IDEA 2010 – Conclusion

The great thing about live blogging a conference is the insane amount of information received, retained and interpreted. That bad thing? You run out of steam. Apologies to the final two sessions that I didn’t record.

In conclusion, I found IDEA 2010 to be a tremendous success bringing together some of the most amazing minds in IA and IxD. Yes, the dialog continues between the roles of each profession, the blurred lines, and the never-ending discussion/argument between job title and job function. Selfishly, as a practicing content strategist, it’s nice to know our profession isn’t the only one still sorting it all out.

Again, congrats to Russ and his hard working team for pulling together such a great conference. Philadelphia, specifically the old town, was a fantastic host. I’m vastly looking forward to where the newly formed comittee decides for a location.

IDEA 2010 Day 2, Morning

Hello.

We’re back for day #2 in sunny Philadelphia for IDEA 2010.

Jared Spool and Reed are up on stage playing some sweet ass zippy music that makes it exceptionally easy to type. They will be presenting shortly. Jared just kicked me out of my seat.  Eschewing sobbing for another cup of coffee. Alright, everyone is filing in, this presentation with Jaraed and Reed should kick some ass.

The Best is the Enemy of the Good

• Always a good way to start of the morning when you mix beat boxing with magic.
• Dramatic stage presentation by Reed basically performing magic while beat boxing and a the crowd baited on his every move.
• Parralls between professional magic and IxD
• We can learn a lot from a profession that basically has over 100 years head start
• Magic: Creative, Business, Community of Practice (sound familiar?)
• Path to becoming a master starts with being a beginner. Which of course, sucks.
• Once you mimic something, you can then, and only then innovate.
• Sucking, mimicking, innovating. We’ve seen this process before (roaring laughing)
• Microsoft innovated with Word, but kind of went too far.
• This is a pattern that keeps repeating
• (man, how much do designers and content needs LOVE mint.com)
• Re: Don’t Make Me Think. “You suck, get over it”
• Are we (as a profession) becoming masterful.
• I’m not perfect, but I’m really really good.
• It’s responsibility to all aspects of a show beyond your given skill.
• What are the skills that we need to create good design.
• Jared is not a fan of roles, which he sees as a subset of skills.
• What are your enterprise skills?
• What are your soft skills?
• The T shaped man, doesn’t work. You have the broken comb, you are getting better at different skills.
• The Renaissance person would kick some serious.
• Practice is only for you. It’s like muscle memory for your brain. Practic shouldn’t be work and you don’t have to pay attention all the time.
• Process workshops is practice.
• Renaissance people are needed to build your team.
• People are willing to invest in design, but are we skilled enough, have we practiced enough.
• Brains work vs hands work. Brains work should be billed 3 times as much as hands work.
• If you come in as hands, you may not have get as many of your ideas pushed through.

OK, Next up Cindy Chastain and her talk The Importance of Storytelling in the Age of Digital Ecosystems

• We have to think as storytellers to solve design problems.
• You have to start with offering a service.
• You have to start with a good story to have a consistance service ecosystem.
• Damn. Nook is a really good name for that.
• Baseball’s popularity is largely due to data. The story about baseball is built around the ecosystem of data.
• Way to dig more deeply into the game.
• McSweeney example – massively different kinds of content all bound together by the same story.
• single product/service and multiple product/services
• story(thinking) a narrative of connecting people to the ecosystem.
• storylines leads to subplots.
• Then you map the subplots to the ecosystem
• The more Cindy speaks, the more I realize I have so much more to learn.
• Once you map, then you need to create stories for design.
• Stories helps build a collection around a common theme. Keeps the customer focused.
• Lunch time!

stay tuned….

IDEA 2010, Day 1 Afternoon Sessions

And we are back from our glorious lunch break. I had something I couldn’t pronounce and it was lovely.

Settling in for (How Is This All) Going To Work? What we teach, how we learn and what employers want.

