7. “Structured content is content that
is planned, developed and
connected outside an interface so
that it’s ready for any interface”
- Carrie Hane and MikeAtherton
‘Designing Connected Content’
20. RESEARCH GROUP
• Name
• Summary
• Photo
• Type
• Topic
• Theme
• Funder
• Group Leader
• Group Members
• Group Admin
• Publications
• Research description
• Projects
RESEARCHER
• Name
• Title
• Email address
• Phone number
• Research Group
• Photo
• Type
• Qualifications
• Biography
• Publications
• Social media
EVENT
• Title
• Summary
• Photo
• Date
• Time
• Venue
• Type
• Topic
• Theme
• Speaker
• Host
• Contact
• Series
• Description
• Booking method
NEWS ARTICLE
• Title
• Summary
• Photo
• Date
• Author
• Type
• Topic
• Theme
• Featured person
• Featured group
• Article
CREATE CHUNKS, NOT BLOBS
21. RESEARCH GROUP
• Name
• Summary
• Photo
• Type
• Topic
• Theme
• Funder
• Group Leader
• Group Members
• Group Admin
• Publications
• Research description
• Projects
RESEARCHER
• Name
• Title
• Email address
• Phone number
• Research Group
• Photo
• Type
• Qualifications
• Biography
• Publications
• Social media
EVENT
• Title
• Summary
• Photo
• Date
• Time
• Venue
• Type
• Topic
• Theme
• Speaker
• Host
• Contact
• Series
• Description
• Booking method
NEWS ARTICLE
• Title
• Summary
• Photo
• Date
• Author
• Type
• Topic
• Theme
• Featured person
• Featured group
• Article
22. RESEARCH GROUP
• Name
• Summary
• Photo
• Type
• Topic
• Theme
• Funder
• Group Leader
• Group Members
• Group Admin
• Publications
• Research description
• Projects
PERSON
• Name
• Title
• Email address
• Phone number
• Research Group
• Photo
• Type
• Qualifications
• Biography
• Publications
• Social media
EVENT
• Title
• Summary
• Photo
• Date
• Time
• Venue
• Type
• Topic
• Theme
• Speaker
• Host
• Contact
• Series
• Description
• Booking method
NEWS ARTICLE
• Title
• Summary
• Photo
• Date
• Author
• Type
• Topic
• Theme
• Featured person
• Featured group
• Article
23. Element Description Format Max length Required
Group name Formal name of Group. Appears at top of Group
and in search results and listings
Plain text Y
Group sub-title Descriptive name of Group. Appears at top of
Group and in search results and listings
Plain text Y
Group summary Short overview of research focus Plain text
Group banner image Editorial image introducing group Image n/a N
Group banner image
caption
Explanation of image, including science, person
and lab behind it.Will appear with banner image.
Plain text N
Teaser image Small version of Group banner image for teasers
and search results
n/a N
Group type Pulls from list of different group types Menu – single
select
n/a Y
Research topic Topical area of research – pulls from list of themes Menu – multi
select
n/a Y
Research theme Strategic research themes – pulls from list of
themes
Menu – multi
select
n/a Y
Group Leader Group Leader name – pulls from researcher menu Menu – single
select
n/a Y
RESEARCH GROUP
24. CATEGORISATION AS A CONNECTOR
GROUPTYPE
• Crick Lab
• Seconded Lab
• Sabbatical Lab
• Satellite Lab
• Technology platform
NEWSTYPE
• News
• Feature
• Profile
• Perspective
• Audio
• Video
RESEARCHTHEME
• Growth and
Development
• Health and Ageing
• Human Biology
• Cancer
• Immune System
• Infectious Disease
• Neuroscience
RESEARCHTOPIC
• Biochemistry and
Proteomics
• Cell Biology
• Cell Cycle and
Chromosomes
• Chemical Biology
• Computational and
Systems Biology
• Development
Biology
• Ecology
• Gene Expression
• Genetics and
Genomics
• etc
EVENTTYPE
• Public event
• Training
• Seminar
• Conference
• Symposia
RESEARCH GROUP
50. “It is your mission to get your content out, on
whichever platform, in whichever format your
audience wants to consume it. Your users get to
decide how, when, and where they want to read
your content. It is your challenge and your
responsibility to deliver a good experience to
them.”
- Karen McGrane, Content Strategy for Mobile
51. Change it once, it changes everywhere
Reduce risk of duplicate content
Scales quickly
Enables connections – surface buried treasure
Enables personalisation
Make the most of the content you have
Point resources to most
important things
No more massive
[and expensive] redesigns
The concepts of structured content, taxonomy and ‘create once, publish everywhere’ are common themes in content strategy. The promise of saving your time and improving your content quality by removing duplication, providing relevant user journeys and enabling omni-platform publishing is enticing. But how do you turn the theories into practice when you are working in complex institutions, with devolved publishing models and an overwhelming amount of content?
Techniques to identify and prioritise opportunities to connect your content so you can reuse it across your site for a range of purposes
How structuring your content in your CMS is vital for facilitating content connections and ensuring your site is future-ready
Examples of how introducing manageable taxonomies can save you time and ensure your users see content that’s more relevant and appropriate
The times they are a’changing – and indeed they have been for a while
When we create a website, we have no idea where a visitor will be, what they’ll use to view it, what browser they’ll use, or what their connection speed will be.
They may not even see anything at all
Focus on design / technology decisions
But content is the whole point
People visit you to access information or complete a task
Creating huge blobs of content are hugely restricting – hard to reuse, inefficient, don’t help user with relevant onward journey
CMA compliance
- But it’s frequently standalone within course listing > rarely connected elsewhere
Talk a bit about the process - mention workshop later
What is your content actually about?
Nowhere near design or CMS
What do people actually need – and how do they describe it / in connection with what
First meaning – then structure
What is your context
Content types
Everything should have a purpose.
If someone asks for it – ask them why and if they can’t answer, take it out (or go back to your research)
Content types
Content types
Be specific – this is likely what’ll end up in your project specificiation, it’ll help people down the line know exactly what should be CMS – and it’ll help when you get to design -= how much space do things actually need. Stops you being led by design and lorum ipsum
don’t design for a device, design for flexibility