The document discusses the intersection of information architecture, content strategy, and user experience. It begins with definitions of information architecture and content strategy, noting they both deal with organizing and presenting information but information architecture is more spatial while content strategy is more temporal. It then compares the tools and deliverables of each, such as site maps and wireframes. The document discusses how information architecture and content strategy can work together on activities like usability testing and content inventories. It concludes by considering the future of both fields and how practitioners can better communicate and work across the disciplines.

1. The Intersection of User
Experience, Information
Architecture, and Content
Strategy
Theresa Putkey
Information Architect

2. Introductions
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3. Today‟s Discussion
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
3
My struggle with content strategy
Some definitions
Comparing tools and deliverables
Your experiences
Where do we go from here?
Your experiences
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4. The problem I encounter with
content strategy is both practical
and existential
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4

5. Working definitions
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6. 1.
Information Architecture
Definition information
The structural design of shared
environments
2. The combination of organization, labeling,
search, and navigation systems within web sites
and intranets
3. The art and science of shaping information
products and experiences to support usability
and findability
4. An emerging discipline and community of
practice focused on bringing principles of design
and architecture to the digital landscape.
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web – Morville and
Rosenfeld (2006)
6
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7. Content Strategy Definition
“A unified content strategy is a repeatable
method of identifying all content
requirements up front, creating consistently
structured content for reuse, managing that
content in a definitive source, and
assembling content on demand to meet
customer needs.” Managing Enterprise Content, 2nd Ed.,
Rockley (2012)
“Content strategy guides your plans for the
creation, delivery, and governance of
content.” Content Strategy for the Web, 2nd Ed, Halvorson
7
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8. The Intersection, Apparently…
“As Louis Rosenfeld has said, „If [information
architecture] is the spatial side of
information, I see content strategy as the
temporal side of the same coin.‟”
Halvorson, Content Strategy and UX: A Modern Love Story (2011)
• Spatial: Of, relating to, involving, or having the nature of
space. (The Free Dictionary)
• Temporal: Of, relating to, or limited by time; Of or relating to
the material world; worldly. (The Free Dictionary)
8
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9. Part of the problem is overlapping
capabilities
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10. Tools and Deliverables
10
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11. IA Tools and Deliverables
With help from/inspired by Morville and Rosenfeld, Kissane, Davis.
11
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12. CS Tools and Deliverables
Content
strategy
grounded in
content
management
Content
strategy
grounded
in
marketing
and
editorial
With help from/inspired by Morville and Rosenfeld, Kissane, Davis, Halvorson, etc. See
bibliography.
12
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13. What are your experiences?
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14. How do we work together?
Different needs from the same
thing.
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15. Usability Testing
Information Architecture
• What‟s the user‟s mental
model for this process?
• Does the site/intranet/
product support the way
the user expects to find
information?
• How does the navigation
and search support
wayfinding or findability?
Content Strategy
• Once the user finds the
right place, does the
content provided answer
questions?
• Does the content meet
branding and messaging
goals?
• How easy is it for the user
to comprehend the
content?
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16. Content Inventory
Information Architecture
• How many pages are in
the product?
• Are the pages properly
structured?
• Do they meet wayfinding
needs?
• What user goal does the
content support?
• Informs the controlled
vocabulary
Content Strategy
• What user goal does the
content support?
• What business goal does
the content support?
• What content can be reused?
• What is the quality of the
content?
• Support the gap analysis
and make sure missing
content is included in new
IA
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17. Others
Site Map
• IA: Supports navigation
• CS: Supports content
planning and migration
Wireframes
• IA: Embodies navigation
and information seeking
needs
• CS: Reflects content
needs. Includes
placeholders for content
or examples of content.
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18. Where to next?
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19. Where Next for IA?
“How can we design sites if we do not have
a clear grasp of the elements that we are
creating the structure for? What does the
client have? Why do they have it? Does it
still serve a purpose … All of these are part
of an ongoing strategy around sustaining the
living, breathing entity that a website should
be.”
(Marianne Sweeny, Personal Email, 2013)
19
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20. Where Next for IA?
“ [IA]starts to address the design of
information spaces as a process, opening
up a conversation with ubiquitous computing
and service design, and where the
information architect recognizes gathering,
organizing, and presenting information as
tasks analogous to those an architect
faces…as both design spaces for human
beings to live, work, and play in.”
Resmini, A Brief History of Information Architecture (2011)
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21. Where Next for CS?
Content
strategy
grounded in
content
management
21
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Content
strategy
grounded
in
marketing
and
editorial

