Content Experience Modeling Workshop—2014 STC Summit Content Experience Modeling Designing Customer Value and Consistency Andrea L. Ames, IBM @aames Senior Technical Staff Member & Enterprise Content Experience Strategist/Architect/Designer 18 May 2014 Phoenix, AZ Much of the material in this deck developed in partnership with Alyson Riley and used with permission @aames
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Content Experience Modeling: Designing Customer Value and Consistency
Are you working with many products, large content sets, many audiences, or broad business requirements? Are you finding it difficult to create a content experience to your customers that is consistent and enables logical, meaningful content access? And do you strive to deliver high value and delight? In addition, do you need to develop robust content experiences that stand the test of time, even if the visual presentation and templates must change with marketplace trends? Models enable you to design and implement a valuable experience for your customers, consistently, across products, authors, audiences, and time – even in a very large enterprise. In this workshop, we’ll work through the modeling process, and you will leave with the hands-on experience of developing a use model, a content model, and an access model.
In this workshop, we will discuss why modeling is important and describe the process, including prerequisite input to ensure high-quality, valid models. Then we will walk through a concrete exercise to develop use, content, and access models for a fictional company, taking the business situation, audience, and likely product-use into account. Finally we’ll discuss approaches for applying the models, and you will try your hand at implementing a release-specific architecture based on the models.
Handouts: #1 Requirements worksheet: http://www.slideshare.net/aames/01requirements #2 Scenario worksheet: http://www.slideshare.net/aames/02scenarios #3 Design worksheet: http://www.slideshare.net/aames/03design #4 Information Use Model worksheet: http://www.slideshare.net/aames/04info-usemodel #5 Content Model worksheet: http://www.slideshare.net/aames/05content-model #6 Access Model worksheet: http://www.slideshare.net/aames/06access-model
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About AndreaTechnical communicator since 1983Areas of expertise
Content experience: Content strategy, content architecture, and interaction design for content display and delivery, within products and interactive content delivery systemsArchitecture, design, and development of embedded assistance (content within or near the product user interface)Content and product usability, from analysis through validationUser-centered process for content and content experience development
IBM Senior Technical Staff Member on corporate Enterprise Content and eSupport Services team in IBM Chief Information Office (CIO)UCSC in Silicon Valley certificate coordinator and instructorSTC Fellow, past president (2004-05), former member of Board of Directors (1998-2006), and Intercom columnist (with Alyson Riley) of The Strategic IAACM Distinguished Engineer
Experiential through exercisesThe project is merely the bagel on which to deliver the cream-cheesy goodness of the modeling concepts The scope of the project and discussion is primarily product-specific, due to time constraints
There’s more, and I’ll occasionally mention the “more”If you're a smart content strategist, information architect, technical communicator, etc., you'll be thinking about the “more” and trying to integrateWhenever there’s time, I’ll address the “more” questionsFor “more,” see (URLs in references):
2013 LavaCon Unified Content Strategy Workshop session: Building a Content Strategy Ecosystem2013 STC Summit Strategic IA Bootcamp certificate
Share a definition of content experience modeling—understand what models are and why they are importantTake away some actionable ways that you can approach modeling your own enterprise content experienceUnderstand the general modeling process, from analysis and requirements definition through delivery of a release-specific information architecture, and how it functions within the product development processDefine and create use, content, and access modelsApply abstract models to create a concrete IA for a specific product releaseHave fun!
product’s total information experience (not just technical docs)
Tactical IA Concrete Typical tasks include:
—Update a navigation tree according to design guidelines and standards
—Apply models and guidelines to develop information architecture for a product release or self-contained information deliverable
—Solve architectural issues with guidance from a strategic information architect (IA) or information strategist
—Develop a cross-product or portfolio information experience—Prioritize requirements —Apply models in new and novel ways to get validated improvements in the end-to-end information experience—Provide input for model or guideline improvement—Create and validate new models and guidelines
IA impact: On business strategy and successEffective information architecture contributes to:
Product awareness, interest, and consideration—through aligning all aspects of the information experience to ensure strong, visible, consistent messaging (does your technical information prove what your marketing information promises?)