• Alright, looks like we have a panel of speakers here and they are Dan Klyn, Liz Danzico, Richard Dalton, Amanda Schonfeld, Cindy Chastain, Katie McCurdy and Erin Moore.
• Print and Athletics to IxD and IA. Nice! Erin
• Liz up next.
• Learning by doing. Making an idea real.
• Experience broken down by process, concept, craft, communication
• Students need to learn process so they can deviate from it.
• we must pay attention to craft. must be fluent in craft.
• Behavior is broken down by observation, language,
• Write often. (yay!)
• Dan is up next
• I never get a science fiction reference.
• What do I know, apparently it was a Harry Potter reference.
• delineating between IxD and IA has become toxic. Define the damn thing.
• (wow) grappling with a slash. (Jesus, is it that bad to have multiple titles for the same thing, or different flavors. )
• Katie up next
• her schooling was rounded out by several design methods, solving design problems, independent projects, extreme networking
• Employers want to know what YOU contributed to a project.
• Next up Cindy
• We are now tasked with figuring out entire ecosystems.
• Knowing where you fall into a skill is key.
• You need a primary identifier.
• You need to map out your literacy vs. expertise. What can you execute.
• depth of craft + range of understanding + strategic insight = Innovation
• Amanda is up next
• Employee referrals are huge.
• The wiifi is beyond wonky
• Format of your ressy
• If you are trying to make a change, you need be honest and flexible
• Can we talk about how many lunch options there was?
• Richard is up
• Recommendations mean squat if the hiring manager doesn’t know the person.
• talent, cultural fit, passion
• BBI, Behavioral Based Interviewing

OK, now we are into Vidya’s Drago’s Trends  in the Future of Online Experiences

• Nice to see some fresh blood presenting to the UX community
• No one here is going to try to predict the future (but it’s so fun!)
• I am digging this history of cars
• New forms of tech start by imitating older forms and then evolve into their own.
• We are only 17 years into evolution of the web, it took 50yrs for the car to get a form we can relate to.
• In discovering trends they looked at capabilities, consumers and competition
• no longer is there a wife chasm between mobility and capability.
• http://www.zillow.com
• Customized, Aggregated, Relevant, social
• livekick.com
• Jesus, apparently I visit like 5 websites. I feel 80.
• Aggregate is another term that has been bastardized and lost often in translation. However, I love the way Vidya makes it work in this context.

Next up is Karen McGrane (*swoon*)

• Karen McGrane just admitted she isn’t a content strategist.
• great present analogy
• the world of content has exploded due to social media
• IA found the pain point and gave it a name.
• IA has done a great job of defining a process.
• Content Strategy deserves people talking about it and it deserves a process.
• Think beyond the template
• Not buckets, templates or wrappers
• speak up on the content’s behalf.
• prototype with test wireframes with the best and worst content examples.
• OMG I totally organize the soup cans
• Assess when the content is good when doing the inventory.
• Losing steam, totally reveling in Karen McGrane’s awesomeness.

• Stay tuned…

Idea 2010 Integration: Designing for Tomorrow, Day 1

Morning!

Today is the first…day…ahem…sorry, still fuzzy from @Madpow’s killer party last night at National Mechanics. We are ready to kick off IDEA2010! I will do my best to live blog through the sessions, there will be part observations, part candor, part humor and as much knowledge as I can absorb and type. I will do my best, I hope you enjoy.

First up, a Welcome and then we’re into Ubiquitous Architecture and Gamestorming.

Ubiquitous Architecture and Gamestorming

Peter Morville is up first.

• Dichotomy Alert! Information Architects and User Experience Designer
• Already in love with Peter as he makes CS a part of the conversation.
• The tactical and strategic roles may be separating, but they are still held closely together.
• visuals can often break down barriers
• Search involves an insane attention to detail.
• Will innovation redefine search, ongoing discussion.
• You can now search by sketching or singing
• We can’t ignore the possibility of sensory search.
• Cross Media Integration – what is the right balance?
• iTunes led the way with this (duh), but we are finally seeing other areas (Nike, Zipcar etc)
• REI has worked to bring all content creators together, eliminating silos (yay!)
• Mike Kuniavsky – don’t worry, he’s already thinking light years ahead of us (whew…)
• Service blueprints are the key parts of Service Design, they identify the touchpoints (Peter feels they are not enough)
• User Service Map – The Intertwingularity (buzzword alert!) The mix of digital and physical (how would you view a movie, download, movie theater…)
• What is the perceived distance in the physical world, but when you apply the same thought to digital, it has more to do with the experience.
• IA is about building bridges, but the work doesn’t stop, there are always more bridges to be built.
• Peter makes the brilliant point that Ken Burns is GOD (ok, maybe I made that up, but COME ON, the man is fabulous!)
• Panel discussion time!
• What the hell is gamestorming!? – Disruptive way of explaining problem solving (Sunni) Collection of things that work (James) Making the information more shareable (Dave)
• Gamestorming = visual thinking people (Peter’s interpretation)
• Confession: As a writer, designing anything visually scares the crap out of me.
• Visual thinking = Gamestorming
• Gamestorming reminds me a lot of discovery writing. Visually working through a problem, much like writing through a problem.
• Peter makes the point that Gamestorming is just IA in disguise.
• The best way to describing gamestorming is to do it.

