If they simply complete the template, theres a good likelihood it will be used as expected. You can find over 40 free content strategy and marketing templates and tools at the content strategy alliance tools and best practices page to help achieve this objective. Use this template to help create a content strategy for. To achieve this goal, you must base your ux strategy on user research rather than on stakeholder assumptions, consider the context of the enterprises strengths and weaknesses, and posit tactics a product team can employ. Rather than recreate the wheel each time, you should consider using these free templates.
A strong content strategy boils down to creating the right type of content for your target audience. Five steps to an effective content strategy ux collective. And content people who come from or work in the ux world say content strategy and mean bits of all of the above, but with usercentered design at the core of the work. If you want to learn more, we recommend picking up a copy of content strategy for the web. To make sure product managers, developers, marketers and executives lets call them stakeholders act on ux research results, planning must be crystal clear, collaborative, fast and digestible. Enterprise content strategy draws on kevin nichols experience managing one of the largest and most successful global content strategy. I would have liked more examples that are not necessarily transactional based. First referenced in the late 1990s by information designers like ann rockley, content strategy began to gain real traction around 2009.
Even once a ux designer has a good understanding of the content and has completed the content strategy and planning, the content still may not yet exist. Taking the shift to mobile as a focus for improving content for everyone, she makes the case that you need make sure that your content works on mobile, and sooner rather than later. This should hopefully provide a bit of inspiration and assist when it comes to choosing the type of documents to produce. How to create great user experiences through great content. Whether you are a content writer, editor, story writer or hold any responsibility related to content management then, this template is going to benefit you in showing the best of your creative thoughts and impress your customers, clients, boss or listeners. For example apple claims that they start with how they want people to feel when they start the design. Ux strategy is about defining what kind of experience you want. This book is the flipside of content strategy for the web. Aug 12, 2014 the ux strategy blueprint can also be used online. Books guides templates downloads blog newsletter log instart free trial.
Perhaps the client or an internal stakeholder is writing the content in tandem with the design work. Using metrics is key to tracking changes over time. Skip elements that are unknown or make assumptions as needed. Join morten randhendriksen for an indepth discussion in this video, examples and templates, part of ux foundations. Do the product and brand fit the market, and do they move in sync with the market. Apr 17, 2018 ux writing and content strategy both need to take into account a broad view of the entire experience with their product, no matter if the product is softwaresaas, ecommerceretail, or a media site. Oct 12, 2015 the image below shows the template for the strategy blueprint. This roadmap will guide your ux team and everyone else in the right direction. Kristina halvorson, author of the book content strategy for the web. How to write your own ux plan building creative market medium. Brian cliftons book on the topic also comes recommended. I came across this definition in jaime levys book on ux strategy, which i highly recommend. Here are a few examples of tasks a content strategist may be involved in.
Browse around to find the latest thinking on content strategy and ux in my blog entries, videos, free content strategy templates. The experts realized that you cant impress with the design if the content is not impressive as well. Plus, at the end of a complex ux design process, product teams must produce applications that are easy to learn and use. The platform also is fortune 500 companies social media channel of choice. Here are a few elements you may want to include in your templates. As chair of the group, i worked on each template and tool here. Be it usability testing or user research with a generative goal, research requires planning. If content is king, then content strategy is the kingmaker. Ux content strategist torrey podmajersky provides strategies for converting, engaging, supporting, and reattracting users. Teaching the value of content strategy to ux designers. Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful. There are often battles between ux and content management teams, especially when it comes to design process.
Creating good user experiences by focusing on content. Write down a few keywords or phrase for each that reflect a viable approach. The content strategy toolkit methods, guidelines, and templates for getting content right. The great news is that an inventory can serve as the starting point for an audit. With this practical book, youll learn how to write strategically for ux, using tools to build foundational pieces for ui text and ux voice strategy. Ensuring that you have useful and usable content, that is well structured, and easily found is vital to improving the user experience of a website. If you are creating templates from scratch, make sure to include strategic elements from the start. Bad content can never deliver a great user experience. You can still do a competitive analysis if youre a copywriter, content manager, content marketer, ux researcher, or even uxui designer. Her first impression was that the course is underwhelming, but recommends persevering because it contains hidden gems of wisdom and some handy tips and pointers. As explained in the free field guide to ux strategy, the first step is to take out your notepad and pencil. Content strategy a guide for ux designers by dmitriy.
The 4tenants of ux strategy that the book lays out is actually quite useful reminder of what to focus upon when drawing up a ux strategy. It happens before the content is created and continues on when the content is live. Lafleys five questions of strategy in their recent book playing to win. Theres no better example than her brilliant post bring out your inner ux writer. Using metrics is key to tracking changes over time, benchmarking against iterations of your own site or application or those. The image below shows the template for the strategy blueprint. A content strategy is a critical step at the beginning of any new project that involves content. Metrics are the signals that show whether your ux strategy is working. A great content strategy will pay for itself many times over, both today and in the future, and im here to show you how to do it right. Content strategy has been superior in marketing departments for decades. You also need to plan the next steps you take, which means planning the design sprints. A content template is a simple document that serves two purposes. On the worksheet, record key points for each element of the ux strategy. How to analyze your competitors content strategy ux.
