Conquering The Context Conundrum

Editor's Notes

• #2 Blue Brain Project - This is a cross section of your brain. It’s a painted representation of \nthe 10,000 neurons and 30 million connections that make up a single neocortical column\n
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• #4 Content strategy , as it seems to be currently defined, is fantastic at grabbing attention... focusing on creating content that’s \n-Findable\n - Segmented\n - SEO Friendly\n - Useable By Machines, Maintainable over time and if we’re lucky, it’ll be useful for humans. It’s focused on delivering an audience\n
• #5 Problem is that we’re not robots/machines. \n
• #6 And circuits and algorithms. Humans have emotions, prejudices, memory and...\n
• #7 And despite our efforts to run logical programs and algorithms, we just can’t separate decision making and memory from the emotional part of our brains. Logic/reason sit in the pre-frontal cortex.. which doesn’t fully develop until we’re in our 20s, while the limbic system matures in our teen years. \n
• #8 The chemistry of your brain will vary radically based on the amount of sleep you got last night to the temperature in the room to your level of stress/happiness/etc.\n
• #9 Men have six and a half times more gray matter (partly responsible for information processing) than women do. Conversely ladies have10 times as much white matter -- the part of the brain that's I partially responsible for connecting information processing centers (that’s why women typically are better multitaskers).\n
• #10 We lean forward, lean back ... pinch vs type, tap vs. scroll. swipe vs. click through. We tend to lean forward, bring our eyes closer to certain screens and our body language changes our ability to comprehend things.\n
• #11 Meet Maggie. Maggie is a 58 year old woman, who has nearly no exposure to the internet. On the left is Maggie’s brain as she’s reading from a book. On the right, is her brain using and browsing via search engine. As you can see, her brain is working much, much harder and different parts of her brain are active in this search. Maggie is not what we’d refer to as a digital native. Over time, we’ll see the activity in the right picture die down and become more patterned. \n
• #12 And today’s brains are more distracted than they’ve ever been.... ... Because if we’re not on the lookout for Zombies, we’ll have no brains to distract.\n
• #13 And today’s brains are more distracted than they’ve ever been.... ... Because if we’re not on the lookout for Zombies, we’ll have no brains to distract.\n
• #14 And today’s brains are more distracted than they’ve ever been.... ... Because if we’re not on the lookout for Zombies, we’ll have no brains to distract.\n
• #15 And today’s brains are more distracted than they’ve ever been.... ... Because if we’re not on the lookout for Zombies, we’ll have no brains to distract.\n
• #16 And today’s brains are more distracted than they’ve ever been.... ... Because if we’re not on the lookout for Zombies, we’ll have no brains to distract.\n
• #17 And today’s brains are more distracted than they’ve ever been.... ... Because if we’re not on the lookout for Zombies, we’ll have no brains to distract.\n
• #18 And today’s brains are more distracted than they’ve ever been.... ... Because if we’re not on the lookout for Zombies, we’ll have no brains to distract.\n
• #19 And while we’re accounting for devices, cognitive load, machines and brains... these damn users go on having lives... and life... as it has a way of doing... HAPPENS\n
• #20 And change quickly... to forever change how we process, understand and internalize data.\n
• #21 SHIT. I know what you’re thinking... that’s a lot of stuff... Now I have to account for Zombies on my content audit? Have no fear, we’re not talking about laser focus for every user (YET), but there are ways we can start to build contextual inquiries into our CS practice\n
• #22 SHIT. I know what you’re thinking... that’s a lot of stuff... Now I have to account for Zombies on my content audit? Have no fear, we’re not talking about laser focus for every user (YET), but there are ways we can start to build contextual inquiries into our CS practice\n
• #23 SHIT. I know what you’re thinking... that’s a lot of stuff... Now I have to account for Zombies on my content audit? Have no fear, we’re not talking about laser focus for every user (YET), but there are ways we can start to build contextual inquiries into our CS practice\n
• #24 SHIT. I know what you’re thinking... that’s a lot of stuff... Now I have to account for Zombies on my content audit? Have no fear, we’re not talking about laser focus for every user (YET), but there are ways we can start to build contextual inquiries into our CS practice\n
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• #37 Contextual inquiry is basically a structured field interviewing method, based on a few core principles that differentiate this method from plain, journalistic interviewing. I want to STRESS that inquiry is more a discovery process than an evaluative process; more like learning than testing.\n
• #38 This is my most bullet heavy slide... and we’ll try to be quick on this one... these are the basic principles of contextual inquiry... they’re important because we’re not merely observing... this method is used for MANY types of usability tests as well.\n
