Content Convergence

Content

Convergence

Rahel Anne Bailie© 2008 Intentional Design Inc.

Content convergence is a move away from content silos

a move away from content silos.

Paired with content integration, which is combining content

combining content from multiple sources.

Together with syndication, they have powerful communication potential.

Simple example of content convergence:A blog•Blog posts

•Images (in blog posts)

•Twitter posts

•Upcoming conference gigs

•User-generated content

•Visitor log

•Subscription information

www.salimismail.com

Training instantiation

TechComm instantiation

Support instantiation

A techcomm example:

“The Triumverate”

www.allmusic.com

A marketing example: High-value content

Content convergence means portability.

Content can be mixed-and-matched to fit new contexts.

To be portable, content needs to:• Be structured• Have semantic properties• Be findable (searchable)• Conform to standards

Match structures to purposeHTML

XHTMLMicroformats

XMLDITADocBookS1000DData

WikisStructured wikisDITA wikis

Portable content makes context more important.Portable content makes context more important.

Content must support multiple contexts.

Convergence at Visa

Convergence at VanCity

Complex contexts demand concise content.

Shape content around a single concept.

Context changes content.

The ability to re-use content across contexts increases content value.

Content is not isolated.Content is not isolated.

Content does need to be self-contained.

WHY?The market demands it• Organizations need to deliver more content, faster, cheaper.• The content needs to work for many similar products.• There is a need to deliver to multiple markets , sometimes in multiple languages.• There is too much content to deal with, to create linear content.

It’s doing more, better, faster.

Users want itOrganic content convergenceWorld of Warcraft• Some users dissatisfied with documentation provided.• Built their own database.• Better quality, more features.

Apple• Search for “iPhone help” and observe the results• Search for an error message by number (e.g. “error message 12846”) and observe the results

• Users will create their own documentation.•Their sites will come up higher in search engines.• Your reputation may suffer.• Brand management issues arise.

Apple iPhone

World of Warcraft

wow.allakhazam.com/

HP Knowledge Center

h30413.www3.hp.com/SupportServices/country/us/en/support/T1100.html.htm

It’s not a single-department issue

When architected well, it happens seamlessly.

Information portal

TechComm

content

User-generated content

Engineering content

CRM content

Support center content

Marketing content

RSS feedsSubscriptions

Training content

Move to experience design

Convergence creates possibilities.

The end goal is user satisfaction.

Portable content creates valueContent is integrated from:

• Airline booking

• Hotel booking

• Car rental booking

• Google maps

• Weather network

• User-generated content

… and more.

Convergence is automated, generating an automatic, customized itinerary.

This convergence of content provides a value-add service to the user.

www.tripit.com

Content can include integration of data, visuals, audio, text.

Mash-ups are also a form of content convergence.It improves comprehension

Portable content creates efficienciesContent needs to be engaging.

And content format must be predictable.

The move away from single-use, linear content is happening fast.

Every day, the bar is raised a little higher.

The pressure is on to devise strategies for portable content.

You snooze, you lose.

BREAK

Strategies are business-dependentThere is no formula.

• The solutions are as unique as the business and the reasons for needing the strategy.

• It means changes in technologies.

• It means change in processes.

•It means change in skill sets.

Business drivers

Product differentiation

Cost impact

Customer profitability

Number of customers

Number of suppliers

Switchability

Spare industry capacity

Entry barriers

Relative service

Product performance

Relative market share

Overhead

Variable cost

Customer price sensitivity

Capital intensity

Level of service

Relative perceived value

Relative costs

Market attractiveness

Competitive position

Current profitability

Treat content as a valuable corporate asset.

It means rethinking the nature of content.

Content needs a strategy

Designing content ties into experience designSubsets of experience design are:• Multi-channel experience• Digital experience design• User experience• User-centered design• Service design• Usability

No matter what you call it, the end goal is to improve the experience for the end user.

Work Your Content

Beyoncé, I Am ... Sasha Fierce, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

Change the attitude toward content

• How does your organization view your content? – Pain point in a cost center?– Corporate asset in a profit center?

• Learn from industries that run on content.

MP3 file

Blair Douglas, Brave Hearts, Nelson Mandela's Welcome to the City of Glasgow

Value-add = ROI

Music is no longer“just a track”

Think aboutformats andvariants

What goes into a musical experience?

Colin James, Limelight, Far Away Like a RadioZachary Richard, MarjolaineOK Go, Here It Goes AgainFantasia, Walt Disney Productions

MP3 file Track + metadata +Cover art

Track + metadata +Cover art + VIdeo

Track + metadata +Cover art + Video +Film + Game +Value-add content

EXERCISE: Compare these music services

– iTunes– Pandora– All Music Group

• What content do they have?• How do they use content?• How does it affect the UX?• What structures can you assume?

Ways we use content

How do we listen to music?– On the Web?• Streaming video

– At home?• Stereo• Docking station

– On the move? Car radio Music player Mobile phone

How does this affect how we present content?

Some key differences

iTunes.com Pandora.com AllMusic.com

Downloadable tracks, cover art, preview clip, sortable metadata

Listen for free online

Recommends similar tracks through Genius sidebar

Recommends similar tracks through Music Genome project

Recommends tracks through community (reviews, related items, editorial)

Focus on guiding users to check-out

Focus on expanding musical tastes

Focus on learning about chosen music

Converging content: How it affects UX

www.allmusic.com

Blog posts

Genre listsGenre descriptionsNavigation data

Cover artMusic filesMusic labelsAds

Automation of delivery: content management

• How do they automate:– A UX that involves multiple incoming content

types?– Tens of thousands of incoming content

components per day?– Make sure content is findable?

