This Is not a Place of Honor
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Anyone who's worked on a web project has stumbled across the horror of "legacy content" that makes no sense, or is held together with duck tape and dreams. In this talk, we'll look at some noteworthy content disasters, learn to spot problem areas in the future, and remember to be kind: the disasters of the past were built be people just like us, working with constraints we may not understand.
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This Is not a Place of Honor
- 1. Not a Place of Honor Learning the Right Lessons From Terrible Content Models Jeff Eaton of Lullabot Presented by Drupal4Gov
- 2. I work for Lullabot. We content stuff. I’m @eaton.
- 5. The Case ofthe Vegan Mp3
- 7. The Case ofthe 50 Article Types
- 9. The Case ofthe Team Mailing List
- 10. We add the announcement, but it’s sent in raw HTML…
- 11. We add the announcement, but it’s sent in raw HTML…
- 12. The Case ofthe 5-Minute Edit Form
- 13. We have a content type for everydesign pattern!
- 15. ‣ Malicious co-workers are trying to drive us mad to win a contest ‣ Ourworld is the test suite for a multiverse that actuallyworks well ‣ We do our best, under pressure, with imperfect knowledge.
- 16. ‣ When we started, allwe had was an events management system… ‣ We didn’t have a developerforthe prototype, and it had to launch… ‣ It was the simplest way to migrate subscriptions from the CEO’s blog… ‣ The ten-page prototype worked great…
- 17. “It works for now…” “This is how it’s supposed to be.”
- 18. The Case ofthe Pile of Uranium
- 19. ✓ Store tons of radioactive waste ✓ Last 10,000 years ✓ Warn future humans ✓ Must not look too cool
- 21. This place is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here. What is here is dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning. “ ”
- 22. How Can We Tellthe Difference?
- 23. Common Patterns
- 24. ‣ Modeling pages, not content ‣ Exceptions are the rule ‣ Lava flow content models ‣ Cargo cult workflow
- 25. Modeling Pages, Not Content Content types that map to visual chunks of a page, ratherthan meaningful messages.
- 26. Exceptions Are the Rule Most content lives in “generic page” or “flexible” content types
- 27. Lava Flow Content Model Waves of content types created, then abandoned for new ones.
- 28. Cargo Cult Workflow No one knows whywe make things this way, but it’s how it must be done…
- 29. Forensic Empathy
- 31. Hunt forthe Original Intent ‣ Can you find documentation? ‣ Can you talk to people who worked on it? ‣ Do you knowwhy it’s being changed?
- 32. Examine the Past Constraints ‣ Limited budget (financial ortemporal) ‣ Team knowledge, experience ‣ Outdated technology ‣ Political pressures
- 33. What’s the Same? What’s Changed? ‣ Technology maturity ‣ Political pressures ‣ Understanding ofthe problem
- 34. Understand Why To Improve How
- 37. Thanks for Coming! ‣ Heckle me: twitter.com/eaton ‣ Talk shop: eaton@lullabot.com ‣ Read more: lb.cm/eaton ‣ Work with us: lullabot.com/services
- 38. Thanks for Coming! ‣ Heckle me: twitter.com/eaton ‣ Talk shop: eaton@lullabot.com ‣ Read more: lb.cm/eaton ‣ Work with us: lullabot.com/services …Any Questions?