@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Leaders in digital publishing strategy
Developing an Adaptive Content Strategy
Ann Rockley
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
What is adaptive content?
Adaptive content automatically adjusts to different environments and device capabilities to deliver the
best possible customer experience, filtering and layering content for greater or lesser depth of
detail.
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Adaptive content can
• Adjust to any device• Be displayed in any desired order• Respond to specific customer interactions• Change based on location• Integrate content from other sources
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Mobile
• 38 percent of US cell phone users, an estimated 89 million people, accessed the Internet from their phones.
• More than 47 million US mobile users accessed the Internet daily.
Pew Internet & American Life Project. “Mobile Access 2010,” accessed December 1, 2011, http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Mobile-Access-2010.aspx
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Mobile
• Combined shipments of smartphones and tablets exceeded that of PCs in 2011
• 60 percent of time spent on smartphones comprises new activities
• Global mobile data traffic is expected to grow to 26 times its current volume over the next five years
• There are 5.3 billion mobile subscribers worldwide (77 percent of the world population) with growth led by China and India.
mobiThinking, “Global mobile statistics 2011,” accessed on Dec. 3, 2011, http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
What is mobile design all about?
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Designing for a small screen. Right?
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Not!
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Resizing visuals is only a partial solution to platform proliferation.
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
In the olden days
• Tried to move print online• Didn’t work• Page size was different• Resolution was different• Navigation was different• Understanding of depth
and breadth was different• Searching was different• Everything was different!• Had to rethink content for
online
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Mobile
• Why would we think that we can simply scale to fit mobile?
• Page size is different• Resolution is different• Navigation is different• Understanding of depth and
breadth is different• Searching is different• Time on task is different• Everything is different!• Have to rethink content for
mobile
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Mobile issues
• Companies are not designing mobile web content• Companies design website and mobile app, twice
the work or more!• Mobile apps are time consuming and expensive• Automated web to mobile are not usable• People spend much less time on a task on mobile
than on website
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
eBooks
• Page size is different• Resolution is different• Navigation is different• Understanding of depth
and breadth is different• Interactivity is different• Have to rethink content
for eBooks
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
eBook issues
• Authoring is designed to optimize print publication, not eBook
• eBooks are generated from print books instead of from format free content resulting in problems in the eBook (sidebars, tables, order of information)
• Producing eBooks for multiple devices is a nightmare!
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Handcrafting is unsustainable
• Devices are proliferating• Device wars means that new devices are released
every 9-12 months• Functionality varies across device• What works on one, may not work on another• Constant churn to identify new functionality and
design content to take advantage of the functionality
• Can’t keep up
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Adaptive content
• Adaptive content automatically adjusts to different environments and device capabilities to deliver the best possible customer experience
• Adaptive content can be displayed in any desired order, made to respond to specific customer interactions, changed based on location, and integrated with content from other sources.
• Adaptive content is limited only by your design decisions, the functionality of the device being used, and the intelligence of your content.
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
How adaptive content works
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Supporting adaptive content
• Structure• Business rules• Device constraints
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Structured content
• Structured content enables us to:• Output the content to multiple channels, adapting
it to best meet the needs of the channel• Enable automatically mixing and matching
content to provide what the customer wants when they want it and the way they want it.
• Transform (reconfigure) content from one representation to another
• Filter and layer content
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Business rules
• Business rules are the rules that your content follows to adapt to different devices and different customer requirements.
• Business rules allow the system to automatically pick and choose content and adjust the presentation of that content to meet specific requirements.
• If this then that
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Work backwards
• Know your customer• Know your device constraints• Map requirements to content requirements
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Know your customer
• Who are the primary customers?• Who are the secondary or associated customers?• What the typical customer profile?• Where do your customers come from
(region/country, referring site, search engine)?• What platform are they using: Mac, PC, smartphone
(OS)?• What do customers need to know to make the
buying decision?• What do they think are the most effective ways to
reach the customer?
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Personas
• Personas represent a “real” audience• They help you to better understand who
you are writing for• Help design metadata and information
products
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Know your device constraints
• Even though you should write content separate from its eventual output, you must understand the constraints of the device on which your content will be displayed.
• Design your models to adapt to those constraints.
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Tables
• Tables are always an issue on mobile. Some options include:• Tables where screen real estate permits• Image of the table• Modularized table• Fixed first column, scrolling remainder• Cascading list• Drill down
• Tables are inherently structured, you just need to map your table structure to desired output
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Content strategy
• Determine primary content to display• What can be layered/scrolled/swiped?• How does the content need to be structured to
facilitate filtering/layering/scrolling?• What content should be eliminated and in what
situation?• What alternate content should be presented?• How must your content be structured to support
this functionality?• Can you structure your content for unexpected
situations?
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Changing processes
• No more tweaking and tuning the content to get that perfect fit.
• Know what content is required, by whom, when, in what circumstance, and in conjunction with what other content or interactivity.
• Create structured content separate from format.• Use templates, styles, and structured writing
guidelines.• Create content first, not mobile first or eBook first
but always with an awareness of where and how content can be consumed.
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Summary
• Adaptive content automatically adjusts to different environments and device capabilities to deliver the best possible customer experience, filtering and layering content for greater or lesser depth of detail.
• Develop structured, modular, reusable format free content that can be automatically adapted for multiple devices.
• Work backwards from your customer requirements and device constraints to design your adaptive content.
• Develop personas• Design metadata and user profiles• Develop models• Define business rules for the assembly of content
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
New role for Tech Comm
• Organizations overwhelmed with increasing device requirements
• Just beginning to understand the value of structured content
• Do not know how to design and create structured content
• Do not understand designing format-free content for multichannel delivery
• Stuck in the “web” page paradigm• We’ve been there, done that, we know• We can help
@arockley [email protected] ©2012 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Questions?
[email protected], B&N, PeachPit