Content Strategy Insights

Kate Thomas is leading the transformation of marketing content at PayPal from hand-crafted web pages to structured content stored in a headless CMS. Like many organizational-transformation projects, this one has highlighted both the benefits of structuring content and the challenges of getting content authors to work in new ways. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/kate-thomas/

Seth Earley, an expert in using ontologies, discusses their significance in organizing information, classifying user utterances, aligning user signals with personalized content, and the importance of getting the message to leadership. He emphasizes the benefits of well-structured ontologies, precise content, and capturing knowledge for cognitive assistance.

Katrin Suetterlin is a content architect, a content designer, and an expert on designing for neurodivergent populations. You hear jokes about ADHD, dyslexia, and similar neurological conditions all the time, but as designers we need to take neurodivergence seriously. Research shows that at least 20% of the population exhibits one or more types of neurodiversity. If you're a human-centered design practitioner, you don't want to overlook this important group of humans. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/katrin-suetterlin/

Dan Brown has focused his design work on information architecture for the past 25 years. Along the way, he has written three books, designed a design game, and created one of the the most-used tools in the profession, the Information Architecture Lenses card deck. Dan is very thoughtful about the practice of IA and has a lot to say about how the field has evolved. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/dan-brown/

Design systems are quickly being adopted across companies of all sizes and types, from big enterprises to burgeoning startups. As in all digital practices, content is a crucial element in these systems. Nicole Michaelis has worked with content in design systems for several years and has learned a lot about how to create and manage the content that goes into, and comes out of, design systems. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/nicole-michaelis/

Donna Spencer has practiced information architecture at the highest levels for more than two decades. She has taught innumerable workshops and courses, and she wrote an entire book on the subject. Still, to this day, when she teaches IA, she feels inadequate. This speaks in no way to her professional knowledge or her skills as a teacher. Donna knows this field as well as anyone and speaks eloquently about it. Rather, it gets at the "jigsaw mess" of the practice of information architecture and the constraints of modern educational environments. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/donna-spencer/

Content programs need to be guided by a sound model and built on a strong foundation. They need to put people first but to also account for the technical systems that handle the details of turning abstract concepts into tangible and useful content artifacts. Deane Barker has been modeling and building content management systems for more than 25 years. In this conversation, he shares some of the insights gleaned during his career. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/deane-barker/

In just a few short years, design systems have been adopted by most digital organizations. These systems free designers from many mundane design-production details, letting them focus on the creative aspects of their work. To this point, content has been an afterthought in many of these systems. Chris Strahl sees that changing in the next few years and predicts that content concerns will assume an important place in design systems. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/chris-strahl/

Many content professionals were first introduced to the practice of content modeling by Rachel Lovinger's 2012 A List Apart article on the subject. Content modeling gives teams of authors, managers, designers, and programmers a shared understanding of a content ecosystem. Before they write a single sentence or line of code, teams align on a common language that keeps their work in sync. Content modeling accounts for everything from the authoring experience to metadata strategy to the end-user experience. It helps team visualize the content landscapes they are creating, and it serves as a conversation starter for any number of important stakeholder interactions. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/rachel-lovinger/

Are Halland's "Core Model" has guided the work of content strategists, information architects, web marketers, and other digital professionals for more than 15 years. The model grew out of the need to align stakeholders around a practice that could balance user needs, business concerns, and content creation for websites. It has evolved into a versatile tool that can improve the content experience in any digital product. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/are-halland/