Category: Content Strategy

Content Strategy, onboardingLeave a comment

Notes on Krystal Higgins’ Onboarding for the Long Run

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(From uie.com’s All You Can Learn library, link here) Onboarding is too often thought of only from the perspective of a first time user—not taking into account that there’ll be iterations based on user feedback, new features to launch etc Onboarding is an experience throughout a product’s lifecycle So different customers may need different onboarding paths Opportunities over time Onboarding has multiple jobs and stages: Familiarize—help the prospective customer know that the product and its services exist Learn—teach the prospective customer more details about the product’s value prop Convert—engage the prospective customer enough to convert them into actual customers Guide—help the … Continue reading Notes on Krystal Higgins’ Onboarding for the Long Run

Content StrategyLeave a comment

Great Insights on Lean Content from Steph Hay

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(from Steph’s website, link here, as reposted at uie.com.) Steph presents a great way of getting messaging for a new product validated before writing all the other content. Tracking clicks on possible copy directions is a fast way to make sure you’re on a potentially successful path 3 Steps to Message Testing Spend an hour writing at least 5 sentences that reference a pain your target user has–focus on the user’s need, not product features, i.e. “Do you hate waiting on hold for customer service?” Run Facebook/Google ads using the messages. Send those who click to a lightweight landing page, perhaps thanking … Continue reading Great Insights on Lean Content from Steph Hay

Content Strategy, Homepages, Web Design1 Comment

Notes on 20 Top Startup Homepages Analyzed by outside the jar

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From an Aug 7, 2014 blog post by Marc von Brockdorff on outside the jar, link here. Homepages are key to a website’s–and product’s–success. Marc surveyed 20 top startups and these are a summary of his findings The sites covered are: ZenDesk Basecamp Boostable Intercom Optimizely Contently NextBigSound CampaignMonitor KISSmetrics BrowserStack Trello NewRelic MixPanel Wistia Recurly Geckoboard Sqwiggle Hootsuite UserVoice Pingdom Some key stats he compiled: 100% included a slogan 75% had a description with it 95% had a CTA above the fold 20% included one field (email or website) with the CTA 50% used “free” in their CTA text 10% … Continue reading Notes on 20 Top Startup Homepages Analyzed by outside the jar

Content Strategy1 Comment

Designing Content for Product Experiences with Facebook’s Jonathon Colman

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From the UIE virtual seminar Designing Content for Product Experiences, Dec 2014, available at http://aycl.uie.com What is a content strategist? “We plan for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.”–Kristina Halvorson “We use words and data to create unambiguous content that supports meaningful, interactive experiences.” –Rachel Lovinger “We don’t need more content. We need content that does more.”–Sara Wachter-Boettcher A sample message from Facebook’s content team: “You’re in charge. We’re here to help you get the experience you want. Learn about ways to protect your privacy on Facebook.” Language is an interface, and an infrastructure Content strategy is not copywriting–that’s only part … Continue reading Designing Content for Product Experiences with Facebook’s Jonathon Colman

Content StrategyLeave a comment

Creating a Content Strategy Roadmap by Kristina Halvoron

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Halvoron is the CEO of braintrust.com. These are my notes from her presentation available on uie.com. Quick take: Content strategy revolves around creating, delivering and maintaining content in ways that are understandable, useful and usable for users. The Basic Questions What are we going to do? When are we going to do this? Why are we doing this? Identify a user-centered purpose How are we going to do it? Who is going to do it? With what tools? How is content organized, prioritized and accessed? What content will attract and engage users? How often will it be updated? What is … Continue reading Creating a Content Strategy Roadmap by Kristina Halvoron

Content Strategy, User Experience1 Comment

My Notes on “Unsucking the Touchpoint” by Chris Ridson

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Article posted at adaptivepath.com here. QuickTake: More than just buzzy jargon, touchpoint is a proper part of our design vocabulary–it’s the central way to view designing moments across increasingly-complex user journeys. Defining the Touchpoint A touchpoint is NOT a channel, platform or medium, as in the “phone touchpoint.” That gives no information from a human-centered perspective. A touchpoint IS a point of interaction involving a specific human need in a specific time and place. You design a touchpoint to support a specific moment in a user’s journey, ie for car rentals you Sign Up, Reserve Car, Begin Rental, Get Support … Continue reading My Notes on “Unsucking the Touchpoint” by Chris Ridson

Content Strategy, Responsive DesignLeave a comment

Notes on “Responsive Design Won’t Fix Your Content Problem” by Karen McGrane

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QuickTake Responsive Design requires a new content strategy, which many people ignore at their (and their site’s) peril The original appears on alistapart.com here My Notes Responsive Design is more than just a modular layout, it requires: Evaluating content and pruning “dead content” Assessing the amount of content shown on the “page” on differing devices Creating multiple forms of headlines, teaser and body text Alternate versions of some assets (images, infographics etc) Separating content from presentation in the CMS We’re winning the battle for responsive design, but the cost (money, time, resources) of CONTENT STRATEGY needs to be made explicit to and … Continue reading Notes on “Responsive Design Won’t Fix Your Content Problem” by Karen McGrane