Maps are more than just diagrams of the route from A to B – to draw one is to bring together the whole view of our surrounding world so that we can gain a better understanding of it. Even a single, simple example has the ability to delight, unsettle and reveal truths. In politically-charged environments an objective visual map can reinforce, influence or challenge held perceptions and beliefs, making them a vital tool in designing pliable, people-focused content systems that are fit for purpose. Their proactive and reactive qualities force ourselves and others to see things as they really are; to contemplate the relationship between them and how they vary together.
Presented at the Content Strategy Forum 2013 in Helsinki, Finland on 13th September 2013.
40. Regional English Council
Approx. 15,000 staff
7 departments
Serving approx. 700,000
people
Scenario: Design a new content workflow
Friday, 13 September 13
41. Digital Services department
(Our heroes)
Our varied, siloed environment
Some departments are responsible for 100s of pages,
while others only a few
Friday, 13 September 13
43.
me!
Map Expert guide
(Mandy)
Our varied, siloed environment
How to find our bearings in unfamiliar surroundings
Friday, 13 September 13
44. Our varied, siloed environment
To discover how content decisions are made and how
they could be improved, we need to figure out who
best to talk to
Mandy
?
??
?
?
Friday, 13 September 13
45. Let’s map our environment
Digital
Services
Chief
Executive's
Corporate
110. Requirements for an effective CMS workflow
Meet the needs of the organisation and your content players
Friday, 13 September 13
111. Conducting content player interviews
Ask them to walk you through several different content
creation and publishing scenarios
Digital
Services
Mandy
Content Officer
Friday, 13 September 13
112. The ensuing conversation
Mandy talks us through the typical process for publishing
a press release on the council website
On
479. Suggestion: let’s all step away from our screens and draw together.
Encourage those innate inventive qualities
Friday, 13 September 13
480. Make use of basic shapes, arrows, and faces. Find your axis.
Above all: Embrace your mistakes.
Mapmaking is a basic human instinct
Friday, 13 September 13
482. Communicating Design: Developing Web Site
Documentation for Design and Planning
by Dan M. Brown (@brownorama)
You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of
the Imagination
by Katharine Harmon
Blah Blah Blah: What To Do When Words Don't Work
by Dan Roam (@dan_roam)
The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling
Ideas with Pictures
by Dan Roam
Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer
by PeterTurchi
Recommended reading
Friday, 13 September 13
483. You have been watching...
David Helen John
Mandy Me Mr