“Content strategy focuses on the planning, creation, delivery and governance of content”
In this lecture session with Kyle, we learnt to ask ourselves three important questions when creating content
- What are you trying to improve?
- Who are you trying to improve it for?
- How do you ensure you are successful at improving the right thing for the right people?
I’ll answer two of these questions…
What are you trying to improve?
Well the short answer is, I am trying to improve the way people can understand the periodic table, no matter their experience level.
The long answer is much more complex. While the periodic table may already be easy to understand by some, a lot of people have little to no experience dealing with it. Unless the person has been studying chemistry for years then the periodic table may seem like a daunting thing to look at and take in. Practice and learning ofcourse makes the elements easier to remember overtime but can be a long process and some people may not have the time or the attention span to learn it. An example would be someone with ADHD, trying to sit down and learn the elements. Learning the Periodic Table is a monotonous task and many people will tell you that, so someone with ADD or ADHD will have a lot of issues with the learning process being far too boring to learn.
Review Your User Requests
It can be very tempting when you’re on a tight timeline to iterate new releases to get your ideas from users without talking to users. The best way to actually improve something is to listen to the people with the problems, listening to their issues and what they find the hardest/most challenging to use. You then improve upon them areas.
Who are you trying to improve it for?
When designing something, it can be very easy to fall in the hole of designing something with yourself in mind instead of the user. Avoiding this is key to making something that is for everyone as there are different needs and we need to adapt our content to meet them.
Knowing who your users are can be broken down into key information;
- Understand how people interact with computers.
- Understand the human characteristics important in design.
- Identify the user’s level of knowledge and experience.
- Identify the characteristics of the user’s needs, tasks, and jobs.
- Identify the user’s psychological characteristics.
- Identify the user’s physical characteristics.
- Employ recommended methods for gaining understanding of users.
This is all under the bubble of Know Your User or Client.
Accessibility
This all ties into Web Accessibility, ensuring there are no barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to, websites on the World Wide Web by people with physical disabilities. This also applies to apps, making something accessible is the key to a furfilling the needs for everyone, and in turn you will successfully have improved it for someone.
Accessibility can be split into sections regarding;
- Responsiveness – Users with visual impairments can increase the size of text without taking away from readability.
- Compatibility – Your product should be compatible with assistive technologies
- Closed Captions – For people with hearing impairments.
- Hierarchy – Information hierarchy is important as it makes it easier for users to read
Accessibility not only benefits those with disabilities, but it benefits everyone. This is why it is common practice within the world of UX/UI design.