1.
MAKING
THINGS
REAL
A very professional presentation by
Corey Vilhauer
about content strategy and content management systems

2.
THIS IS ME
@mrvilhauer

3.
MY STORYMY STORY

4.
MY STORY

5.
“Holy shit, I’m going to
quit teaching and start
writing for websites!”
- Corey Vilhauer
user experience architect, Blend Interactive

6.
CONTENT
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

7.
CONTENT
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
ARE NOT THE PROBLEM
WE ARE

8.
TEACHING
BUT FOR ROBOTS

9.
1 2
MESSAGE & FUNCTION
1 2

10.
LET’S JAM ECONO

11.
EXPECTATIONS
COMMUNICATION
REIFICATION

12.
EXPECTATIONS:
OR, OUR DREAMS
ARE ALREADY DEAD
How do we prepare our dreams so
they can function within the cold
world of web programming?

13.
IT’S UP TO US
TO MAKE
REALISTIC
EXPECTATIONS

14.
GET REAL, DUDE
Communicate the Purpose
The Balance of Message and Structure
The Priority of the Machine
Permanence vs. Flexibility

15.
Article Category
Ad Banner
Title Short Title
Meta Title
Preview Title
Header Image
Preview Image
Image Caption
Image Maintenance
Body Copy
Category Feed
Content Break Points
Alternate Tags
Opengraph
Another Ad Banner
Editorial Categories
Byline Name
Date

16.
WE STILL KIND OF
SUCK AT MAKING
OUR WORK SOUND
HUMAN

17.
“…developers should
watch for ambiguity or
inconsistency that will
trip up design.”
- Eric Evans
author, Domain-Driven Design

18.
EXAMPLE:
Newsroom
News Listing
News Feed
News

19.
When we say:
Content Model
We mean:
A conceptual term for the collection of content types,
attributes, relationships and datatypes in place to
accurate describe a logical domain of content.
In other words:
How templates, blocks, and content are shaped and work
together within the CMS.

20.
COMMUNICATION:
OR, MAKING SURE
THE ROBOTS DON’T
BEGIN REVOLTING
How do we take what we
want and translate it into
something usable?

21.
its ur web

22.
WHAT
CAN
BE
DONE
SHOULD

23.
YOUR NEW CMS
CAN’T READ
OR REASON

24.
PAGES

25.
PAGES COMPONENTS

26.
PAGES COMPONENTS
AGGREGATIONS

27.
PAGES COMPONENTS
AGGREGATIONSINTEGRATIONS
DATA!

28.
HIGHLY-STRUCTURED
PAGE
MORE GENERIC PAGE
WITH COMPONENTS

29.
PAGE
COMPONENTS
AGGREGATION
INTEGRATION

30.
Pages
Home Page
Section Home Page
Components
General Text Page
Program Search
Undergraduate
Graduate
School
Program
Major
Directory
Directory Bio
Faculty Listing
Story
Stories
Student Media
Map Home
Calendar
Event
Image Block
Video Block
Link List Block
Program Block
Directory Listing
Story
Media Type
Event
Accordion
Table
Carousel
Promo Block
Academics Block
School Listing
Faculty Listing
Major List
Course Catalog
Search Results

31.
STRUCTURED OR OPEN?
How similar is this from page to page?
What integrations do I need to use?
How often does this content change?
How many will we create?

32.
WE NEED BETTER
DOCUMENTATION

33.
THE SITE MAP
PRACTICALVISUAL
1.0 - About USD
1.1 - Why USD?
1.2 - Quick Facts
1.3 - Campus
1.4 - Office of
the President
1.5 - Mission and
History
1.6 - Art and
Culture
1.7- Campus
Policies
1.8 - Consumer
Information
1.9 - Emergency
Information
1.3.1 - Visit
1.3.2 - Map and
Directions
1.3.3 - About
Vermillion
1.3.4 - The
Future Campus
1.3.5 - University
Police
1.4.1 - Executive
Leadership
1.4.2 - Strategic
Plan
1.4.3 -
Accreditation
1.5.1 - Past
Presidents
1.7.1 - Policies
1.7.2 - New
Policies & Rev.
1.7.3 - Student
Rights/Respons.
1.7.4 - Student
Handbook
1.6.1 - Museums
and Galleries

34.
THE WIREFRAMES
HELPFUL NOISY

35.
THE WIREFRAMES
EditorialStructural instead of
AssumptionsClarity instead of
ExhaustiveConsolidation instead of
ContentContent Types instead of
HELPFUL NOISY

36.
FUNCTIONAL AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

37.
FUNCTIONAL AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Publishing Guidelines - Page listing orders,
category handling, archiving, news feeds,
workflow, “unpublishing”
Navigation Models - Navigation anchors,
landing pages, hiding from navigation, page-
tree based or curated
Categories/Aggregations - Categorical
hierarchy, rules of news feeds and calendars

38.
REIFICATION:
OR, A BIG
COMPLICATED
WORD FOR “REAL”
How do we take our ideas
and turn them into a usable
web implementation?

39.
BUT WHYYYY????

40.
“There’s no API call for
makeShitUpHere()”
- Deane Barker
author, Web Content Management

41.
DO THE IMPOSSIBLE
AND
MAKE IT PERFECT
FOR EVERYONE

42.
STEP ONE:

43.
STEP TWO:

44.
BAD COP

45.
STEP THREE:

46.
DO THE IMPOSSIBLE
AND
MAKE IT PERFECT
FOR EVERYONE

47.
BUILD YOUR
WORK
INTO THE CMS

48.
BUILD YOUR
ACCESSIBILITY
INTO THE CMS

49.
FORCE A11Y CLARITY
Force editors to add alt tags
Automatically assign blank alt tags
Raise flags for improper headings

50.
BUILD YOUR
SEO/SOCIAL
INTO THE CMS

51.
Meta Title
Page Title
Menu Title
Content Title

52.
BUILD YOUR
AUTHOR EXPERIENCE
INTO THE CMS

53.
Meta Title
Page Title
Menu Title
Content Title
URL Slug

54.
AUTHOR EXPERIENCE
Add help text to uncommon fields
Confirm common nomenclature
Add asset guidelines to fields
Make APIs and URLs easy to add
Get rid of unused content types
Handle editor documentation

55.
LET’S JAM ECONO

56.
THANK YOU
for making
things real
For notes and the slide deck, please visit
www.eatingelephant.com/makingthingsreal