Hey oh, just had a break out session where Sunni Brown taught us visually challenged “drawers” a new way to not be afraid to sketch out our ideas visually. She had a great way of using a visual alphabet (lines, circles, basically crap we can all draw to represent a image. It was basically a speed round of Pictionary where we drew a coffee cup (easy), charisma (not so much) and a pervert (priests abound). Insanely fun, interactive and a great way to meet some new people.

Next up, Going Native: The Anthropology of Mobile App Design with Josh Clark

• Mobile can be thought of as cultures.
• Anthropology – how or why we act the way we act.
• Still very much in the discovery phase of mobile platforms.
• (Lego graphic backdrop is S.I.C.K.)
• text interfaces were initially such a crummy experience.
• Suddenly wondering if my mother threw away all of our Legos. I think I’ll call her at lunch.
• Defining a culture, defines the mobile appearance
• 87% of AA and English speaking latinos compared to 80% of white peeps.
• Nokia = Symbian. I did not know that.
• BB os is still king in America (40%) For now…
• BB heavy on texting and email, but lacking on web browsing.
• iPhone = super active user
• Sorry, nanny is texting me. The power is out and I am trying to tell her how to reset the breaker in the electrical panel. Good god.
• For Android, it’s the technology, skews for younger users. “good enough”
• Android is for tinkerers, so apparently Tinker Bell is ALL over this phone.
• Windows mobile slide draws a good laugh from the crowd. Oh, Redmond, you have fallen so far.
• Satisfaction index shows that iPhone/Android lead the way while BB and Windows (giggle/snort) lacks big time.
• Cultures love rivalry. Great analogy.
• It’s really not about tools. Emotional connection means more now in the mobile universe.
• Appropriate Technologies – basically pairing cultures with the right technologies
• There is a market for SMS apps (think of voting for AI)
• Mobile culture goverance is partially regulation and part of the social experience.
• Wait, whut? Content Strategy doesn’t own the term governance.
• Governance shapes our experience.
• Sorry, twitter distraction, bad Matthew.
• Can the web entertain this circus?
• Mobile web can sidestep the governance issue.
• Praying there is a stack of legos at lunch.
• You cannot satiate everyone, so there cannot be only one silver bullet mobile OS
• We are all cloud developers now (I have no idea what this means)
• Build device specific app, not an all encompassing app.
• Lunch time!

Stay tuned…

A Case for Content Stewardship

Stewardship

“the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care” – Merriam Webster

Recently, a lot has been made of content curation. It’s a dead sexy term and it’s getting a lot of attention from those who love it and those who think it’s the next pile of dung from the content strategy brethren. The jury’s out for me. I neither love it nor hate it, but I do think arguing about its usage is a tremendous waste of time. I’d rather be caring for content than arguing about it.

Enter stewardship.

Perhaps this is where I call it content stewardship so I can get a lot of seo hits. (oops) Truth is, I have always thought of myself as a steward of content. Whether I am meeting with a client for the first time or engaging in a project I’ve worked on for years, I constantly reiterate I’m the one person who will care about the content during the project’s lifecycle.

More importantly, I make sure the content is poised for a successful future once I leave the project.

Therein lies the biggest delineation between curation and stewardship. Where curation implies you are part of the process from beginning to end, stewardship, implies you are neither at the beginning of the content lifecycle or the end, but you will do you best to ensure the content is cared for while entrusted with it.

Customer Service is Dead

Every day we bemoan eroding customer service. From the listless BestBuy employee to self involved waitstaff,  we’ve almost convinced ourselves that customer service is dead. The same thing is happening with the content we read daily. Too many, copywriters, web editors, business analysts and project managers shuffle content throughout a project with little care. They know next week it’s on to another project, another deadline and another blob of content.

Too many people who produce content don’t care about the content they are producing. After all, if you know you are merely writing for seo hits, why should you care about what is written? If you know you’re a cog what’s your impetus to care about the content?

Are you flipping content?

