Working with content structure — an overview with GDS

Rik Williams Senior Content Strategist Government Digital Service (GDS) @Rik_Williams

I’m a new Content Strategist (back-end) at GOV.UK GDS

Core takeaway

“Perhaps because polish is so visible […] many people erroneously believe it to be the most important part of writing. But polish is merely the plaster on the walls of structure.” Jack Hart GDS

Adapted from: Factor Firm

👑 GOV.UK Simpler, clearer, faster Adapted from: Factor Firm

Technology Structure Experience layer Adapted from: Factor Firm

Source: Michael Andrews, Story Needle

Rendered design (web) GDS

Interaction design (app + web) GDS

Lead Image Place name Structural design (channel agnostic) Rating score Place type Call to Action GDS

Session structure

Part A — talk Structured content — recap Content structuring — primer GDS

Part B — mini workshops Pieces — deconstructing Atlas Obscura Reuse — remixing pieces of structure Going deeper — complexity hidden in C2As GDS

Part A — talk

Part A — talk Structured content — recap Content structuring — primer GDS

“Content that is divided into the smallest reasonable pieces and explicitly organised and classified in order to be understood and used by computers and humans.” Mike Atherton GDS

“Structuring content within a well-defined content model makes content scalable, reusable, adaptable, and measurable.” Maxwell Hoffman GDS

“In a nutshell, structured content matters because you can get so much more out of your content with a lot less work — and get better analytics for tracking effectiveness.” Rahel Bailie GDS

“Well defined leads to well designed” Lindsay Sutton GDS

Source: Sophia Prater

“People don’t care about the containers, they care about the things they contain.” Carrie Hane GDS

Why structure content at all? 📰 Presentation 🔍 Findability ♼ Reuse 󰧻 Localisation GDS

Goal: 📰 Content structured for presentation GDS

Govspeak markdown applies semantic structure to content which then cascades into its presentation GDS

Goal: 🔍 Content structured for retrieval and machine learning GDS

GDS

Goals: 📰 🔍 Content structured for search optimisation (Schema.org microdata) GDS

…content extracted from a mainstream guide and presented in a ‘People also ask’ featured snippet GDS

Goals: 📰 🔍 ♼ Content structured for syndication GDS

Source: Sakib Supple, The Guardian

“Reuse: The practice of using existing content components to develop new documents.” Ann Rockley GDS

Goals: 󰧻 ♼ Content structured for localisation GDS

GDS

Part A — talk Structured content — recap Content structuring — primer GDS

“A content model breaks content […] down into its component parts, describes them in detail, and maps out how they relate to one another.” Lauren Pope GDS

“Content models* enable us to store, process and publish content as granular units instead of whole documents.” Cleve Gibbon *+ maps (and other documentation) GDS

Source: Michael Andrews, Story Needle

Content Model The available pieces of content and metadata and their relationships to each other. GDS

Content Type The required pieces of content and metadata assembled to meet a goal. GDS

Source: Brent Heslop, ContentStack

Source: Sophia Prater

Content-first (or bottom-up) design means… GDS

Thinking of the system, then the detail. GDS

Alignment with authentic mental models. GDS

Making the right thing the first time. GDS

Inclusive/accessible via consistent and predictable wayfinding across content. GDS

Streamlined projects with happier teams. GDS

Simplified, de-cluttered content-first designs. GDS

Content-first (or bottom-up) design is… GDS

User Researcher-friendly — synthesising research insights into structure will expose high-risk assumptions/questions early. GDS

Source: Sophia Prater

Content Designer-friendly — gives early engagement and enables visibility to the types and scale of content that might need creating and governing. GDS

Content Strategist-friendly — breaking data into its fundamental components helps sensemaking by wrangling complexity into understanding. GDS

Interaction Designer-friendly — provides the pieces they have to work with and a methodology for identifying things that will need patterns in any design system. GDS

Stakeholder-friendly — mapping and modelling content creates opportunities for subject matter experts to contribute from the outset and at their level of expertise. GDS

“…pieces…” 🧐🤔 GDS

Things The fundamental units of content in the users mental model of the domain. GDS

“A content model should honour and respect the users mental model.” GDS

Relationships How the Things relate to each other. GDS

Calls-To-Action The affordances that the content Things offer users on the front and the back-end. GDS

Attributes The specific pieces of core content and metadata that build instances of content Things. GDS

Recipe Name Stars Rate Chef Image Reviews Save Show Lede Size Print Ingred. Quant. Time(s) Share Add GDS

Part B — mini workshops

Part B — mini workshops Pieces — deconstructing Atlas Obscura Reuse — remixing pieces of structure Going deeper — complexity hidden in C2As GDS

Reverse engineer an Instance of a Place from Atlas Obscura, a digital magazine and travel company. GDS

Working individually, find as many pieces of content structure as you can. GDS

Things Core Content Metadata Calls-to-Action GDS

bit.ly/dwp-mural GDS

bit.ly/dwp-ao GDS

7 mins GDS

Place Name Status Edit Contrib. Lede LatLong Add Img Trip Images Counter See All Story Caption Topics Add List Course Body Country View Map GDS

Part B — mini workshops Pieces — deconstructing Atlas Obscura Reuse — remixing pieces of structure Going deeper — complexity hidden in C2As GDS

Reuse, remix and reassemble Attributes for contextual navigation in a digital interface. GDS

Select and prioritise a handful of Attributes for use in a ‘card’ interface component in Atlas Obscura. GDS

A schematic of a card component in Google’s Material design system. GDS

7 mins GDS

Part B — mini workshops Pieces — deconstructing Atlas Obscura Reuse — remixing pieces of structure Going deeper — complexity hidden in C2As GDS

C2A in a prototype …but what happens next? 🧐🤔 Often overlooked structure, mechanics etc.

Atlas Obscura relies on Contributors (users worldwide) to create and add photos for Places they visit. GDS

This is (mainly) so that thousands of Places in the system can have 1-many photos of them. But how does this happen? GDS

7 mins GDS

User Photo Source Upload Caption Add +1 Alt text Submit Help text Cancel GDS

Admin Photo Source Confirm Caption Reject Alt text 2i (??) GDS

Summary

Adapted from: Factor Firm

“Well defined leads to well designed” Lindsay Sutton GDS

Thanks! #content @Rik_Williams rik.williams@digital.cabinet-oﬃce.gov.uk

Discussion