Mindshare—through content that is ranked highly by search engines and information experiences that generate social capital (which also leads to awareness, interest, and consideration—key precursors to revenue opportunities)
Sales and revenue—through referrals from technical information and reuse in sales collateral
Customer satisfaction by:Reducing time-to-value and speeding time-to-successReducing total cost of ownershipReducing customer support calls
Identifying requirements involves scientific research, followed by artful analysis. The process looks like this:
1. Gather business data2. Gather client data3. Gather the current
content ecosystem4. Gather history5. Gather political landscape6. Extract requirements
from data7. Prioritize requirements
After completing this task, you will have:
A deep, nuanced understanding of business strategy, market drivers, client needs, why things are the way they are, and what it will take to drive change in the current climate
A list of business and user requirements for your information architecture to address
Using the business scenario:Gather data and identify requirements
Gather data about the current situation: Business strategy—what’s important to the company? Target clients—what’s important to target buyers or users? Current information experience—what’s the today-state like? History—how did we get here? Politics—who will influence your chances of success? How can you
turn those people into allies and advocates?
Turn data into requirements, like this:[Person] has [problem] with [frequency]
It requires us to follow repeatable processes It requires us to clearly define metricsIt requires us to define and validate theoriesIt requires us to identify variablesIt requires us to know about things like human cognition
IA is art:We develop a deep understanding of the human experienceWe create meaningWe create simplicity and elegance out of complexity and chaos
Models help IAs blend science and art to achieve measurable results:They help us follow the scientific method by defining and refining theories until we achieve predictable, consistent resultsThey help us ask the right questions, discover patterns, and tolerate the ambiguity that comes from dealing with peopleThey help us discover solutions by applying concepts in a systematic manner nuanced by a vision for the human experience—NOT by following rules and recipes
Lessons about models from our model home exampleModels are a pattern, not a rule
Patterns are always adapted to the “fabric” with which you’re workingFundamental purpose, form, and structure remain the sameDetails may vary according to human need or circumstances Note: If your circumstances include things like “the developer says so” or “but we’ve
always done it this way,” we strongly encourage you to roll up your sleeves and fight for your user!
Sometimes details are a big dealWhich house would you want to live in?Good architects leverage the flexibility of the model only in ways that benefit the humans involved (example: “I just don’t like windows” isn’t a reason to break from the model)Good architects always balance business issues (cost, time, etc.) with user issues (wants and needs)
What’s boring in neighborhoods can be good for user experiencesConsistency is predictabilityConsistency leads to recognizable brands and strong identity
Why models? Models help businesses thinkThink, not cut-and-paste
For many larger organizations, it’s too expensive to develop templates for every possible design contextTemplates are hard-coded and can’t handle more than cut-and-paste design work
Scalability and adaptabilityAbstract models scale with increases in complexity, number and diversity of usersModels are abstract, and as a result, ensure the information architecture remains above the fray of trends and changeAbstract models can be adapted to handle technological innovation, changes in strategy, flux in a product portfolio, new business processes, and evolution in the market
Focus on high-value user interactionsAbstract models force an organization to identify, prioritize, and design for the user interactions that are critical to business successTechnology, marketing strategies, and brand identity may evolve— core user interactions are more stable
Consistency, with room for creativityAbstract models can be used to align all aspects of a content experienceAbstract models drive focus on predictable user interactions while allowing for interesting change at the presentation level
Why models? Models help users thinkWhat users want to think about
Users want to think about their primary goals and tasksUsers do not want to spend time on figuring out how to use our frameworks to achieve their goals and tasksOur job is to eliminate cognitive load and help users focus mental space on what’s really important to them
Toward an invisible architecture Good abstract models are based on cognitive science and user-centered design principlesAs such, abstract models help us deliver an information architecture that users don’t have to think aboutAbstract models help our users maintain focus the things they really care about—not navigating our frameworkAbstract models make obvious things like:
What to do nextWhere to go nextWhether the information answers the questionHow to find more or different information that will answer the question
Thanks to Steve Krug and his first law of usability
Invaluable for teams new to information architecture or who lack a dedicated information architect on their projects
Abstract models encapsulate lots of helpful theoryThe best abstract models reflect current theory and research into human cognition, user information-seeking and processing behaviors, and so onThis enables teams to focus less on theory and more on the specifics of their target users and their needs, and how best to apply the models in their design contextsTeams learn by experience, with a solid foundation
Abstract models encourage an IA to:Keep user needs and business strategy in the forefront of her thinkingTake risks and be creative in an intelligent, calculated, data-centered, purpose-driven mannerMaintain the integrity of the overarching experience—that is, ensure that the fundamental purpose, form, and structure of the information experience remain the same Tailor an information experience to meet specific user needs or business challenges—that is, allow freedom in the details as dictated by user needAvoid confining an information experience to template boundaries Keep the focus on outcomes—results, not rules
Defines ideal interactions between users and information—what they need, why they need it, what they’re doing when they need it, and how they’ll use it.
