Making Your Content Work For You

Using structured content to create a better user experience

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.

Beyoncé, I Am ... Sasha Fierce, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
Learn to “work it” from the music industry

What goes into a musical experience?
Blair Douglas, Brave Hearts, Nelson Mandela's Welcome to the City of Glasgow
Zachary Richard, Mardi Gras, C'est Bon Djé
OK Go, Here It Goes Again
Fantasia, Walt Disney Productions
MP3 file Track + Cover art Track + Cover art + VIdeo Track + Cover art + Video + Film + Game + Value-add content

www.itunes.com
Compare user experience of popular music services:
iTunes
Pandora
All Music Group

Some key UX 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

Content types:
At least 8 on this page
www.allmusic.com Blog posts Genre lists Genre descriptions Navigation data Cover art Music files Music labels Ads

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

- 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.

Music is no longer “just a track” Think about formats and variants

Kirsty MacColl, Tropical Rainstorm, These Shoes
Metadata for a single track in iTunes Allows for a rich UX

The content needs:
Re-use potential
Semantic properties
Structure (XML, microformats)
...so you can dream up a value-add UX like this:

- 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.

Another consideration:
How do we listen to music?
On the Web? Probably not
Likely on the move:
Car radio
Music player
Mobile phone

How does the device affect our content?
By default, websites appear in pint-sized versions, with text generally being illegible.
The novelty of gestural interfaces wears off fast

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.

Brady Hester, interviewing Lane Becker, SXWorld, Nov 2008
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.

In the spirit of “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

Tough times demand:
Inspiration
Vision
Innovation
INITIATIVE

This doesn’t apply only to the music industry
Doesn’t just apply to entertainment content

This is, in essence, a product portal
www.allmusic.com

Same idea, different industry
This is, as well, a product portal

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”.

End content needs to be
Enjoyable (if it doesn’t lend itself to being)
Entertaining

How do your audiences use your content? Example:
First, there was Twitter.
Then came TweetDeck.
Then came TinyTweet.
The UX gap was filled by others.
Is that OK for your brand?

Is there a gap to be filled?
Exploit the potential of your content
Structure
Findable
Engaging
...to deliver a rich UX.

Some people make a first impression in just 50 milliseconds
Know your users – do they exhibit this behavior?

Use the music industry as a benchmark (or inspiration).
How does your content measure up?
Do you have a strategy to move to the next level?

Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Contact info:
Rahel Anne Bailie
[email_address]
Office:
Intentional Design Inc.
+1.604.837.0034
www.IntentionalDesign.ca
Social media:
rahelab
© 2008 Intentional Design Inc.

Making Your Content Work For You

by Rahel Anne Bailie on Mar 23, 2009

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