content amid chaos
TRANSCRIPT
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amid
CHAOSCONTENT
sara wachter-boettcher @sara_ann_marie
sarawb.com
‘‘Why Is Philly So Filthy? — Philly Magazine headline, 2013
‘‘Litter-ally Disgusting — Philly Enquirer headline, 2011
‘‘Whose Litter Is It? — Philly Enquirer headline, 1990
‘‘§ 10-702. Litter in Public Places. (1) No person shall place or deposit litter in or upon any street, sidewalk or other public place within the City except in public receptacles or in authorized private receptacles.
— Philadelphia Municipal Code
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I feel likethis about websites, too.
Always late. Not mobile-ready. Too corporate. Totally irrelevant. Way too long. Redundant.
What gives?
‘‘§ Content in Public Websites. (1) No person shall place or deposit content in or upon any page, module, or PDF within the website except when authorized.
—Some long-lost web policy, probably
It’s time for a new approach.
Litter problems.
Content problems.
Not-my-problem problems.
Too-big-to-try problems.
How can web projects fix those?
turn your project
for content.
into aCATALYST
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1 Make change achievable.
‘‘I’ve always been a trash picker upper, but there are neighborhoods that are just too heavily covered for a person to pitch in while walking.
— A West Philly resident
‘‘A citizen-driven effort to revitalize one Philadelphia city block.
— West Rockland Street project
Big problems feel…big.
‘‘Rewrite all our content for responsive design.
‘‘Cut everything in half so it’s easier to skim.
‘‘Transform all 4,567 PDFs to structured content.
Avoid the overwhelm.
Start with just one thing.
Visible Valuable Scope-able
Visible Valuable Scope-able
Visible Valuable Scope-able
Visible Valuable Scope-able
Your skills and area of
influence
What’s causing problems right now
The sweet spot
Moving an existing site
to responsive design
Product spec PDFs that
need constant updates
Create a product
content model
Fix everything.
Fix something.
small wins build
OPTIMISM
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2 Aim for ownership.
We need people to take charge, too.
‘‘We can have one team that’s the responsive team and this team just goes on and makes the site responsive … The organization would have learned nothing from this exercise.
— Livia Labate, Marriott Responsive Web Design Podcast
‘‘Because we have so many people today that are contributing to these sites, how are we going to get to a place where they feel equipped to do that?
— Livia Labate, Marriott Responsive Web Design Podcast
Get people problem-solving together.
‘‘What would you like to be different in this content?
‘‘How do you think we could solve this problem?
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Ask, don’t just tell.
economist
comms director
editordesigner
Do, don’t just talk.
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Pair up.
involvement creates
OWNERSHIP
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3 Get commitment.
‘‘Okay, here’s the new content strategy! Go!
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Maps give us momentum.
declining
thriving
• Purchase property • Revitalize it to rent to local businesses
• Use income for neighborhood cleanup
• Plan long-term civic improvements
Maps connect vision to operations.
Define where you’re headed.
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unstructured
structured
overwhelming
governed
churned out
purposeful
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Identify potential projects.
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Break down the big steps.
Decide who will lead each charge.
Set a cadence for progress.
maps keep us
MOVING
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Content is chaotic.
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Never finished.
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We’re not here for perfection.
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Flickr images used via Creative Commons Attribution license.
sarawb.com // @sara_ann_marie content-workshops.com