Defines standard building blocks of content, from the atomic level to larger “deliverables,” including subject, presentation, taxonomy, and metadata.
Defines a vision for how users will find your information, including organization, structure, relationships between chunks of information and full deliverables, and a big picture view of navigation strategies.
Defines how all dimensions of the information experience fit together and how content teams can apply product-, solution-, project- or other kinds of offering-specific details to produce a concrete, project-specific, and user-centered information architecture
Developing a Use Model: Steps1. Develop use scenarios.
Describe user interactions with the system.Develop a scenario for each type of system/subsystem in the product, offering, or solution.List the high-value tasks (vs. system features).
2. Develop information-use scenarios.Describe the ideal user interaction with content.Ensure that information scenarios follow use scenarios.
Developing a Use Model: ResultA standard set of scenarios that describe an optimal user experience with informationA standard set of user information requirements for specific product or system contextsA document describing how the use model can be applied to produce an offering-specific information architecture
1. Leverage your use model to determine users’ information needs:The subjects and atomic units of information your users will needThe best ways to structure and combine the informationThe best presentation style and media to communicate the informationThe deliverable (or delivery vehicle) that will work best
2. Standardize common subjects of information in an enterprise-level taxonomy (a structured collection of terms that describe what the information is about).
3. Standardize your list of required atomic units of information—the information objects that you can’t break down into smaller pieces without making them meaningless.
4. Define standard information deliverables and delivery vehicles, specifying how to combine atomic units of information and common subjects to deliver understandable, stand-alone information products that humans will see and touch.
5. Develop presentation templates, indicating how to use media to present the information deliverables for human consumption.
Developing a Content Model: ResultA document describing required and optional deliverables (collections of information atoms), how they relate to one another and are used and delivered, and how the content model can be applied to produce an offering-specific information architectureA collection of templates—one for each deliverable—describing the required and optional elements of each
Developing an Access Model: Steps1. Leverage your use model to determine how users are most
likely to access (or need to access) your content to:Searching for and finding relevant informationFollowing leads when searchingScanning an information space to develop a sense of its contentsStaying informed about updates or new contentEvaluating information for relevanceUsing information to achieve a goal
2. Define the overarching strategy for user access to information.
3. Depict how a collection of access methods work together to accommodate the wide range of user behaviors when navigating to and within an information space.
A document describing the overall access strategy, how multiple access methods work together, and the details about how specific areas of access can be supported, as well as how the content model can be applied to produce an offering-specific information architectureAny technology, business requirements, and user needs that emerge from the detailed access-related patterns, schemes, and strategies
Developing an Information Model: ResultA written description of an information strategy—that is, a document describing the abstract model that includes:
How all dimensions of the information experience fit togetherHow content teams can apply product-, solution-, project- or other kinds of offering-specific details to the abstract information model in order to produce a concrete, project-specific, and user-centered information architecture
Applying your models, part 1Models have value when applied systematically:
They enable IAs to develop usable architectures that in turn make it easy for users to accomplish their goals with your product, project, solution or other kind of offering.They provide a consistent information experience across multiple products, product families, or enterprises—even if information in various places are developed by different writers and architects, or if offerings have different product strategies or goals.They also help writing teams by providing a framework for discovering important details such as:
The order of user tasksWhich tasks to emphasize (and not)The appropriate level of detail to includeThe type of information to provide (expertise vs. “click this”)The potential for gaps between tasks or across components or productsContent to include in any examples or samples
Applying your models, part 2It’s important to validate across several different instances of the applied model to ensure that the model works when instantiated with various types of products or systems.The key to applying the models is in the process of developing your offering-specific information architecture.
