How do you design for content in a mobile world? Learn about the core model and how it can help you get to a smart place where you're putting content first.

1. Design for Mobile
Content
Ahava Leibtag
President
Aha Media Group
February 2, 2017

2. @ahavaL #webcondc

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6. The Martian

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9. Designing for mobile is about
content strategy work first and
then mobile design second.
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10. Steps to Great Content Design for Mobile
1. Understand users’ needs
2. Understand your business
3. Understand the content ecosystem
4. Create content models and core pages
5. Prioritize the content

11. Understand Users’ Needs
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13. Backstory:
He has been working for the same law firm for 12
years and business has been growing quickly. His
administrator hired the previous two IT companies
but neither of them could keep up with the firm’s
growing needs and he was disappointed by their work
ethic. He knows the firm needs outstanding outside
help because they don’t have the resources to bring in
an internal IT employee. He wants a company that will
help anticipate the firm’s needs. He wants to hire a
highly recommended company that is extremely
reliable.
Age: 38
Lives in: Bethesda, MD
Education: Georgetown Law School,
Penn Undergraduate
Occupation: Patent Attorney in
Washington, D.C.
HH Income: 250K (+50K)
Family: Wife, Julie, 34, Graphic Designer
Daughter, Danielle, 11
Son, Michael, 8
Lifestyle/Personality:
• Drives an Acura and wife drives a
Honda CRV
• Gym membership and plays tennis
• Coaches Michael’s soccer team
• Family travels twice a year to California
• Shops at Brooks Brothers and J.Crew
• Dines out often with clients
Devices and Channels:
iPhone, iPad, laptop and desktop
News and Information:
Reads the Wall Street Journal and world
news online
Tasks and Objectives:
• What kind of IT support do you provide?
• How much experience do you have with the
legal industry?
• Do you have after business hours and
weekend technical support? How responsive
are you during those times?
• Is there an assigned primary technical
consultant?
• Will you recommend and purchase
hardware and software products for my law
firm?
• What is your pricing structure?
• Who are some of your clients? Can you
provide customer recommendations?
Adam J. Seeking IT services: “We need professional help with our IT.”

14. Motivations
• Find an IT company
that will be a good fit
for his firm
Primary Questions
• What kind of IT support do you provide?
• How much experience do you have with the
legal industry?
• Do you have after business hours and
weekend technical support? How responsive
are you during those times?
Secondary Questions
• Is there an assigned primary technical consultant?
• Will you recommend and purchase hardware and
software products for my lawfirm?
• What is your pricing structure?
• Who are some of your clients? Can you provide
customer recommendations?
Actions
• Call with questions
• Schedule a meeting
Possible Encounters:
• Search online
• Referrals
Possible Content:
• Services
• Portfolio
• Support Hours
Possible Content:
• Products
• Pricing
• Customer Testimonials
Possible
Modes of
Engagement
Adam J. Seeking IT services: “We need professional help with our IT.”

15. Motivations
• Find an IT company
that will be a good fit
for his firm
Primary Questions
• What kind of IT support do you provide?
• How much experience do you have with the
legal industry?
• Do you have after business hours and
weekend technical support? How responsive
are you during those times?
Secondary Questions
• Is there an assigned primary technical consultant?
• Will you recommend and purchase hardware and
software products for my lawfirm?
• What is your pricing structure?
• Who are some of your clients? Can you provide
customer recommendations?
Actions
• Call with questions
• Schedule a meeting
Possible Encounters:
• Search online
• Referrals
Possible Pages:
• Services
• Portfolio
• Support Hours
Possible Pages:
• Products
• Pricing
• Customer Testimonials
Possible
Modes of
Engagement
Adam J. Seeking IT services: “We need professional help with our IT.”

16. Understand your Business
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18. Business
1. What are the business goals?
2. What clearly defined problems do you have that are
impeding reaching those goals?
3. What are the consequences of not reaching those goals?
4. If you reach those goals, what will the outcomes be?
5. Where are the political snares and pitfalls?

19. Understand the Content
Ecosystem
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21. Ask yourself (and your team)
• Formats: What types of digital content do we have currently? (All
formats: text, video, audio, pictures, infographics and so on)
• Print: Do we have print content that needs to be incorporated?
• Architecture: Where does the content live?
• Business objectives: How much of an asset is it to the
organization?
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22. Categorize
1. Focus content: which content is critical your customers and
therefore benefits your business?
2. Guide: content that’s important to your users and beneficial
to your business
3. Drive: towards content that people didn’t know they were
looking for, but is beneficial to your business
4. Meh: content you’ll include because you feel you have to
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Drive
(will hit business goals)
Focus
(critical)
Meh
(politically motivated)
Guide
(important)
BusinessImpacts
User Needs

24. Create Content Models
and Core Pages
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27. The Core Model
• Align content with business objectives
• Support customers in accomplishing tasks
Business
Goals
User
Tasks
www.ahamediagroup.com

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30. The Core Model
• Align content with business objectives
• Support customers in accomplishing tasks
Business
Goals
User
Tasks
www.ahamediagroup.com

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32. Why?
Role Why?
Content strategist Identify the most important pages on the
site
UX Designer What modules do we need on the page?
Graphic designer What’s important to emphasize on the
page?
Copywriter and editors Create better content
Clients Includes them in detailed decision making
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33. Getting at the Core Model: Step #1
1. Find out the top 5 most
important tasks for that
page
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34. Getting at the Core Model: Step #2
2. Track the inward paths
• What do people search for?
• How can social media drive
traffic to that page?
• What other sites and pages
should link to this one?
• What other sources should
lead to this page?
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35. Getting at the Core Model: Step #3
3. Map the Core content
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36. Getting at the Core Model: Step #4
4. Map the forward paths
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37. By doing it this way, you don’t ask
your users “where do you belong
on this website?” Instead, you ask
them “How can we help you?”
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38. Content Models
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42. Creating core pages or components
1. Identify core pages or content components that satisfy business
goals and user needs’
2. Map inputs and outputs (how people land and where they go
next)
3. Model the content and identify the relationships between
different types of content
4. Create buckets of content according to their relationships
5. Prioritize which “pages” and content they need: What content
elements that you just mapped belong on a small screen?
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43. Presentation
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45. Prioritize the Content
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47. Not what do they need to see.
Which order do they need to
see it in?
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50. Steps to Great Content Design for Mobile
1. Understand users’ needs
2. Understand your business
3. Understand the content ecosystem
4. Create core pages and content models
5. Prioritize the content

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52. Thank you
Ahava Leibtag
Aha Media Group, LLC
ahava@ahamediagroup.com
@ahavaL @
ahavaleibtag
www.ahamediagroup.com