Masterclass on the integration of service design and content strategy given at the Service Design Global Conference 2016 (Amsterdam)

1. Jantine Geldof, Jesse Grimes & Xander Roozen
Masterclass. October 26, 2016, Amsterdam
Learn how to apply content strategy to customer journeys, enriching one of the best-known
service design deliverables with critically important new layers.
Content Journeys

2. Part 1: A minimally viable set of content related topics

3. What this masterclass is not about

4. What it is when we talk about content

5. Content has an identity problem 5

6. Too much? 6
”Every two days now, we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003”
Eric Schmidt, 2010
Google CEO

7. Poor
“We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge”
7
John Naisbitt, 1982
Megatrends

8. Information overload?
If you…
• …decide you want to buy a new laptop, will you find
the time to research it?
• …decide you want to send your child to the best
school in your area, will you find the time to do the
leg-work?
• …are looking for a job in your career field, will you
find the time to search for it?
8

9. Content has an identity problem
"Everyone spoke of an information overload, but what there was in
fact was a non-information overload."
Richard Saul Wurman,
Founder of TED

10. Content drives the experience 11
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
“At your public library they’ve got these arranged in ways
that can make you cry, giggle, hate, wonder, ponder and
understand.”
Charles Piccirillo
National Library Week, 1961

11. “When television is good, nothing - not the theater, not the magazines or
newspapers - nothing is better.
But when television is bad, nothing is worse.”
12And it always did
Newton N. Minow
The Wasteland Speech, 1961

12. Digital added extra orders of order

13. Digital is trivial now

14. A Content Framework
From The YouTube Playbook

15. Hero content // Dove Real Beauty Sketches 15
Hero content is big bold push content that grabs immediate attention and generates awareness

16. Hub content // Bandcamp Weekly 16
Hub content is regularly scheduled pull and bond content designed to engage with consumers through
passion points and get them coming back to your platform and brand

17. Hygiene content // Verizon data plans 17
Hygiene content is pull content that allows you to be found on the internet when people are searching for
topics related to your category

18. Micro content // A bank brand shirt in 2016? 18

19. Micro content // Good afternoon 19

20. Micro content // High fiving your moment 20

21. Micro content // Flying with Singapore Airlines 21

22. However, you are probably not here by choice
• Increasing customer expectations
• Data explosion
• Technology complexity
22
Casual
Quick
Focused
Physical
Organizations have to deal with

23. Gap
“ Organizations invest tremendous resources on developing the framework
for a great user experience – fabulous design, robust content management
infrastructure.
Yet when it comes to the content itself, there’s often a gap.
The end result is that the value proposition for customers can’t be delivered
because the content is insufficient, inadequate, and inappropriate.”
23
Rahel Bailie

24. New York Times 24
2009
2012
2014

25. Weak messages create bad situations*
* Book title by David Shrigley
25
Xander Roozen

26. This is what I* mean when I say “content strategy”
“We’re talking about holistic experiences and how content enables
experiences that help people succeed at their goals. We care about content
as experience, which is why we focus on standards, voice and tone,
governance, content inventories and audits, workflows, service design,
systems and processes, metadata design, content modelling, delivery
channels, and so on.”
27
* Jonathan Colman
content strategist at Facebook

27. Just fixing the typos, creating a style guide and
maintaining a content calendar?
29
Content fulfils business objectives by
meeting audience needs. It can include
story, topic, brand elements, voice and
tone
Structure makes content findable and
usable for users, and manageable
for/responsive to technology
Workflow creates efficiencies
across content properties. It
includes roles, processes, tools
and team structure
Governance holds people
accountable for strategy and
success. It includes content
policies, standards and
guidelines
About peopleAbout content

28. Mailchimp Backstage 28

29. Identify and express key content relationships
Looking at any given page
• Figure out separate elements and think about
how each element of information will be used.
• Related content items can be linked to or
embedded.
• Example: band, artist and album will each have
their own page.
Note: not everything can and needs to be modelled
30

30. Content model // Landscape of content types 31
Artist profile
Model inspired by Rachel Lovinger
Album page
SongChart
High level diagram for Allmusic.com

31. The backbone of a content strategy 32
Product name
Product features
Product images
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Target audience
Business owner
METADATA
….
Publication date
….
Short product description

32. Good experiences
“You can create good experiences without knowing the content.
What you can’t do is create good experiences without knowing your content structure.”
33
Mark Boulton