Well show you how to embed contentfirst thinking into popular ux design techniques to reveal powerful insights about the content, that lead to a better user experience. Ux writing and content strategy both need to take into account a broad view of the entire experience with their product, no matter if the product is. Auditing your web content is a necessary evil that has to be done. Content not only includes the words on the page but also the images and multimedia that are used. Content strategy for ux designers linkedin slideshare.
Ux professionals who are responsible for developing an enterprise ux strategy must take into account the needs of both the user and stakeholders in the csuite, address the enterprises it strategy and security issues, and aim for the best possible user experience within the inevitable constraints. Feb 17, 2018 anyone responsible for creating or managing content, or developing a content strategy. Logic follows that if your organization operates in the b2b space, you need not only a defined content marketing program but a distinct linkedin marketing strategy. A project guide outlines best practices for conducting and executing content strategy projects.
Very often i find that books appearing in the empowermentpersonal growth field, or from various coaching disciplines, are nothing but fluffedup advertorials for the authors speaking career or seminars. Content strategy sits at the core of any publishing project and is an integral part of modern business. As ux guru jaime levy has it, ux strategy is the intersection between user experience design and business strategy. They can act as a ux advocates to content creators, while keeping designers in the real world when it comes to things like content requirements and template designs. Throughout her book, content strategy for the web, kristina halvorson. Whether its a framework upon which to prototype your mobile app, a script to use as the basis for your user testing sessions, or a printout of some simple panels to make your scribbled storyboard quicker to produce, youre bound to find something in this list of ux templates. This ux strategy guide helps designers make better decisions. How to write your own ux plan building creative market. Learn how to create more usable, useful, and accessible websites. Practical advice around how to embed contentfirst thinking into ux design techniques to. Go ahead and open the competitive analysis matrix from the ux strategy toolkit if your computer is handy. Actionable ux strategy guide from robert hoekman jr.
His book is a stepbystep guide to building an enterprise content strategy for your organization. The writing is professional, engaging, and uses the right amount of humour to keep things lively. Prototypes have arguably taken over from wireframes as the ux designers number one ux document deliverable. Complete beginners guide to content strategy ux booth. An inventory is quantitativeit helps measure how much content exists about what topics and in what formats. Organize ux copy in a way thats easy for designers and developers to interpret. With postcards you can create and edit email templates online without any coding skills. Plus, at the end of a complex ux design process, product teams. Ux plan template copy this dropbox paper template when you need to start a new ux plan. Yes, a notepad, because the second you go digital, everyones a critic. All analytics packages provide key reports, such as most frequently visited pages, visitor demographics, bounce rate and more. Weve worked up lots of example outputs so you can see it all in action.
Strategy is a combination of things which together will help you achieve an outcome. As figure 48 illustrates, ive provided a blank template for you to use. This article is for content strategy students and practitioners who are interested in the. Content strategy focuses on the planning, creation, delivery, and governance of content.
A content inventory isnt the same as a content audit. A strategy should provide an assessment of the clients current content, as well as insight into their competitors content. On the flip side, a content strategy project that focuses largely on content workflow and governance likely wont need to pull in a ux strategist, but might need a good interaction designer to assist with workflow documentation. There is a version of it, below, with open input fields, so you can capture the elements digitally as well. Not only do ux and styleguide templates help establish a consistent and easily repeatable tone and style for your website or app, they also serve as highquality and professional deliverables for your clients. Make sure you get an api key from moz and enter your member id and secret key into the settings tab or this template wont work. Everything you say here about content and content strategy can apply equally to the creation of a book. Everything you need to know to creep like a content strategist. How to analyze your competitors content strategy ux collective.
It is the highlevel plan to achieve one or more business goals under conditions of uncertainty. Listen to the podcast, find the books, come to the conference, or join the community. And yes, a pencil, because here will be multiple drafts. Share it as a live link, present it as a slideshow or download it. On the next article i am going to break down ux writing and content strategy techniques that an innovative company like facbook uses, and what all of us can learn from it. Authority begins with great ideas, a solid content strategy, and a great team to help you maximize roi. Guide overview this handson guide for all uxers explores the intersection of content strategy and ux design on a website design project. Last, but not least, you have to define how designers and developers will work together. I liked the book, the content is heavily focused upon digital products and transactional items. When it comes to content strategy, these things could. If they simply complete the template, theres a good likelihood it will be. One comparably recent type is ux user experience writing, an approach to customercentered.
