Organizations are messy places: politics thwart progress, departmental squabbles are status quo, and decision-making often takes months. This chaos makes its way right to our websites, filling them with crap users don't want, need, or sometimes even understand. We’re practicing content strategy now, so what gives? Why are we still designing around all this clutter and corporate-speak? Because strategy documents and style rules alone won’t make people actually produce content that meets users’ needs and aligns with our designs. In this talk, you’ll hear what will: embracing (okay, tolerating) content chaos, instead of anguishing over imperfections. You'll learn strategic approaches for defining meaningful content problems in your organisation—and solving them one at a time.

1. flickr.com/photos/athomson/5725428376
amid
CHAOS
CONTENTsara wachter-boettcher
@sara_ann_marie
sarawb.com

2. flickr.com/photos/athomson/5725428376

3. flickr.com/photos/cellphonesusie/5581322594

5. ‘‘Why Is Philly So Filthy?
— Philly Magazine headline, 2013

6. flickr.com/photos/quinndombrowski/5953906283

8. ‘‘§ 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

10. flickr.com/photos/angelina_creations/4336718492
How I feel about
websites, too.

17. ≈

19. Always late. Not
mobile-ready. Too
corporate. Totally
irrelevant. Way too
long. Redundant.

20. What gives?

22. ‘‘§ 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

23. flickr.com/photos/tigergirl/1236320261

24. It’s time for a new
approach.

25. flickr.com/photos/melburnian/3652851277

26. flickr.com/photos/24337668@N07/10335172833

27. turn your project
for content.
into a
CATALYST

28. flickr.com/photos/robandstephanielevy/4668030838
1 Make change achievable.

29. ‘‘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

31. ‘‘A citizen-driven effort to revitalize
one Philadelphia city block.
— West Rockland Street project

32. W. Rockland Street Spring Cleanup

33. Big problems
feel…big.

34. ‘‘Rewrite all our content
for responsive design.

35. ‘‘Cut everything in half so
it’s easier to skim.

36. ‘‘Transform all 4,567 PDFs
to structured content.

38. Avoid the
overwhelm.

39. Start with just
one thing.

40. Visible
Valuable
Scope-able

41. Visible
Valuable
Scope-able

42. Visible
Valuable
Scope-able

43. Visible
Valuable
Scope-able

44. Your skills
and area of
influence
What’s causing
problems
right now
The sweet spot

45. Moving an
existing site
to responsive
design
Product spec
PDFs that
need constant
updates
Create a product
content model

46. Fix everything.

47. Fix something.

48. small wins build
OPTIMISM

49. flickr.com/photos/gpforeducation/11173376243
2 Aim for ownership.

50. flickr.com/photos/gpforeducation/11173376243

52. We need people to
take charge, too.

53. ‘‘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

54. ‘‘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

55. Ask, don’t
just tell.

56. ‘‘How do you think we could
solve this problem?

57. economist
comms director
editor
designer
Do, don’t
just talk.

58. flickr.com/photos/marcthiele/15079177169/
Pair
up.

59. flickr.com/photos/e_monk/4234741849
With >
for.

60. involvement creates
OWNERSHIP

61. flickr.com/photos/naema_ahmed/14213294887
3 Get commitment.

62. ‘‘Okay, here’s the new content
strategy! Go!

64. flickr.com/photos/sjoerdlammers/15990047848
Maps give us
momentum.

65. They connect vision
to operations.

66. flickr.com/photos/sjoerdlammers/15990047848

67. declining
thriving

68. •Purchase property
•Revitalize it to rent to
local businesses
•Use income for
neighborhood cleanup
•Plan long-term civic
improvements

69. Define where
you’re headed.
flickr.com/photos/adwriter/14398549931

70. unstructured
structured

71. overwhelming
governed

72. churned out
purposeful

73. flickr.com/photos/zeldman/16225849339/
Identify potential
projects.

74. flickr.com/photos/robandstephanielevy/4668030838
Break down
the big steps.

75. Decide who will
lead each charge.

76. Set a cadence for
progress.

78. maps keep us
MOVING

79. flickr.com/photos/socialeurope/4304137088/
Content is
chaotic.

80. flickr.com/photos/lanuiop/4420606662
So are
we.

81. flickr.com/photos/roboppy/1297032301
We’re not here
for perfection.

82. flickr.com/photos/mjkmjk/3501778140

83. Flickr images used via Creative Commons Attribution license.
sarawb.com // @sara_ann_marie
content-workshops.com