A few years ago, in the midst of predatory loans, flipping houses was all the rage. The concept was simple. If you had enough capital (or borrowed capital) you could purchase a home, do the bare minimum in repairs and renovations and sell it for a profit. From there, you were free to buy the house of your dreams. But what about when you were living there, fixing the house up? Did you really care about what happened to the house/condo/yurt after you left? What about the person who bought the house? How do they feel about living in a house that was simply a means to a profitable end? This concept was so widely embraced, TV shows exploited it (imagine that).

It’s not the easiest question to ask, but are you flipping content? Admittedly, I have flipped content. I’m not proud of it, but I have. I was not a very good steward. I just wanted it off my desk. I really didn’t care who inherited it and what condition it was in.

Looking back on those projects, it was easy to see why I wasn’t motivated. I felt like a cog. Cogs and content don’t mix.

The Legacy of Content Stewardship

The more you think of shepherding content and the less you think of flipping it, the more you can embrace stewardship and feeling entrusted with the responsibility of caring for the content you work with.

You don’t have to write content to be it’s steward. Tracking, storing, touching up and speaking on its behalf are all ways you can become a content steward.  It’s not complicated, but the legacy of quality content can always be attributed to your stewardship while it was entrusted to you.

Even If You’re Not a Content Strategist – Stir the Pot

Excuses

“Content Strategy is great and all, but I am a writer. I sit in a cube and I fight to keep up with the pace of projects heaped on me.”

“My company will never hire a content strategist”

“I don’t know what a content strategist is, let alone how sell it to my manager.”

“My company does not value writing.”

I hear chatter like this daily. Often, it is fair, accurate and for better or worse, realistic statements. The harsh reality is we rarely have the perfect project workflow and budget to accommodate a kick-ass experience designer, information architect and content strategist.

However, rather than throw up your hands and reach for the flask, do something about it.

Solution

Here’s a tidy little secret that A) needs to NOT be a secret and B) should mitigate the mountain of red tape and pushback when advocating for content strategy:

Speak up!

What Do I Mean?

Matthew (as much as I would have loved the credit) didn’t write the entire Bible. Pharaoh Joe didn’t stack all the fancy rocks for the pyramids. Bucky $#&!ng Dent was not solely responsible for the Red Sox losing the 1978 pennant (still bitter).

For better or worse, it was a team effort and so should your content strategy.

How?

If you’re reading this you’re a writer, project manager, experience designer or you googled grass fed beef and now you’re horribly confused. Either way, even you grass fed hippie, you care about content.

The key is to keep talking about content throughout the project lifecycle. Getting your team to understand the importance of quality content and how to govern it, will get you that much closer to a content strategy that works for your environment. Here’s how:

1. Content Inventory – As you sit in your weekly meeting, rather than stab yourself in the eye with your favorite Bic, while Phil from accounting (sorry Phil) wheezes and sweats incessantly, ask if a content inventory exists. If not, ask for one to be created (it will give the project manager, intern or Phil something to do). If no one steps up, then it’s all you.
2. Style guide anyone? – Often this can be the elephant in the room question, but ask. Ask Marketing, ask Development, ask Phil! (poor Phil). Even if one doesn’t exist and you initially have to go with Yahoo’s, AP’s or (gulp) Microsoft’s you look like a smarty pants for bringing it up. You’re also laying conduit for a continued content strategy objective.
3. Write, damn it – Well, someone has to. Somehow, the content is being created and along with that sexy content inventory and delicious style guide it can now be tracked. The writing will always happen, it will always change, but #1 and #2 are now giving your content credence.
4. Name names – Who is writing what? Why are we writing it and MOST IMPORTANTLY who will maintain it? Departmental ownership doesn’t work. If you do not place a name next to a piece of content created, your content strategy will fail. Here’s a successful example.

Waterless urinal marketing description – source located here – published here – owner Phil (poor Phil) – sub owner Phil’s boss – reason for content: x

Say tomorrow Phil, and his wheezing sweats gets canned. By naming an owner and sub owner, you have safeguarded the content from getting lost in the muck. With Phil gone, you locate Phil’s boss, who either now owns it or knows who does.  If Phil and Phil’s boss both get canned, you probably want to start looking for another job.

5. Buy your project manager flowers. Or beer – Whatever it takes, get on your project manager’s good side. Oftentimes, they can be the linchpin for holding the content discussion  together. If you are a PM, sweet, here are some flowers, keep reading.

Since PMs are often tasked with documenting the product lifecycle, they too can start documenting where the content will live and breathe. As a writer, with no content strategy time or budget, I’ve convinced the PM to keep a record of what the content deliverables are, who owns them and where they’re located. It’s not sexy, but you’re  paving the way for a more comprehensive content gameplan moving forward.

