Content Strategy: Concept Review and Understanding
- Sara Francis
- Oct 23, 2017
- 3 min read
For this assignment, I was instructed to watch an online course titled UX Foundations: Content Strategy by Morten Rand-Hendriksen to help me understand how to develop effective content for great user experience. After completing the course, I wrote up a brief post going over the points that interested me the most, what I would like to learn more, and how I will move forward with the knowledge I have obtained.
After watching UX Foudations: Content Strategy, there were many points that peaked my interest. The ones that intrigued me the most were the concepts of empathy mapping, scenarios and activity flows, and having consistent voice and tone.
For the empathy mapping, I found it most interesting because it was a way to visually categorize how a person might interact with a site. It goes over their thoughts, what they perceive, their actions, and how other individuals influence their decision. It also discusses what they could possibly get out of the company, whether good or bad.
The second point, scenarios and activity flows, was another concept of understanding the target audience. However, this one establishes when the audience accesses it, why they want it, and what they do about it. By creating scenarios, you develop an actual path a person might follow to get from one stage to the next. By creating imaginary customers based on facts you know about your target audience, you can get a good understanding of what they might do when they come across your content.
Finally, having a consistent voice and tone. This one I had a good understanding of before watching this video, but it reiterated it and explained important points. What truly helped me to grasp the concept further was the comparison of the two airport websites. His explanations showed me what to look out for, how to achieve a certain tone, and what to do to keep the voice consistent throughout.
Even after learning all these things, there are some points that I would like to dive deeper into; more particularly, content models. It seems like a crucial step to creating the backbone of the site. It helps to develop a firm site that is easy to navigate that is not overwhelming and flows in sequence that makes sense. I want to learn more about how to go about creating the most effective content models and the best method to developing them. That way, I will be able to organize and manage my content effectively that is easy for the user as well as the creator.
This entire course gave great insight to content strategy and I now feel more confident moving forward. For this month, the fictitious client/scenario I am working with is Reel Deel Tacos, a fish taco food truck homed in California. The insight gained from this lesson will assist me moving forward with this project. Using the information I have learned, I will be able to understand the target audience and what they want from the company through empathy mapping, personas, scenarios, and so on. I will also be able to figure out what content they want to see, how they want to see it, and what they want to do with it. I now know an effective way of organizing my information through content models. Finally, I will be able to combine all this knowledge into designing a site that consistently reflects the audience by creating a style guide that correctly determines its voice and tone as well as its appearance.
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