33. Activity 1 – Determining a content model

34. Part 2: Mapping Content To A User Journey

35. Scene from ‘Her’ (2013) 38
Mood
Artist profile
Album page
SongChart

36. IKEA Lamp 39

37. IKEA Home Report // From Wake Up To Take Off (2014) 37

38. Marley Spoon // Preparation time 38
Preparation time 5 – 10 minutes
Skills Easy

39. Marley Spoon // Kitchen utensils 41

40. 40
In a journey map you will see the interaction of a person with service through touchpoints
Content is experienced through touchpoints too.
Adding content to the journey will give insights that drive the design of the content strategy elements

41. 46
Audit, analysis
(Marley Spoon)
User research
(IKEA)
Insights (Her)
Journey mapping
- including content
tracks
Editorial plan, tone
& voice guidelines
Content model
Metadata &
information
architecture
UX component
libraries
Requirements for
development
Content strategy elements

42. Journey with content track 49
+ +
A journey, with phases & touchpoints for a persona with content considerations
1. Goal,
2. Questions
3. Types & formats
4. Content depth

43. Activity 2 – Hands On with a Content Journey

44. Part 3: Summary & Final Thoughts For The Road

45. Content journey
“Too often, when an organization looks at design [ process, touchpoint, content ] they do it in the
context of a single interaction, process, or piece of content.
They don’t think in terms of a holistic customer experience. As a result, while they may deliver a
great experience at one touchpoint, the overall experience may still suck.
Content has a significant role to play when we approach the design of the customer experience
holistically. And yet content has long been neglected. It’s time to change that. Content strategy, by
designing experiences with content, can have a significant impact on an organization’s bottom line.”
Joyce Hostyn, 2011
42

46. What we have learned
 Managing content is getting more and more complex, due to rising customer
expectations, data explosion and technology complexity.
 Content strategy is a practice encompassing every aspect of content,
including its design, development, analysis, presentation, measurement, evaluation,
production, management, and governance.
 A central element of a content strategy is the content model.
The content model helps bring the content strategy to life and takes the business
user into account
 Content is experienced through touchpoints too. Content may exist at only one
touchpoint, or at several touchpoints. This experience can only be delivered in a
good and sustainable way when your content is properly structured.
46

47. 47
 The idea is that there are processes in nature,
which operate in different timescales and as a
result there is little or no exchange of
energy/mass/information between them.
 Stuart Brand transferred this intuition to
buildings and noticed that traditional buildings
were able to adapt because they allowed
“slippage” of layers: i.e. faster layers (services)
were not obstructed by slower ones
(structure).
Pace layering

48. 48Content is King

49. 49Information has no form. Short movie by Maya Design

50. Sources & inspiration

51. List* of recommended reading & viewing 51
 Rahel Bailie - Content Strategy: Connecting the dots between, business, brand and
benefits (book)
 Stuart Brand – How buildings learn (book)
 Kristina Halvorson – Content strategy for the web (book)
 Colleen Jones – Clout. The art and science of influential web content (book)
 Spike Jonze – Her (movie)
 Rachel Lovinger – Nimble. A Razorfish report on publishing in the digital age (pdf)
 Casey Neistat – www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat (vlog)
 Noz Urbina – Content strategy for decision makers (book)
 Kathy Wagner – Mapping Content to Customer Journeys (presentation video)
* in alphabetical order

52. Sources images 52
• Slide 5 - Scribblelive.com, Shutterstock
• Slide 6 - Yukai Du
• Slide 7 - thethingswesay.com
• Slide 8 - Yaroslav Zubko
• Slide 9 - Lovely Creatures
• Slide 18 - Bunq Facebook
• Slide 20 - Mail chimp
• Slide 32 - WoodWing
• Slide 33 - 43 Marley Spoon
• Slide 47 - Stewart Brand
• Slide 48 - Casey Owen Neistat

53. Questions and discussion

54. Creatief. Systematisch. Duurzaam.
info@informaat.nl
+31 35 543 1222
Jacob van Lenneplaan 57 3743 AP Baarn
@informaat
Creatief. Systematisch. Duurzaam.
info@informaat.nl
+31 35 543 1222
Jacob van Lenneplaan 57 3743 AP Baarn
@informaat
Creatief. Systematisch. Duurzaam.
info@informaat.nl
+31 35 543 1222
Jacob van Lenneplaan 57 3743 AP Baarn
@informaat
Creatief. Systematisch. Duurzaam.
info@informaat.nl
+31 35 543 1222
Jacob van Lenneplaan 57, 3743 AP Baarn
@informaat
Thank you!
#SDGC16
@informaat
Creative. Systematic. Sustainable.