• #39 The goal of the inquiry is to develop a baseline of shared experiences for a given segment. From there, we can use intersubjectivity (a psychological and philosophical principle to help model our content) Which leads to mental models for content work...\n
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• #42 We know from our inquiry that our adult students have these key drivers. Assuming you know something about your audience, start with what you know about your users. Build a hypothesis for how they might use your work. Context Maps are a great place to start in building a mental model. \n
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• #44 Organize war rooms around the mental models to begin planning content for a given site or experience\n
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• #46  Task AnalysisThe identification and understanding users’ goals and tasks, the strategies they use to perform the tasks, existing toolsets and solutions, problems they experience, and the changes they would like to see in their tasks and tools.\n2. Contextual InquiryBasically, contextual inquiry is the observation of a user in their environment. Particular attention is paid to the work they do, how the interact with the things around them and how they use what we’re attempting to model for (When I keep telling Content Strategists to be better anthropologists, this is what I’m referring to).\n3. Participatory DesignExactly what it sounds like. Designers and users work together to design a system. Think card sorting, white boarding, etc. When it comes to content, pay particular attention to navigation structures and try to organize things around your engagement maps.\n4. Interviews/Focus GroupsGathering data extracted from interviews to understand beliefs, behaviors, pain points, fears, etc. This is where the bulk of analysis should go when you’re creating your models. In person interviews are absolutely crucial to understanding your site segments and for the ultimate content planning that will follow.\n5. Usability TestingVerifying an existing design, its content or system. Usability tests can be performed in the wild or in a laboratory setting.\n\n
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• #48 Content strategy has to become a standard bearer with user experience for contextually relevant experiences. Armed with a mental model and the ability to empathize with user needs and tasks, we can start to impact system design and content mix \n
• #49 Self Directed \n
• #50 Perfect when a product or service has very clear segments. E.G Financial aid, etc. Efficiencies get user to the contetnt that fits their situation in a fast and efficient manner.\n
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• #54 Post launch surveys should focus specifically on Site Satisfaction, Task Completion, Barriers, Findability of content\n
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• #56 Cleaning advisor breaks down common household items as well as a few of the items you wouldn’t think about cleaning often. It provides helpful, product relevant insights to what all the potential uses for Clorox products\n
• #57 While the Clorox MyStain app does highlight clorox products, it doesn’t always recommend using them. It has ways to treat stains on the go and in a pinch when products are not readily available. \n
• #58 Audi Roadside Connects to the Audi Owners center to pull actual data about a vehicle. It uses location to pull service providers, nearby dealers and actual wait times\n
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• #62 Mustang Customizer plays off enthusiasm and preferences, pings your social graph for recommendations, battles etc. while immersing users within product data and providing key insights back to Ford’s advanced product planning teams. \n
• #63 Site content tailors to Vin number of motorcycle or to bikes user “aspires” to own. See “Bikes I Like” vs. “My Bikes” These choices effect promotional offers, tiles and site content mix.\n
• #64 Requires a lot of privacy permissions, usually stronger back end plumbing and deeper insights into product/consumer/user personas. VERY costly\n
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• #66 I think it’s safe to say that content strategists can lean on at least four types of metrics to accurately demonstrate the fruits of their labor. I call them perception measures and they are:\n1. Satisfaction 2. Task completion (user defined) 3. Measures of key business objectives (traditional metrics measurement) 4. Post visit behavior\n\n
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• #68 Content Strategists are the link between what users come to the site for and being sure they leave feeling engaged and SATISFIED\n
• #69 IF we think of users in this fashion, we’ll fail, time and time again. Segmentation, understanding of pain points, and the elements of context are crucial to comprehension and engagement. \n
• #70 We have to be careful not to become so task focused with our content strategies that we forget the rest of the world, the situations and the behaviors that make up their framework and capability to understand. IA/UX and CS must be partners\n
• #71 We have to be careful not to become so task focused with our content strategies that we forget the rest of the world, the situations and the behaviors that make up their framework and capability to understand http://www.flickr.com/photos/millets100fs/6275720409/\n
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