Working with content structure — an overview with GDS

A presentation at Content Design Community Event with DWP in September 2022 in Leeds, UK by Rik Williams

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Working with content structure — an overview with GDS

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

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

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Core takeaway

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“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

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Adapted from: Factor Firm

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

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Technology Structure Experience layer Adapted from: Factor Firm

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Technology Structure Experience layer Adapted from: Factor Firm

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Source: Michael Andrews, Story Needle

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Rendered design (web) GDS

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Interaction design (app + web) GDS

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

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Session structure

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

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

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Part A — talk

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

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“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

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

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“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

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“Well defined leads to well designed” Lindsay Sutton GDS

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Source: Sophia Prater

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

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

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Goal: 📰 Content structured for presentation GDS

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

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Goal: 🔍 Content structured for retrieval and machine learning GDS

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GDS

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

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

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Goals: 📰 🔍 ♼ Content structured for syndication GDS

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Source: Sakib Supple, The Guardian

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

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Goals: 󰧻 ♼ Content structured for localisation GDS

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GDS

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

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“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

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

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Source: Michael Andrews, Story Needle

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

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

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Source: Brent Heslop, ContentStack

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Source: Brent Heslop, ContentStack

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Source: Brent Heslop, ContentStack

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Source: Sophia Prater

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

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Thinking of the system, then the detail. GDS

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Alignment with authentic mental models. GDS

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Making the right thing the first time. GDS

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

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Streamlined projects with happier teams. GDS

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Simplified, de-cluttered content-first designs. GDS

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

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

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Source: Sophia Prater

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

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

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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

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

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“…pieces…” 🧐🤔 GDS

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

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

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Relationships How the Things relate to each other. GDS

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

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

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

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Part B — mini workshops

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

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

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

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Things Core Content Metadata Calls-to-Action GDS

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bit.ly/dwp-mural GDS

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bit.ly/dwp-ao GDS

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7 mins GDS

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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

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

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

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

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

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7 mins GDS

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

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

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

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

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7 mins GDS

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

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

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Summary

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Adapted from: Factor Firm

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“Well defined leads to well designed” Lindsay Sutton GDS

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

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Discussion