The document outlines a presentation on content strategy and information architecture (IA), discussing their definitions, typical tasks, and the relationship between the two fields. It emphasizes collaborative processes in a small agency setting to ensure successful project outcomes, detailing steps from discovery to design. Additionally, it provides resources for further reading on content strategy.

1. 01WORLD IA DAY 2016 CONTENT STRATEGY & IA: DATA SOUL MATES
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN,

2. CONTENT STRATEGY & IA
Data Soul Mates

3. TODAY’S CHAT
➤ Who am I?
➤ Content strategy
➤ The tasks of content strategy
➤ Information architecture
➤ How do they relate?
➤ Working with another colleague tasked with IA
➤ Small agency process
➤ Content strategy resources
➤ Questions, comments, concerns

4. MY EXPERIENCE
➤ 12 years in marketing
➤ Previously: Digital Product
Support, Journal Broadcast
Group
➤ Currently: Content Strategist,
Lightburn

5. “It’s kind of a truism in this industry:
everybody started out doing
something else and came in through a
side entrance.
-Karen McGrane
Karen McGrane Quote

6. LIGHTBURN IN 30 SECONDS
➤ Digital agency
➤ Milwaukee, Wisconsin
➤ 1998
➤ 16 developers, designers, UX, digital marketing and account
professionals
➤ lightburn.co
➤ @lightburn

7. LIGHTBURN’S WORK

8. WHAT IS CONTENT STRATEGY?

9. “…planning for the creation, delivery
and governance of useful, usable
content.
-Kristina Halvorson

10. TYPICAL CS TASKS
➤ Content audits & inventories
➤ Metadata
➤ Gap analysis
➤ Content style guides
➤ Copywriting
➤ Information architecture
➤ Identify and plan for content that:
➤ Supports key business objectives
➤ Supports users in completing tasks
➤ Supports consistent brand
messaging
➤ Supports consistent user experience
across multiple contexts and devices
Adapted from Andy Fitzgerald’s Information Architecture & Strategy

11. CONTENT AUDIT & INVENTORY

12. METADATA
➤ <meta title> ~75 characters
➤ <meta description> ~150 characters

13. CONTENT STYLE GUIDE

14. WHAT IS IA?

15. “Information architecture (IA) focuses
on organizing, structuring and
labeling content in an effective and
sustainable way.
-usability.gov

16. TYPICAL IA TASKS
➤ Taxonomies & ontologies
➤ Controlled vocabularies
➤ Navigation maps
➤ Metadata maps
➤ Search functionality
specifications
➤ Use cases
➤ User flows
Adapted from Andy Fitzgerald’s Information Architecture & Strategy

17. HOW DO THEY RELATE?
➤ Not optional
➤ Concerned with structure, meaning, organization, best
practices
➤ Focused mostly on the user
➤ Dip into creatives “territory”
Adapted from Chris Moritz’s Overlapping and Underpinnings - Content Strategy and Information Architecture

18. “IA defines structure, content strategy
defines mass, creatives define surface.
-Chris Moritz

19. TOGETHER, THEY
DESCRIBE “WHAT”
Adapted from Andy Fitzgerald’s Information Architecture & Strategy

20. ONCE AN AGREED-UPON UNDERSTANDING OF “WHAT”
IS ESTABLISHED, SUBSEQUENT DESIGN PHASES
(INTERACTION DESIGN, VISUAL DESIGN) CAN MOVE ON
TO “HOW” WITH A CLEAR SENSE OF THE GOALS AND
PRIORITIES OF THE UNDERLYING VALUE PROPOSITION.
Adapted from Andy Fitzgerald’s Information Architecture & Strategy

21. WORKING WITH
ANOTHER COLLEAGUE
whose tasks also include information architecture

22. DEFINE YOUR ROLES
➤ How will you approach the
project from your unique
perspective?
➤ How can CS and IA help to
inform one another?
➤ What does success look like
for the other?
➤ Avoid the power struggle.
Posts by Ahava Leibtag’s Content Strategy: 5 Tips on Working with an Information Architect

23. TALK ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUNDS
➤ What experiences from
previous projects or positions
have worked for you?
➤ What strengths or weaknesses
do you have?
Posts by Ahava Leibtag’s Content Strategy: 5 Tips on Working with an Information Architect

24. EXPLAIN THE INPUTS YOU NEED
➤ What things do your IA or CS
colleagues need that you
might not be aware of?
➤ There’s always time to talk.
Posts by Ahava Leibtag’s Content Strategy: 5 Tips on Working with an Information Architect

25. SMALL AGENCY PROCESS

26. PROCESS FROM DISCOVERY THROUGH START OF DESIGN
➤ Signed proposal
➤ Internal discovery kick off (UX, Design, Project Management)
➤ Client discovery kick off
➤ Internal brainstorming
➤ UX and CS work simultaneously
➤ Content audit/inventory
➤ Wireframes
➤ CS provides an initial sitemap based off of discovery insights
➤ UX review of sitemap
➤ Internal wireframe review
➤ Client internal wireframe review
➤ Sitemap is a consistently updated, changeable document

27. WHY THIS WORKS
➤ Everyone is on the same page
from day one
➤ Input from CS, UX and Design
is a group effort
➤ Wireframes are reviewed and
edited as a team with input
and takeaways from each
department

28. CONTENT STRATEGY RESOURCES
➤ Content Strategy for the Web, Kristina Halvorson
➤ Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every
Interactive Project, Margot Bloomstein
➤ Blog, GatherContent.com
➤ Scatter/Gather medium.com/scatter-gather
➤ A List Apart alistapart.com

29. THANK YOU
Valerie Bruce
Content Strategist, Lightburn
valerie@lightburn.co