Find out why and how working working your UX process from the content is a strategy that can lead to becoming a strategic design influencer with a seat at the decision table. It can also reduce UX churn in design due to lack of content at the start of design. Maybe most important, it can drive significant improvements in key metrics including end-user satisfaction.

1. UX Content-out
Strategy
Feb 2017
Mike Donahue
@mdonahue37 #UXDS2017

2. Content is not just text.

3. Content is not a replacement
for place holders
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipiscing elit. Cras facilisis aliquet vehicula.
Maecenas feugiat mattis urna, nec feugiat neque
tempus ut. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante
ipsum primis in faucibus. Fusce non facilisis
urna, ac aliquam sem. Vivamus laoreet ligula
quis enim ultricies, finibus rutrum arcu aliquet.
Nam ac blandit sem.
Button label

4. Content is not
king!

5. Content is core!

6. What’s an experience
without the content?

7. content:
Noun
1 (usu. contents) the things that are held or included in something: he unscrewed the top of the
flask and drank the contents | he picked up the correspondence and scanned the contents.
• [ usu. in sing. ] the amount of a particular constituent occurring in a substance: milk with a low-fat
content.
• (contents or table of contents) a list of the titles of chapters or sections contained in a book or
periodical: the contents page.
• information made available by a website or other electronic medium: online content providers.
2 the substance or material dealt with in a speech, literary work, etc., as distinct from its form or style:
the outward form and precise content of the messages.
Adjective
in a state of peaceful happiness: he seemed more content, less bitter.
• satisfied with a certain level of achievement, good fortune, etc., and not wishing for more: he had to
be content with third place | the duke was content to act as Regent.

8. Are users content with the
content of your content?
substance stuff
satisfied

9. Satisfaction
How it makes
people feel
Stuff
What it is
Substance
What it’s made
of or means
UX
Design it right
Design the
right thing
The reason
to design

10. UX copy [content] gets shit done as
directly and simply as possible.
Joel Marsh
http://thehipperelement.com/post/72080847673/daily-ux-crash-course-3-of-31

11. All content is UX content!

12. What’s in it for
UX?
• It brings design to the
decision table at the
start
• It brings content into the
conversation at the start

14. Continuous UX involvement

15. UX content informs design

16. No one created the glass and then
figured out what to put in it.

17. Without UX

18. Or worse.

19. This is what we want.

20. Case study: Citrix intranet redesign
(Backstage)
• Employees felt they spent
too much time trying to
locate relevant content –
too much stuff to sift
through
• It was painful and confusing
to locate and open support
requests
• They came to get answers
so they could get back to
work, not be entertained or
socialize
Old version

21. Thoughtful ruthlessness leads
to appropriately precise
content.
Which leads to much better designs and experiences.

22. 2 Rules:
Co-create with business
Never design without one

23. Page table - Priority Index
http://www.slideshare.net/donahuephoto/page-table-template
Put 90% of your time
into these two box

24. There can be only one...Priority 1
Get thoughtfully ruthless.

25. Emotion-driven goal (page table objective)
We want employees to feel confident and
efficient finding the right information and support
so we will remove noise and downplay
distractions so they can return to work as
quickly as possible.

26. Net results
60-90% reduction
in content across sections
383% increase
in search use
224% increase
in page views per session
34% decrease
in average time per session
59% decrease
in bounce
Massive improvement in
employee satisfaction

27. Function: Findability – through
clicking/typing

28. Function: Findability – through
clicking/typing
Decision fatigue Pogo sticking

30. Emotion-driven goal (page table objective)
We want employees to feel confident and
efficient finding the right information and support
so we will remove noise and downplay
distractions so they can return to work as
quickly as possible.

31. Net results
46% reduction
in support content
48% increase
in online support tickets
21% decrease
in misdirected tickets
$383K
annual cost savings

32. UX content is functional

33. Expanding our definition of interaction
The hand isn’t the only way to interact with content.

34. Most
interactions
begin in the
eyes.

35. Most
interactions
begin in the
eyes.

36. Function: Findability – through looking
stock image

37. Content is not the text you get two days before launch
to replace the lorem ipsum, that’s too long or too short
for the space you allotted in your wireframe, that got
carried over to your Photoshop mock-up, and then to
the coded prototype. Nor is it some irrelevant stock
image of a smiling couple with a cute puppy or baby
playing at the beach that has no connection the
aforementioned last minute text that was selected
because some read an article that said images of
people lead to higher conversions, but instead draws
the eye away from the primary call to action action you
want the visitor click on.

38. Content is not the text you get two days before launch to replace
the lorem ipsum, that’s too long or too short for the space you
allotted in your wireframe, that got carried over to your
Photoshop mock-up, and then to the coded prototype. Nor is it
some irrelevant stock image of a smiling couple with a cute
puppy or baby playing at the beach that has no connection the
aforementioned last minute text that was selected because
some read an article that said images of people lead to higher
conversions, but instead draws the eye away from the primary
call to action action you want the visitor click on.

39. • Content is not a replacement for lorem ipsum
• Content is not a pleasing but irrelevant stock image

40. Test your content
like you test your UI.
Content optimization yields bigger
rewards.

41. Function: Readability – which feels
easiest?
A B C

42. UX content satisfies real needs

43. Case study: Citrix.com redesign
• Tracked NPS score before
and after redesign
• Applied the same design
changes to all category and
product pages
• Only had resources to
rewrite the content within the
networking categry and
products

44. Function: is it easy to read?
https://readability-score.com/text/

45. Function: Readability - scoring
Grade level • Ideal grade score for average audience is 8±
• Lower grade indicates easier reading
• Is a good indicator of vocabulary required by reader
• Avoid unnecessary big words at all cost
Reading ease • Ideal reading score for average audience is 45 or higher
• Higher scores indicate easier reading
• Is a good indicator of sentence quality
• Avoid long run-on sentences

46. Function: Readability score comparison
War and Peace
Average grade: 8
Average readability: 70

47. Function: Readability score comparison
Citrix networking
Average grade: 20±
Average readability: 12
Worst scores: 27/-47
After rewrite
Average grade: 14±
Average readability: 35
and higher

48. Function: Readability – impact on
satisfaction
416%
improvement in NPS
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
before after

49. UX content doesn’t just fill
space on a screen,
it fulfills human needs.

50. Content is not king.
Content is CORE!