My talk from the Highland Fling Conference 2011

1. CHOOSING THE RIGHT
CONTENT
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Friday, 8 July 2011

2. RACHEL ANDREW
@rachelandrew
http://rachelandrew.co.uk
http://edgeofmyseat.com
http://grabaperch.com
Friday, 8 July 2011

3. WHAT IS A CMS?
(for the purposes of this presentation)
Friday, 8 July 2011

4. A TOOL FOR CONTENT
EDITING
By non-technical users
Via some kind of web-based admin
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5. YOUR CMS IS AN
IMPORTANT PART OF
YOUR SOLUTION
Friday, 8 July 2011

6. ONE-SIZE DOES NOT
FIT ALL.
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7. WHAT DOES THIS
PROJECT NEED?
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8. HOSTING
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9. LANGUAGE
PHP, .NET, Ruby, Python ...
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10. OTHER TECHNICAL
REQUIREMENTS
Working with existing software, user logins
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11. WHO WILL EDIT THIS?
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12. HOW MANY EDITORS?
and do they need protecting from each other
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13. SKILLS
Not just technical skills
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14. PREFERENCES
What do they love? What do they hate? Find and
fix the pain points.
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15. THE PROJECT SPEC
What requirements does this site have?
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16. SIMPLE PAGE-BASED
An obvious hierarchical site map
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17. BLOG-CENTRIC
Where a blog or blogs are the main feature
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18. COMPLEX CONTENT
STORAGE REQUIREMENT
A huge amount of content - not necessarily page-
based
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19. CMS SECONDARY TO
MAIN APPLICATION
Used for editing bits of content in an app.
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20. OTHER FEATURES
Galleries, news updates, e-commerce, calendars ...
what else?
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21. VISITOR NUMBERS
How busy do we expect this site to be?
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22. WHAT EDITING
ENVIRONMENT DO YOU
WANT TO PROVIDE?
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23. WHAT BEST SERVES
YOUR DESIGN AND
YOUR EDITORS?
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24. YOUR CLIENT IS
(PROBABLY) NOT A
COPYWRITER
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25. YOUR CMS SHOULD
SUPPORT THE
CONTENT STRATEGY
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26. YOUR CLIENT IS
(PROBABLY) NOT A
DESIGNER
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27. YOUR CMS SHOULD
MAINTAIN THE
DESIGN & TYPOGRAPHY
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28. DEFAULT TO THE
SIMPLEST THING
POSSIBLE
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29. USERS SHOULD NOT
NEED TO UNDERSTAND
THE DATABASE
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30. THE SOLUTION TO ONE
PROBLEM IS NOT THE
SOLUTION TO ALL.
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31. THE CURSE OF
WYSIWYG
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32. YOUR CLIENT IS
(PROBABLY) NOT A
DESIGNER
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33. ckeditor
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34. Emoticons anyone?
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35. Comic Sans please
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36. BUT CLIENTS NEED TO
BE ABLE TO STYLE THEIR
CONTENT!
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37. DO THEY, REALLY?
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38. WYSIWYG EDITORS
FOCUS ON HOW
CONTENT LOOKS.
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39. WYSIWYG IS A FLAWED
PREMISE
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40. WYSIWYG CREATES
NON-REUSABLE DATA
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41. This looks like contact information
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42. But is it really?
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43. WYSIWYG MIXES
CONTENT AND
PRESENTATION
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44. WYSIWYG PROMOTES
STYLE OVER
CONTENT
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45. SO WHAT SHOULD WE
DO?
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46. STRUCTURED CONTENT
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47. Contact information?
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48. Add a contact
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49. The Contact on a web page
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50. Contact mark-up
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51. SUPPORT THE CONTENT
STRATEGY WITH
STRUCTURED CONTENT
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52. MAINTAIN THE DESIGN -
EDITORS ENTER
CONTENT - NOT MARKUP
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53. STRUCTURED CONTENT
removes the need for editors to think about how it
looks.
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54. STRUCTURED CONTENT
can promote the content strategy and offer help
and advice in the form for novice copywriters
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55. STRUCTURED CONTENT
allows you to store data in a way that describes
what it is - so it can be easily reused
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56. STRUCTURED CONTENT
prevents a mess of html ending up in your
database, making it easier to re-present that
content elsewhere
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57. SIMPLE FORMATTING
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58. MARKITUP
http://markitup.jaysalvat.com/home/
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59. WYSIWYM
What You See Is What You MEAN
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60. PREVIEW
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61. VIEW CHANGES IN
CONTEXT
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62. “IN-CONTEXT” EDITING
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63. ONLY WORKS FOR VERY
SIMPLE SITES
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64. PROMOTES THINKING
ABOUT STYLE RATHER
THAN CONTENT
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65. REQUIRES JAVASCRIPT
AND MAY CONFLICT
WITH SITE JAVASCRIPT
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66. USE WITH CAUTION
http://allinthehead.com/retro/357/the-lure-of-
on-page-editing
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67. BE UNASHAMED TO BE
THE EXPERT
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68. BUT, WHAT IS THE RIGHT
CMS FOR MY PROJECT?
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69. A CMS THAT DOES NOT
FORCE YOU TO
COMPROMISE
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70. A CMS THAT ENABLES
EDITORS TO CONTINUE
YOUR WORK.
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71. A CMS THAT PROMOTES
EFFECTIVE USE OF
CONTENT.
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72. A CMS THAT PREVENTS
ACCIDENTAL
DESTRUCTION.
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73. A CMS THAT DOES
THINGS IN THE SIMPLEST
WAY POSSIBLE.
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74. DEMAND MORE FROM
YOUR CMS MAKERS
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75. NEVER SETTLE FOR
‘GOOD ENOUGH’
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76. HIGHLIGHT GOOD
PRACTICE
...and file bugs and complain about outdated,
crufty systems
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77. THANK YOU
@rachelandrew
Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ongline/3131142818/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ongline/3131143218/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ongline/3131143024/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ongline/3131142976/
Friday, 8 July 2011