• Critical pieces:– Presentation layer controls the user experience– Underlying content management handles

automation– Taxonomy handles the searchability

Metadata

Melissa Harrison, interviewing Stephen Baker, author of The Numerati , for SXSWorld, February 2008

• Picture your iTunes library. The song file itself is the data, and all of its defining characteristics – album art, play count, genre – are the metadata.

• Given this information, iTunes is able to analyze, categorize and manage your music.

• Shuffle? Not so random, actually. It speaks to the truth behind metadata: by comprehending its parts, we can better control the whole.

Kirsty MacColl, Tropical Rainstorm, These Shoes

Metadata affects UX

Metadata for a single track iniTunes

To dream up this UX, contents must have:

•Re-use potential•Semantic properties•Structure (XML, microformats)

Cliff Hunt, Yangaroo’s COO

“Yangaroo’s Digital Media Distribution System compiles singles from artists and bundles them into an email that includes bio details, tour dates, and other support information. The tracks can be downloaded directly to iTunes and synched with an iPod so the songs are portable and sharable – like their CD counterparts – and their WAV format means the songs are immediately ready for terrestrial, Internet, HD and satellite radio broadcast. Once the song goes out, the system also lets you know which songs are reviewed, including the listened time and date.”

Content is everyone’s problem

• Christopher Cashdollar, Creative Director, Happy Cog Studios

• “Nothing can deter confidence quicker than a broken experience.”

• With social media, broken experiences can damage brands faster.

Production – Marketing – User Experience – Customer Support

• Lane Becker (the founder of Get Satisfaction, an online service that helps to improve service and communication between companies and customers) says that to get the most from current economic nose-dive, look at folks who took advantage of the downturn of 2000 to really explore the medium they’d been working on for years. They created all sorts of new projects and ideas that ended up driving the innovation that the 2.0 boom depended on.

Brady Hester, interviewing Lane Becker, SXSWorld, Nov 2008

In tough economic times ...

• Necessity is the mother of invention ...• Hard economic times drive innovation –

from energy to manufacturing to technology

• When times get tough:– You can’t afford to be complacent– It’s not enough to be “competent”– It’s not enough to do a “good” job– It’s not enough to “follow orders”

Challenge = opportunity

• Not just advice for the music industry• Not just for entertainment content• Tough times demand:– Inspiration– Vision– Innovation– Initiative

This is, in essence, a product portal

This is, in essence,

a product portal

www.allmusic.com

Same idea, different industry

This is, as well, aproduct portal

Think holistically; act boldly.

If you can’t be entertaining, be enjoyable

• By making the customer experience user-focused, they’ve created a better experience.

• Better experience is a market differentiator.

• It says “we care about our customers”.

How will your audiences use your content?

• Example:– First, there was Twitter.– Then came TweetDeck.– Then came TinyTweet.

(and so on, and so on)

• The UX gap was filled by others.• Is that OK for your brand?

Think outside the site• What are the touch points • What can be automated for users• What are the preferences of your audiences• How creative can you be?• What is the best you can provide, in practicality?

Can you fill a gap?

• Exploit the potential of your content– Structure– Findable – Engaging

• Deliver a rich UX

• First impression of a site: 50 milliseconds

Are you a T-shaped thinker?

You’re adept at convergent, synergistic thinking.

www.davidarmano.com/thought.html

Does your content have semantic properties?

• Is it structured?• Can it be re-used?• Can it be filtered?• Can it be searched (more importantly,

found)?• Can it be personalized?• Can it be integrated, syndicated?• Can your content converge?

Lots of places to find inspiration

Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

• How does your content measure up?• Do you have a strategy to move to the

next level?

• Check your competition.• Use the music industry as a

benchmark (or inspiration).

HTML http://www.w3schools.com/html/DEFAULT.asp http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/

XHTML http://www.w3schools.com/Xhtml/ http://www.xhtml.org/

Microformats http://microformats.org/about/ http://www.xfront.com/microformats/

HTML, XHTML, Microformats

XML http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/ http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

DITA http://dita.xml.org/ http://dita.xml.org/5-minute-dita-tutorial

DocBook http://www.docbook.org/ http://wiki.docbook.org/topic/DocBookTutorials

S1000D http://www.s1000d.org/

And many other schemas:http://www.w3schools.com/schema/schema_intro.asp

XML, DITA, DocBook, S1000D

Wiki languages http://www.it.uu.se/internt/web/wikihelp/wikilang http://semanticweb.org/wiki/Structured_wiki http://talk.bmc.com/blogs/blog-gentle/anne-gentle/dita-wiki

Specialty XML http://www.stilo.com/ http://www.stylusstudio.com/xml_to_xml_mapper.html

Wikis, Other XML

Contact Info, Acknowledgements,Resources

Presentation © 2009 Intentional Design Inc.www.intentionaldesign.ca

Presenter:Rahel Anne Bailie, Content Strategist+1.604.837.0034

Photographs used under Creative Commons:http://www.flickr.com/photos/fdecomite/