ReferencesBuilding a Content Strategy Ecosystem, LavaCon Unified Content Strategy Workshop, April 2013: http://slidesha.re/17S782A(or http://www.slideshare.net/aames/creating-a-content-strategy-ecosystem)
Strategic Information Architecture Boot Camp, STC Summit, May 2013:http://slidesha.re/1t4o7eu(or http://www.slideshare.net/akriley/stc2013-strategic-iacertcourseallchartsamesriley)
The Society for Technical Communication—http://www.stc.org Be sure to check out Intercom magazine’s regular column, “The Strategic IA,” written by Andrea Ames and Alyson Riley. In particular, check out and leave your thoughts on the January 2012 edition—a special edition devoted to information architecture!
Boxes and Arrows—http://www.boxesandarrows.com The Information Architecture Institute—http://iainstitute.org
Print resources:James Kalbach. “Designing for Information Foragers: A Behavioral Model for Information Seeking on the World Wide Web.” Internetworking, Internet Technical Group newsletter. 27 January 2001. Available at http://www.internettg.org/newsletter/dec00/article_information_foragers.html. William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler. (2010) Universal Principles of Design. Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers. (ISBN 978-1592535873) Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld. (1998) Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media. (ISBN 978-0596527341)Jeffrey Rubin and Dan Chisnell. (2008) Handbook of Usability Testing, 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, Inc. (ISBN 978-0470185483)Richard Saul Wurman. (1997) Peter Bradford, ed. Information Architects. New York: Graphis. (ISBN 978-1888001389)
Defines how all dimensions of the information experience fit together and how content teams can apply product-, solution-, project- or other kinds of offering-specific details to produce a concrete, project-specific, and user-centered information architecture
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Key types of models
Content Model
Access Model
Information Model
Defines ideal interactions between users and information—what they need, why they need it, what they’re doing when they need it, and how they’ll use it.
Defines standard building blocks of content, from the atomic level to larger “deliverables,” including subject, presentation, taxonomy, and metadata.
Defines a vision for how users will find your information, including organization, structure, relationships between chunks of information and full deliverables, and a big picture view of navigation strategies.
1. Develop use scenariosDescribe user interactions with the system.Develop a scenario for each type of system/subsystem in offering/solution.Be sure the scenarios provide insight into questions such as:
Who are the users? What are their goals?What’s the purpose of the product, system or solution? What tasks will users do with the product? (Be sure to decompose high-level tasks into lower-level tasks or procedures. Identify prerequisite tasks and any dependencies for successful task completion.)
Which tasks are the high-value ones necessary for achieving a broader goal, and which ones are tasks merely required as a result of product design or system features?
2. Develop information-use scenariosDescribe the ideal user interaction with content.Ensure that information scenarios follow use scenarios.Be sure the scenarios provide insight into questions such as:
What information do users need to complete the tasks defined in the product- or system-usage scenarios, and at what points during product use is the information needed?What information do users need to achieve their broader business or personal objectives?How will users experience or interact with that information, both for their own goals and as required by product or system tasks? Be sure to address this question for each of the necessary tasks you have defined in your product or system lifecycle. How close to the product or system user interface does the information need to be? Is it the interface? Or does it support the interface? Is it task-disruptive to take the user away from the primary product or system interface to access the information they need?
3. Validate the model. Socialize it.Conduct reviews with members of your IA community. Validate with customers, in several concrete contexts, if possible.
Defines how all dimensions of the information experience fit together and how content teams can apply product-, solution-, project- or other kinds of offering-specific details to produce a concrete, project-specific, and user-centered information architecture
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Key types of models
Use Model
Access Model
Information Model
Defines ideal interactions between users and information—what they need, why they need it, what they’re doing when they need it, and how they’ll use it.
Defines standard building blocks of content, from the atomic level to larger “deliverables,” including subject, presentation, taxonomy, and metadata.
Defines a vision for how users will find your information, including organization, structure, relationships between chunks of information and full deliverables, and a big picture view of navigation strategies.
