. Never delay the process of assessing content. The more you delay the process of assessment, the more are you away from creating MEANINGFUL content models. I was witness to a delayed assessment working with a big pharma giant that was in a hurry to get FDA approval in a record time of 20 days [A reduction of 10 days from the permitted standard then]. Content assessment was put in the backburner, and arbitrary chunking of content took precedence over assessment. To cut a long story short, the MLR review and approval process was delayed: an ironical delay of 10 days over and above the standard.
2. Identify all the content types. Commonly observed and trending content types include: Feature articles, blog posts, testimonials, reviews, tutorials, podcasts, author bylines, FAQs, factsheets, products, and press releases.
3. Identify the content elements. Remember the time when we were introduced to the Mendeleevian periodic table in high school, and were excited at the prospect of elements combining together to form compounds. We learnt that for the “compound” water to be formed, the “elements” hydrogen and oxygen needed to combine in a definite proportion. Taking the analogy to our current topic, the success of any content model is hugely dependent on the successful combination of its elements. A master strategist can chalk out elements for your project, and will also let you know the elements that could be safely omitted out for the current and continued success of your project
4. Decide and prioritize the content types and elements for a “harmonious content settlement” in the organization’s CMS. Also, if you’re some one who respects history to understand the present better, get chatting with colleagues on the CMS history- the when and why of the current CMS? This will help you tremendously in the long run.
5. Get clear on the relationships between established content types. This clarity is essential for creating meaningful content models and ensuring that all teams (CX, UX and Dev) are on the same page.
6. Last, but not the least, always create content keeping the organizational vision in mind. Keep the innermost workings of content close to your heart: what your content should accomplish now, what should it accomplish in the future, and how much investment one can afford to achieve both organizational and customer needs.
Be sure that your model will work and work it will, for, you’ve done all the ground work for building a successful content model.
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