Presentations given at eZ Conference 2016 in Paris by Richard Jones, Technical Director at Inviqa. Whilst CMS communities talk headless, the market is starting to talk CaaS (Content as a Service), in which content is created and managed independently of the place it will be consumed. CaaS becomes especially important when considering the Internet of Things or more traditional end points such as websites and mobile apps. Over time, this could mean everything from your TV or watch to your fridge. This session will look at how eZ can be used to offer CaaS by positioning it as the Digital Hub of the enterprise.

1. TM
Architecting your
Content for the
Unknown Consumer
05.10.16
Richard Jones, Technical Director
eZ Conference, Paris 2016

2. TM
Richard Jones
Technical Director
Inviqa Content Practice
Content, Commerce, Innovation

3. Your customer’s behaviour is
changing faster than you are
TM

4. You need to keep pace with
requirements you may not
even be aware of
TM

5. Being Prepared
Why today’s web is unpredictable
What’s likely to change
How you can be ready now

6. TM
Desktop
Tablet
Mobile
Native application
The Known Consumer

7. TM
By definition:
Anything you are testing for
Assume everything else is
unknown
The Known Consumer

8. “Internet of Things”

9. Defining the IoT
Headline devices
Smart Refrigerators
Household domestic appliances

10. Outside the headlines
Media
Advertising
Billboards

11. Outside the headlines
Environmental monitoring
Infrastructure management
Manufacturing
Energy Management
Medical and Healthcare

12. Outside the headlines
Consumer
Wearable
Quantified Self
Smart Retail

13. 5.5 million new things get
connected to the internet
each day (Gartner)

14. How many of these are
content consumers?

15. Vodafone:
Store kiosks driven
from central content
repository

16. Realtime Data
Using realtime data to
power applications

17. Amazon Echo:
A revolutionary
content consumer

18. Some future gazing…

19. Some content dates quickly

20. What if you could correct at source?

21. Could content save a life?
A Smart device could
check for itself if it had
been recalled

22. Always up to date
A self driving car could
consume many types of
content to improve its
abilities

23. How we present this data is the key

24. Software is not good at interpreting
meaning

25. Unstructured vs Structured Data

26. Use of structured data for other purposes

27. How do we support these unknown
consumers?

28. Much people still thinks in the “page” model
Pages may have semantic elements
At best these are signals for interpretation
The Web as Pages

29. We need a Content Management System
to allow us to move beyond “page”
thinking
Beyond the Page

30. Content model and structure
Delivery / Access mechanism
Beyond the page

31. Content creators need to think beyond
pages
Relinquish control of layout
Challenges

32. A debate well covered elsewhere
aka Battle for the Body Field
A conversation that is still ongoing
Blocks vs Chunks

33. Also a well covered topic
Very relevant to our scenarios
The use case for context specific content is
valid here
Adaptive vs Responsive

34. Do we want to?

35. Open Data
Paid API access
Metered API access
Business Models

36. Value added service
Offer content in a usable format
Business Models

37. How do we get there?

38. Structure the content model
Expose content using a documented API
Steps to Prepare

39. Conceptually can start quite simple
Complexity tends to escalate as you work
through the relationships
The Content Model

40. Example
Article
•Headline
•Body
•Image

42. Content Model theory

43. Object Oriented Programing
Well understood in the computer science
world
Some principles could be applied to
content modelling
Comparing to OOP

44. Objects which may contain data in the
form of fields
Code in the form of methods
Single responsibility principle
Interface segregation principle
Definition

45. A content type should be as simple as
possible
It should be for one purpose only
Do not assume dependencies that may not
be present
A field should have one clear purpose
Loose interpretation

46. How do we get to the content
model?

47. Different roles have different relationships
with the content
Engaging with all the voices helps us build
a complete content model
Content Workshops

48. The importance of invisible data

49. Metadata
Taxonomy
Relationships
Types of Invisible Data

50. Organisation specific taxonomy
with an unknown audience - open
standards are better
Examples of Metadata

51. Organisation specific taxonomy
with an unknown audience - open
standards are better
GS1 Smart Search

52. Data always beats judgement
No matter how long you’ve been in the
industry
No matter how well you know your
products
Intuition is not a science
Examining Relationships

53. Camera publication
Taxonomy Example

54. Niche Camera publication
Taxonomy Example

55. Content Modelling Antipatterns

56. Content types that provide nothing in
isolation
“Signposts”, “Jumps”, “Shortcuts”
Non-Content Content

57. Instead use alternative views of the
referenced content:
e.g. Teasers, List view
Non-Content Content

58. A content type that covers multiple use
cases
Violates the single responsibility principle
Reluctance to have multiple content types
leads to a monster content type
Godzilla Content Type

59. Instead:
Don’t be afraid to have more smaller
content types
Consider relationships
Think carefully about single responsibility
Godzilla Content Type

60. Using a field name that doesn’t make
immediate sense to the editor
Fields that are used for different things in
difference scenarios
Lead to loss of structure
Field Ambiguity

61. Instead: Agree clear naming with all
content stakeholders
Create clear guidelines / help text.
Field Ambiguity

62. Fields that are not really content
Designed to affect the layout of the “page”
via template logic
Logic Fields

63. Don’t mix layout with content
The application theme layer can handle
this for you.
Logic Fields

64. What Next?

65. Use a CMS with a good Content
Model Toolset

66. Educate Stakeholders regarding the
benefits of structured content

67. Split content from design

68. Handle creative objections early

69. Spend time on the content model

70. Allow more time that you think you need
Focus on the future - and abstract
Simplify the design - leave no room for
interpretation
Consistency of fields - eg date formats
Content Model

71. Think through all possible relationships
Break content into the smallest possible
pieces
Hold the smallest amount of formatting
possible
Content Model

72. Future proof your content

73. Ensure portability

74. Embrace the unknown and
create a legacy

75. TM
Questions?