The document discusses the importance of structured content and outlines strategies for understanding, organizing, and connecting content through an audit and redesign process. It recommends planning an audit to measure specific aspects of content, tracking patterns and themes in notes, and presenting findings visually rather than through spreadsheets. It also suggests grounding an organizational sitemap in strategy, testing and iterating the structure with feedback, and using structure as a collaboration point. The overall message is that structure helps content be understood, organized and connected.
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“Before the spread of
printing, a highly developed
Memory was needed by the
entertainer, the poet, the
singer, the physician, the
lawyer, and the priest.”
D A N I E L J . B O O R S T I N
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“The printed book would
be a new warehouse of
Memory, superior in countless
ways to the internal invisible
warehouse in each person.”
D A N I E L J . B O O R S T I N
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Track patterns and
themes.
• Keep separate notes for high-
level observations
• Group and regroup notes to find
patterns
• Try Boardthing or post-its
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Be particular about
presentation.
• Visualize content distribution
and other data points
• Lead with themes, not
spreadsheets
• Share raw data as a reference
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Build for next steps.
• Who needs to understand it?
Approve it? Build from it?
• What other work will it inform?
• How much detail does it need?
What other layers can it
support?
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Use structure as a
collaboration point.
• Consider who else needs to use
your documentation
• Don’t be afraid to make
changes
• Make sure your content is
aligned
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Resources
• Content Analysis Tool, content-insight.com
• Treejack, optimalworkshop.com
• Boardthing, boardthing.com
• Eileen Webb’s taxonomy work on the-toast.net:
http://responsivewebdesign.com/toast/taxonomy/
• The Order of Things, Barbara Ann Kipfer
• The Discoverers, Daniel J. Boorstin
• Thanks to the clients whose work I’ve shown here (Carnegie Mellon University
and Seton Hill University), and the agencies I’ve worked with (Brain Traffic,
Seven Heads Design, and Happy Cog)
• Photos sourced from Unsplash.com under a CC0 license