A content strategy outlines how your team will use content to meet user needs and achieve organizational goals. Without it, information can become chaotic for users and employees alike. Use this study guide's articles and videos to develop a strategy and design processes to support content success.
Communicating the Role of Content Strategy
Content strategy is often misunderstood and conflated with UX writing or social media management. The ambiguous words "content" and "strategy" add to the confusion. Use the articles and videos in this section to learn about the role of content strategy and how it complements UX writing and content design.
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A definition and overview of the four areas involved in content strategy |
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A description of the 4 phases of content strategy: planning, creation, maintenance, and removal |
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How content strategy and UX writing are different yet complementary |
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Differences between planning for content and its tactical execution |
Using Feedback to Shape Content and Strategy
Teams often prioritize interface or visual design over content, neglecting to test whether users can understand and process the information. Testing content ensures it aligns with the content strategy’s predefined tone of voice, identifies jargon terms, and reveals ways to improve internal content processes and standards.
Use the articles and videos in this section to learn how to test your content usability and get user feedback on the experience.
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Step-by-step process and tasks for conducting content-focused usability testing |
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Tips and nuances for testing content versus UI design |
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Using surveys to request feedback without disrupting, intruding, or burdening users |
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Examples for non-intrusive approaches to asking for feedback in the experience |
Auditing, Updating, and Maintaining Content
Determining when and how content is maintained, updated, and removed is an important part of content strategy, often called governance. Taking inventory of existing content helps identify what's missing, irrelevant, or redundant, both in terms of content and creation standards.
Auditing assesses each asset's quality and adherence to standards in addition to revealing content that needs updating or removal. After content auditing, structured content can ease the burden of updating content and preserve crosschannel consistency. Use the articles and videos in this section to learn how to maintain consistent, high-quality content using auditing and structured content.
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Process and template for understanding what content exists and assessing its state |
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A step-by-step process for conducting a content audit |
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Definition and examples of using structured content in practice |
Content Processes and Management Models
Transparent content processes and workflows speed up content creation for designers and UX writers and reduce guesswork, allowing them to focus on quality. Setting rules and guidelines for content operations, including which tools to use, what standards to follow, whom to involve, what reviews and approvals to ask for, as well as CMS training and publication fall under the scope of content strategy. Content-management models help organize and oversee these processes to provide clarity and efficiency.
Use the articles and videos in this section to learn how to develop and refine your content processes, workflows, and management models to support your content strategy.
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Content Migration Alone Is Not An Effective Content Strategy |
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Problems with the process of moving content from an old design to a new one without reviewing or editing |
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How to include content and copy-related tasks in an Agile backlog |
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3 ways to structure digital content production in an organization |
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Descriptions for centralized, distributed and hybrid content management |
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ConocoPhillips’s Improved Intranet Content-Management Process |
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How ConocoPhillips redesigned the intranet with a content-first approach |
Design and Content Collaboration
In addition to standards for content, setting standards and processes for how content and design roles work together is another important aspect of content strategy. Successful collaboration means that content supports design and vice versa, creating experiences that are easy to understand and visually appealing.
Use the articles and videos in this section to learn how to foster collaboration between content and design teams to deliver a better user and employee experience.
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A UX practitioner’s account of how she started in content and gradually moved into collaborating with design |
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The definitions, differences, and relationship between a design system and a style guide |
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Definition and examples for what to include in content-focused areas of a design system |
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How to include content in wireframes from the beginning of UX projects |
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A mapping method for analyzing content and design consistency across channels |
Related Study Guide: UX Writing
Content Strategy Training Course
Content strategy and UX writing aren’t one-and-done activities in product development. Information needs to be deliberately maintained, monitored, and iteratively improved over time. As your team and organization grow, the number of people contributing content may also increase, requiring better strategy and management processes.