The series of a book apart volumes are always well worth reading, and karen mcgranes content strategy for mobile is especially worth your time. And if youve got a template without strategic elements, its time to weave them in. Content strategy and ux writing are close buddies for sure. The elements in the ux strategy blueprint are based on existing research in the field of strategy. Why writing a book is the best content strategy youve never. Oct 05, 2016 content strategy and copywriting are part of ux, not a separate thing, content needs to be taken into consideration from the start, copywriting doesnt come after sketchingwireframing, because. First, it borrows from henry mintzbergs five ps of strategy from his landmark book strategy safari.
Examples and templates linkedin learning, formerly. The difference between templates and content types. From strategy to execution to measurement, theres something here you can use today. However, the importance of content strategy in ux design has surfaced just a few years ago. Ideally, a content strategist does this workbut not every organization has one. Content strategy is the epitome of easier said than done. An audit is qualitativeit helps measure whether that content is any good and if it meets the audiences needs.
Write better press releases that are easier to read and more likely to earn coverage. Whether youre building a microsite for a small business or giving the web presence of a fortune 500 company a complete overall, the process starts with getting a solid understanding of what. Though user experience and content strategy seem to have similar goals there is too much conflict when it comes to the actual execution. Enterprise content strategy draws on kevin nichols experience managing one of the largest and most successful global content strategy teams to provide an insiders look at how to build an enterprise content strategy. The guide helps in the research of problems, audiences, ideas, hypotheses, risk analysis, and decisionmaking about a considered product. Content strategy and copywriting are part of ux, not a separate thing, content needs to be taken into consideration from the start, copywriting doesnt come after sketchingwireframing, because.
Apr 23, 2017 even if youve never entertained the idea of writing a book, dont rule it out. Translating the idea of content strategy into meaningful action and results is a struggle, which is why joseph phillips has identified a methodical process for devising, carrying out and measuring content strategy projects. Linkedin is home to 40 million b2b decisionmakers and 61 million seniorlevel influencers. Why content strategy and ux must work together ux planet. Lets consider a simple example of content strategy at work. A guide to strategic content templates 3 minute read. In closing the opportunities ahead are fantastic for designers working in this industry. Or, try uploading an image of it as a background within an online collaboration board e. Edit the interactive planner with your team to go through every step of your content strategy, from planning and executing to publishing and optimizing. Written by meghan casey in this essential guide, meghan casey outlines a stepbystep approach for doing content strategy, from planning and creating your content to delivering and managing it. This template has drop downs for redundant fields and makes use of the moz api to pull in link data on your urls. Til then, make do with my book, content strategy for the web. Although ux design encompasses numerous details such as visual design, content messaging, and how easy it is for a user to accomplish a task, ux strategy is the big picture.
Mar 23, 2018 a considered ux strategy helps us to deliver on all of these aspects of an ecosystem and become increasingly important as the ecosystems we design become richer and more complex. They can also templates, metadata and other components. My name is morten randhendriksen, and im here as your guide to the weird and wonderful world of content strategy. Starter kit for content strategists, content designers, and ux writers. The objective of an enterprise ux strategy is to provide a roadmap for creating digital outputs that are more user friendly. To ensure that your content delivers a great user experience, a writer should pay attention to the following details. Whats the difference between ux writing and content strategy. Content strategy for the web sets the stage for content strategy to be implemented for any company by helping individuals to understand what it is, why it is important, how it can be created, who is involved, how it is managed, etc.
The elements in the strategy blueprint are based on research in the field. Expert resources for content strategy professionals and enthusiasts. Content strategy template is a significant tool for you to plan your content in the most efficacious manner. Ux practitioners, both consultants and in house, sometimes conduct research. Following on from my article about how to create great ux documents, i thought that it would be useful to collate some example ux documents and deliverables together. The content strategy template walks you through researching and writing up the three key elements of a content strategy. Make marketing easier and do better work with these templates and resources. I constantly reference the book for its 5 planes model, which jesse james. A good product roadmap is a very simple list of highlevel goals you want to achieve in the next 36 months.
For example, the ux and content strategy team might work together, and design a product page with an image and caption, a short description of the product, and then a call to action. Well be adding instructional content about interpreting web analytics soon, but in the mean time this article is a good place to start. Refer to the previous scenario and analysis of the business strategy 2. Plunk your competitor list into the leftmost column of the yaxis. However, if the content has structure and all the necessary information that a user needs, it will help create a good user experience. Strategy then gets into a plan to get to there for example doing away with skeumorphic design in favor of a flat design, focussing more in typography to bring more simplicity. First, it borrows from henry mintzbergs five ps of strategy from his book strategy safari. You can include influencers or leave them out, depending on how much time you have. A prototype is basically a semifunctional mockup of the design. Content strategy, ux writing and the confusing relation between.
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