6. Keep talking – As we know, the hardest part of when any project goes live is what happens the day after the release. Jeffrey MacIntyre refers to this as the Day 2 Problem. Days 2, 3 – 10 are critical because you’ll need to track the content chatter. A good indicator is how well the content is received internally. If there is confusion, disdain riots in the streets, time to call Houston (and send a 6-pack to the PM). The point is, to keep the content dialog going. Even if you don’t cure the content ailment for this project, you have certainly raised awareness moving forward.
7. Log, log, log – If you care about content, but you are buried in bureaucratic whooee and mountains of work, you can still contribute by speaking up. Draft an email or start writing on a cocktail napkin. Jot down the successes and failures of the content lifecycle. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it can be a powerful tool when it’s time to talk to the fancy pants bosses.
8. Visit Mahogany Row – At companies where I’ve worked, this is where the real decision makers sit. Armed with my cocktail napkin, I meet with stakeholders and show them the pain points and offer concrete, realistic content solutions. *cue heavenly bells*

Result

Congratulations, you’re a blabber mouth! I’m kidding. However, your interest in content, your ability to ask, talk and monitor its effects on the project lifecycle has brought about an awareness within your company. By highlighting successes and most importantly, failures you are one step closer toward an effective content strategy.

Now, if you could be a dove and find a handkerchief, Phil’s sweating again.

Mancrushed

A couple years ago, this dude down the street from me bought a house. He and his family moved in and began their life. He seemed like a handy guy, building bicycles out of his basement. In addition, he started fixing the outside, transforming the once defunct exterior space into an amazingly cute bungalow.

Each day on the way to my office, I’d admire his handiwork, aspiring to have a house that looked so polished and approachable on the outside.

As the years progressed, his business picked up as I often saw him camped out at all hours in his basement constructing bicycles. Not only did I want to meet this dude, I wanted to do business with him. If he was capable of transforming his house into a thing of beauty, certainly the craftsmanship of his bikes were amazing.

Coincidentally, my daughter was in need of a bike. As spring arrived, I prepped to visit my neighbor. However, as I approached the house, I noticed a stark absence from the residence. The minivan was replaced by a dump truck, the stroller had given way to a crane. The hum of the family I had watched for years was replaced by the cadence of an organized blue collar workforce.

What the hell?

Days later, with my curiosity eating me, I slow rolled by his house.

They were literally lifting the house up off the ground. Apparently, the foundation had been failing for years, and it was now time to replace it.

Months have passed, summer in this seaside town is in full swing, yet the family and the man I had admired for years were no where to be found. Apparently, they moved away for the summer, waiting for the figurative and literal dust to settle.

Everything about the house I had admired; the hand detail on the railings, the custom siding, the manicured lawn, were now all a heap of dust and destruction. However, no matter how much this man cosmetically fixed the outside, the glaring issue of a failing foundation finally caught up to him, his family and his business.

His lively hood completely displaced because he ignored the fundamental flaw of his residence.

Looking back, it’s hard to see if he would have still purchased the house given its failing structure, or if he would have forgone the initial cosmetic fixes in lieu of the less sexy internal construction.

Either way, this chap I had admired from afar is now out a significant amount of money and my confidence in his craft is now crushed.

What’s Under Your Hood?

The other day I partook in a great American pastime. Playing baseball? Eating apple pie? Going to WalMart?

Fuck no. I went car shopping.

Car dealerships have come a long way since the dank, dimly lit showrooms of years past.

Today, you can walk into a an area that looks more like a museum bistro than a car store. Massive flat panel TV, floor to ceiling windows, COFFEE, even a toy room to deposit the children. On the surface, who the hell wouldn’t want to spend the better part of a Saturday afternoon on a cushy leather couch, eating popcorn, watching a Family Ties rerun?

However, there comes a point (somewhere between the 2nd hour and Lloyd running back to the manager’s office to run some figures) where you realize where you are. You aren’t at that museum, sipping a latte watching your children get smarter. You are drinking mediocre, at best, coffee, watching someone die on CNN while your son belts your daughter over the head with a germ infested broken plastic tractor. Oh, and you are at a mother effin car dealership in the middle of a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.

The longer you wait for what you want, the more inclined to develop a deep loathing for not only your intended purchase, but also for the location where that purchase is located.