1. Leverage your use model to determine users’ information needs:
The subjects and atomic units of information your users will needThe best ways to structure and combine these building blocks of information to reflect the user’s task flowThe best presentation style and media to communicate this information to users given their skills and the tasks they’re trying to accomplish, such as, interaction or information, text or images, static images or moving images, audio, or combinations of theseThe deliverable (or delivery vehicle) that will work best, such as, product- or system-embedded information, topics and multimedia in a hypertext environment, animation with voice-over, podcast
2. Standardize common subjects of information, or a common collection of terms that describe what the information is about, in an enterprise-level taxonomy.
3. Standardize your list of required atomic units of information, or the information objects that you can’t break down into smaller pieces without making them meaningless.
Hint: Consider DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) and its information types (concept, task, and so on) and specializations.
4. Define standard information deliverables and delivery vehicles, or how you combine atomic units of information and common subjects to deliver understandable, stand-alone information products that humans will see and touch.
5. Develop presentation templates, or how you will use media to present the information deliverables for human consumption.
Consider the templates necessary to ensure an integrated, consistent user experience.Develop new templates by starting with those that are most impactful to your user’s information experience or that support business priorities.
6. Validate your model.Socialize it. Conduct reviews with members of the enterprise-wide IA community. Validate with customers, in several concrete content contexts, if possible.
Defines how all dimensions of the information experience fit together and how content teams can apply product-, solution-, project- or other kinds of offering-specific details to produce a concrete, project-specific, and user-centered information architecture
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Key types of models
Use Model
Content Model
Information Model
Defines ideal interactions between users and information—what they need, why they need it, what they’re doing when they need it, and how they’ll use it.
Defines standard building blocks of content, from the atomic level to larger “deliverables,” including subject, presentation, taxonomy, and metadata.
Defines a vision for how users will find your information, including organization, structure, relationships between chunks of information and full deliverables, and a big picture view of navigation strategies.
How will you ensure that users have the most up-to-date content?How will you communicate the availability of fresh or refreshed content?
Evaluate information for relevanceHow will you help users discover the value of your information as it relates to their goals and needs?What techniques will you use to distinguish information objects from one another?Will you allow users to apply their own metadata to help themselves and others with differentiation?
Use information to achieve a goalWhat techniques will you use for in-page or in-task wayfinding and discovery?Will you allow users to customize the information or the space for their own use, and if so, how?
Search for and finding relevant information
How do your chosen approaches for information delivery impact its findability? What are the likely entry points into your information architecture—marketing pages, out-of-box materials, Google, “likes” on Facebook?How will your information architecture promote search engine optimization (SEO)?
Follow leads when searchingHow will users find their way through your information space once they’ve found it?Where do your users want or need to go next?How will you enable discovery?
Scan an information space to develop a sense of its contents
How will you enable users to develop a good mental model of the information within a particular space? How will users self-locate within a navigation hierarchy or other structure?
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1. Leverage your use model to determine how users are most likely to access (or need to access) your content to:
2. Define the overarching strategy for user access to information.
3. Depict (with text, images, wireframes and prototypes) how a collection of access methods work together to accommodate the wide range of user behaviors when navigating to and within an information space. Drill down into the user experience and interface associated with specific areas of access, and define things typically associated with IA work like navigation patterns, labeling schemes and linking strategies.
4. Validate your model: Socialize it. Conduct reviews with members of the enterprise-wide IA community. Validate with customers, in several concrete content contexts, if possible.
Defines ideal interactions between users and information—what they need, why they need it, what they’re doing when they need it, and how they’ll use it.
Defines standard building blocks of content, from the atomic level to larger “deliverables,” including subject, presentation, taxonomy, and metadata.
Defines a vision for how users will find your information, including organization, structure, relationships between chunks of information and full deliverables, and a big picture view of navigation strategies.
Information Model Defines how all dimensions of the information experience fit together and how content teams can apply product-, solution-, project- or other kinds of offering-specific details to produce a concrete, project-specific, and user-centered information architecture
1. Start with the output of the other three modeling processes—use each of the other models as input to the Information Model.
2. Define a high-level information architecture that defines the entire information strategy and experience.
3. Define one or more low-level information architectures that are focused on the details of specific pieces of the total information solution.
Example: Business strategy or product usability issues might require an information architect to give particular focus to the information strategy in support of a product out-of-box experience—one specific piece within an overarching information architecture.
4. Validate your model.Socialize it. Conduct reviews with members of the enterprise-wide IA community. Validate with customers, in several concrete content contexts, if possible.