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Architecting your Content for the Unknown Consumer

05.10.16

Richard Jones, Technical DirectoreZ Conference, Paris 2016

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Richard JonesTechnical Director Inviqa Content Practice Content, Commerce, Innovation

Your customer’s behaviour is changing faster than you are

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You need to keep pace with requirements you may not

even be aware of

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Being PreparedWhy today’s web is unpredictable What’s likely to change How you can be ready now

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Desktop Tablet Mobile Native application

The Known Consumer

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By definition: Anything you are testing for Assume everything else is unknown

The Known Consumer

“Internet of Things”

Defining the IoTHeadline devices Smart Refrigerators Household domestic appliances

Outside the headlinesMedia Advertising Billboards

Outside the headlinesEnvironmental monitoring Infrastructure management Manufacturing Energy Management Medical and Healthcare

Outside the headlinesConsumer Wearable Quantified Self Smart Retail

5.5 million new things get connected to the internet

each day (Gartner)

How many of these are content consumers?

Vodafone: Store kiosks driven

from central content repository

Realtime Data

Using realtime data to power applications

Amazon Echo: A revolutionary

content consumer

Some future gazing…

Some content dates quickly

What if you could correct at source?

Could content save a life?

A Smart device could check for itself if it had been recalled

Always up to date

A self driving car could consume many types of content to improve its abilities

How we present this data is the key

Software is not good at interpreting meaning

Unstructured vs Structured Data

Use of structured data for other purposes

How do we support these unknown consumers?

Much people still thinks in the “page” model Pages may have semantic elements At best these are signals for interpretation

The Web as Pages

We need a Content Management System to allow us to move beyond “page” thinking

Beyond the Page

Content model and structure Delivery / Access mechanism

Beyond the page

Content creators need to think beyond pages Relinquish control of layout

Challenges

A debate well covered elsewhere aka Battle for the Body Field A conversation that is still ongoing

Blocks vs Chunks

Also a well covered topic Very relevant to our scenarios The use case for context specific content is valid here

Adaptive vs Responsive

Do we want to?

Open Data Paid API access Metered API access

Business Models

Value added service Offer content in a usable format

Business Models

How do we get there?

Structure the content model Expose content using a documented API

Steps to Prepare

Conceptually can start quite simple Complexity tends to escalate as you work through the relationships

The Content Model

Example

Article

•Headline •Body •Image

Content Model theory

Object Oriented Programing Well understood in the computer science world Some principles could be applied to content modelling

Comparing to OOP

Objects which may contain data in the form of fields Code in the form of methods Single responsibility principle Interface segregation principle

Definition

A content type should be as simple as possible It should be for one purpose only Do not assume dependencies that may not be present A field should have one clear purpose

Loose interpretation

How do we get to the content model?

Different roles have different relationships with the content Engaging with all the voices helps us build a complete content model

Content Workshops

The importance of invisible data

Metadata Taxonomy Relationships

Types of Invisible Data

Organisation specific taxonomy with an unknown audience - open standards are better

Examples of Metadata

Organisation specific taxonomy with an unknown audience - open

standards are better

GS1 Smart Search

Data always beats judgement No matter how long you’ve been in the industry No matter how well you know your products Intuition is not a science

Examining Relationships

Camera publication

Taxonomy Example

Niche Camera publication

Taxonomy Example

Content Modelling Antipatterns

Content types that provide nothing in isolation “Signposts”, “Jumps”, “Shortcuts”

Non-Content Content

Instead use alternative views of the referenced content: e.g. Teasers, List view

Non-Content Content

A content type that covers multiple use cases Violates the single responsibility principle Reluctance to have multiple content types leads to a monster content type

Godzilla Content Type

Instead: Don’t be afraid to have more smaller content types Consider relationships Think carefully about single responsibility

Godzilla Content Type

Using a field name that doesn’t make immediate sense to the editor Fields that are used for different things in difference scenarios Lead to loss of structure

Field Ambiguity

Instead: Agree clear naming with all content stakeholders Create clear guidelines / help text.

Field Ambiguity

Fields that are not really content Designed to affect the layout of the “page” via template logic

Logic Fields

Don’t mix layout with content The application theme layer can handle this for you.

Logic Fields

What Next?

Use a CMS with a good Content Model Toolset

Educate Stakeholders regarding the benefits of structured content

Split content from design

Handle creative objections early

Spend time on the content model

Allow more time that you think you need Focus on the future - and abstract Simplify the design - leave no room for interpretation Consistency of fields - eg date formats

Content Model

Think through all possible relationships Break content into the smallest possible pieces Hold the smallest amount of formatting possible

Content Model

Future proof your content

Ensure portability

Embrace the unknown and create a legacy

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Questions?