22. Where Next for CS?
“While differences are often good, our
inability to communicate an agreed common
definition of what content strategists do is
damaging our brand. Our differing views on
content strategy … make it challenging for
businesses to know what to expect when
they hire a „content strategist.‟”
Scott Abel, Content Strategists Must Become Engineers of ContentDriven Customer Experiences (2013)
22
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23. What are your experiences?
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24. We covered
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
24
My struggle with content strategy
Some definitions
Comparing tools and deliverables
Your experiences
Grounded in UX? Not necessarily
Where do we go from here?
Your experiences
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25. Contact Me
•
•
•
•
•
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604 563 6317
tputkey@keypointe.ca
www.keypointe.ca
@tputkey
www.slideshare.net/tputkey/
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26. Book Bibliography
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Ann Rockley, Charles Cooper: Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy
(2nd Edition) (2012)
Dan Brown: Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and
Planning (2nd Edition) (2010)
David Weinberger: Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder
(2008)
Elaine Svenonius: The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization (Digital Libraries
and Electronic Publishing) (2000)
Erin Kissane: The Elements of Content Strategy (Brief Books for People Who Make
Websites, No. 3)
Indi Young: Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior (2008)
Kristina Halvorson, Melissa Rach: Content Strategy for the Web, 2nd Edition (2012)
Margot Bloomstein: Content Strategy at Work: Real-world Stories to Strengthen Every
Interactive Project
Peter Morville, Louis Rosenfeld: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web:
Designing Large-Scale Web Sites, 3rd Edition (2006)
Rahel Anne Bailie, Noz Urbina: Content Strategy: Connecting the dots between business,
brand, and benefits (2012)
Richard Sheffield: The Web Content Strategist's Bible: The Complete Guide To A New And
Lucrative Career For Writers Of All Kinds (2009)
Peter Morville: Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become (2005)
Peter Morville, Jeffery Callendar: Search Patterns: Design for Discovery (2010)
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27. Website Bibliography
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Andrea Resmini: A Brief History of Information Architecture (2011)
http://journalofia.org/volume3/issue2/03-resmini/
Andrew Maier, Complete Beginner‟s Guide to Content Strategy (2010)
http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-content-strategy/
Erin Kissane, What Content Strategists Do (2010) http://incisive.nu/2010/whatcontent-strategists-do/
Gene Leganza with Alex Cullen, Rob Karel, Mimi An: Topic Overview: Information
Architecture (2010)
http://www.forrester.com/Topic+Overview+Information+Architecture/-/ERES55951?objectid=RES55951
Jeff Pass: Information Architecture‟s Teenage Dilemma (2013)
http://boxesandarrows.com/information-architectures-teenage-dilemma/
Joe Gollner: The accidental content strategist (2012)
http://www.gollner.ca/2012/08/accidental-content-strategist.html
Joe Gollner, Architecting Information and Engineering Content (2010)
http://www.gollner.ca/2010/02/architecting-information-and-engineering-content.html
Joe Gollner, Why Content Technologies are Hard to Implement (2013)
http://www.gollner.ca/2013/01/content-technologies.html
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28. Website Bibliography
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Jorge Arango: … for the World Wide Web (2013)
http://www.jarango.com/blog/2013/06/28/for-the-world-wide-web/
Karen McGrane: Why UX Needs Content Strategy (2010)
http://www.slideshare.net/KMcGrane/why-ux-design-needs-content-strategy
Karen McGrane: WYSIWTF (2013) http://alistapart.com/column/wysiwtf
Kristina Halvorson: Content Strategy and UX: A Modern Love Story
http://uxmag.com/articles/content-strategy-and-ux-a-modern-love-story
Peter Morville: Editorial: The System of Information Architecture (2011)
http://journalofia.org/volume3/issue2/01-morville/
Peter Morville, Information Architect (2011)
http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000647.php
Rachel Lovinger: Tinker, Tailor, Content Strategist (2012) http://alistapart.com/article/tinkertailor-content-strategist
Rachel Lovinger: Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data (2007)
http://boxesandarrows.com/content-strategy-the-philosophy-of-data/
Rachel Lovinger: Content Modeling as a Master Skill (2012)
http://alistapart.com/article/content-modelling-a-master-skill
Scott Abel, Content Strategists Must Become Engineers of Content-Driven Customer
Experiences (2013) http://thecontentwrangler.com/2013/07/29/content-strategists-mustbecome-engineers-of-content-driven-customer-experiences/
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