2 hours later, I now hate this car dealership, I hate the salesman, I hate cars and I am starting to develop an unhealthy hatred for CNN.

All because I had to wait for what I wanted.

Unfortunately, the same happens with information presented on your website. The landing page is awesome; Pretty graphics, warm tones and carefully thought out content. However, as you search deeper, clicking down through the site, the more frustrated you become. The landing page heightens your interest, yet the more excited you become and the more questions you have, the more you become disappointed in your findings. Content fails when it’s unable to keep up with the pace of its audience.

I almost feel bad for that car dealership. After 2 hours I walked out. They simply took too long to get me what I needed. I know the exact car I want, and I know I can find it somewhere else. The next dealership might not have the fancy couch or the big tv. But if they have a chair for me to sit down and can get me what I need in a timely manner, they’ll have my business.

When You Can’t Blame Your Mother, Blame Your Teacher

“I need 3 pages on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire”

“Give me 5 pages on the Underground Railroad”

“Well, just for that, make it 10 pages on owls” (this really did happen after mistakenly asking Sister Judith “who?”)

In addition, to sitting up straight, keeping our hands to ourselves and forming a single file, we have been historically taught to communicate based on length. How many late nights in high school did you spend stretching your 2 page thought to 3 pages?  The preponderance of length now negatively affects the way we professionally communicate.

Recently, I was blog coaching a group of amazing professionals. Their ideas were off the chain. Yet, the first question I was asked, was how long should it be. Suddenly, I’m quoting the professor I loathed: “as long as it needs to be to get your point across.”

Meh. I hated that line.

Therein lies the professional conundrum of bloated content created daily based solely on the dated mantra that bigger is better. If Floyd the business analyst wrote a 545 page spec, then surely he has been working hard and the project is abundantly significant.

Or is it?

Some of the most impressive projects I have seen, particularly in agile development, stem from 1 page specifications detailing the workload for the current sprint.

I have a mental catalog of dozens of instances where the less written, the more effective the project.

But you know what? I’m going to shut the hell up.

After all, I got my point across.

Content Strategy Will Make or Break Your Process – Karen McGrane & Jeff Eaton

Here is the final blog post on today’s #wcconf sessions. Again, this is a rapid fire/real time reaction to the speaker(s). My thoughts in ().

• (People coming in, I have remained in the same seat for two days. I am going to miss it. In fact, my unhealthy attraction for the Gleacher Center has reached epic proportions)
• (I want Jeff Eaton’s glasses. I may steal them off him during his presentation)
• (Karen is already going to swear. I’m giddy. )
• 11th hour shit storm problem, we have ALL experienced this
• We are smart people, yet will still run into this issues.
• The Day 2 problem starts on Day 1.
• (love when presenters reference other presenters in the same conference, it makes it seem like they are paying attention to each other. )
• Oh no! Karen went live with the existing content *cue lightening bolts* “Systemic failure”
• We knew the content sucked, but we couldn’t do anything about it. (internally dancing in my seat)
• 7000pages + 45 people + 6 weeks + 5400 = (um…ouch)
• Work with the worst content and the least complaint content providers
• Usability testing with content providers, not just end users.
• (this is a fucking good presentation)
• (interested to see how hard core project managers think of content strategy)
• Any time you work on content it is later than you wanted to.
• Black Boxing content is a systemic problem
• (Convincing non 11th hour shit storm of content creation is a bitch)
• Web strategy is not to new navigation options, it is to create more information for people to find.
• Not enough to persuade, you need to do it.
• Old Process diagrams…(hee hee good for a laugh)
• Demand to see real content in in designs so you can see the missing pieces
• Bring your own project plan and sync up activities
• (you know when you go to a show and bands just seem to single handedly kick ass, pushing the others toward more awesomeness? That is happening with today’s presenters. Blown. Away)
• (really cool the way Jeff is showing the back end of a site and how easy it is to add content on the fly)
• Drupal has a rep of being really flexible, but hard to manage content.
• Joomla somewhere in the middle ground
• WordPress, ridiculously easy for content
• shift focus away from features and towards task flow
• abject failure to apply user process design to CMSs
• (running over the time limit and NO ONE wants to leave. Fucking awesome)
• When presenting new designs you have to present the CMS input as well.
• CMS can do it, but will it do it well???
• stress test with the most possible content
• Content migration takes longer than you think
• Good planet takes planning and time
• No one goes to admire their templates, they are there for your content
• people who design the site need a good experience too.
• OUT!